Steven:

Your bike is coming along nicely. I just measured the xt225 fork springs and cogent dynamics has some .42 kg stiffer spring for your bike if it is a 2005. Springs are 29 mm outer diameter and 590 length. The springs are 119 US for the set. I heard 15 weight oil is the way to go too. Plus a few 29 mm washers for pre load to add some jounce Im gonna start with 4 washer and see how it goes. BTW do you have a pict with the bike with its seat on. I may go with a dessert tank because it is all i can find. My tank got dented really bad in a fall.

There are photo’s and video in this post of it completed: http://micsadventure.com/projects/the-bikes/my-old-friend-the-rebirth-of-an-xt/my-old-friend-part-10-the-rebirth-of-an-xt/

Thanks for the tip on the springs. I’ll probably put Emulators in as well once I get around to rebuilding them. At the moment though, I have a set of TTR forks to put on the XT, which have a heavier spring in them than the XT.