Rear shock options

okay the bike in question is an sv650s K3.
what i want to know is what shocks i can use, should i do the conversion. i know cutting a bit of the battery box will be needed, thats fine. but no more than that.

i know the gsxr 1000 shocks can fit.....

1) what year shocks will fit?
2) Did they do then in gold?

as point 2 says, i want it to look nice if im buying it. all the gixxer shocks ive found are black.

so are there any other types of shock i can use? (my brother has a zx10r shock on his curvy.....could i use this type?)

Paul

Originally Posted by paulthewitt

okay the bike in question is an sv650s K3.
what i want to know is what shocks i can use, should i do the conversion. i know cutting a bit of the battery box will be needed, thats fine. but no more than that.

i know the gsxr 1000 shocks can fit.....

1) what year shocks will fit?
2) Did they do then in gold?

as point 2 says, i want it to look nice if im buying it. all the gixxer shocks ive found are black.

so are there any other types of shock i can use? (my brother has a zx10r shock on his curvy.....could i use this type?)

Paul

1: Any K series, though people favour K3-4 as they have the highest spring rate.

2: All the GSXR shock (as stock) I have seen are black - though the K5/6 ones are a more silvery black . K1-2 have a red spring while the K3+ have yellow springs.
If you look on http://www.svraceshop.com/, they had rebuilt GSXR shocks, which I think had been painted gold, though for the money, you'd probably be better of looking at Hagon or similar.

The Kawasaki ZX10 + 636 have much higher spring rates and are longer than the GSXRs and are generally more suited to Curvys or big boned riders. I think Creamery Buttery recently fitted one to a K3+ though - maybe drop him a PM

Originally Posted by lukemillar

people favour K3-4 as they have the highest spring rate.

what is the spring rate? and why is higher better?

anyone?

[northwind]

Originally Posted by paulthewitt

what is the spring rate? and why is higher better?

Can't remember what the rate is... Around 600 Spring Rate Unit Things IIRC. It's not so much that bigger is better, more that some of the GSXR ones are too soft for most riders.

[Viney]

Originally Posted by northwind

Can't remember what the rate is... Around 600 Spring Rate Unit Things IIRC. It's not so much that bigger is better, more that some of the GSXR ones are too soft for most riders.

A spring rate is the ammount of pouds (lbs) that it take to compress a spring a set distance, an inch for example, iirc. So a 300lb spring would take 300lbs to compress etc. The higher the spring rate, the stiffer, in thoery, it will be.

This id imagine is now metric, but its the same idea.

What you do have to remember is that the SV has a rising rate linkage, so fitting a longer shock etc, moves this linkage round and does affect the operation of the shock. (this is something that i learnt from a very knowledgeabubble man) So, try to stick to a shock that is as close to the length of the SV shock and you should be fine. Yes there will be an improvement, or at least, it will feel different, whether better or not, is down to your perception. I found that just replacing the std SV shock with another std low milage item makes one hell of a difference.

*Edited to be more precise*

Originally Posted by Viney

A spring rate is the ammount of pouds (lbs) that it take to compress a spring fully, iirc. So a 300lb spring would take 300lbs to compress etc. The higher the spring rate, the stiffer, in thoery, it will be.

Not quite, spring rates are measured in force/distance. For example, Kg/mm would tell you how many kilos required to compress the spring by 1mm.

[Viney]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Not quite, spring rates are measured in force/distance. For example, Kg/mm would tell you how many kilos required to compress the spring by 1mm.

Ok, i knew it was something like that. i always thought it was to compress fully. Thanks for the correction.

Originally Posted by Viney

A spring rate is the ammount of pouds (lbs) that it take to compress a spring a set distance, an inch for example, iirc. So a 300lb spring would take 300lbs to compress etc. The higher the spring rate, the stiffer, in thoery, it will be.

This id imagine is now metric, but its the same idea.

What you do have to remember is that the SV has a rising rate linkage, so fitting a longer shock etc, moves this linkage round and does affect the operation of the shock. (this is something that i learnt from a very knowledgeabubble man) So, try to stick to a shock that is as close to the length of the SV shock and you should be fine. Yes there will be an improvement, or at least, it will feel different, whether better or not, is down to your perception. I found that just replacing the std SV shock with another std low milage item makes one hell of a difference.

*Edited to be more precise*

Othe advantage is that GSXR/ZX blah shocks are more adjustable than the standard SVs which just has preload. I have been tinkering with mine recently (shock that is) and find that having extra control is actually quite nice! For the money, buying a low/no mileage GSXR shock isn't actually that different from a low mileage SV shock. If you search then there is a table which has appeared in many threads on this with shock types, lengths and spring rates and how they compare to stock shocks.

I have recently fitted a ZX10R shock to my pointy, it has made the back end a lot more stable but I think the setup need looking at as it isn't as good as I thought (either that or the shock was older than the seller said but it looked in good condition).

The spring rate list copyright Lukemillar (or he posted it in my thread)

YEAR MOTORCYCLE LENGTH SPRING
===== ========= ===== =====
00-03 GSXR750 325mm 400#

01-03 GSXR600 325.5mm 325#

01-02 GSXR1000 329.5mm 430#

03-04 SV650 330mm 430# <<<==== stock 2nd gen...05 should be the same

99-03 GSXR1300(Busa) 330mm 700#

04 GSXR750 332.5mm 408#

04 GSXR600 332.5mm 425#

03-04 GSXR1000 332.5mm 480#

99-02 SV650 337mm 510# <<<====stock 1st gen

04 ZX10R 338mm 540#

03-04 ZX6R(636) 340mm 540# *corrected by e lo...thanks!

96-99 GSXR750 345mm 375#

97-00 GSXR600 375mm 375#

05 GSX-R 1000 332.5mm 450# <<<===added by me...spring rate from racetech.com, length from ohlins.com