What a difference...

Well, completed the installation of a gsxr thou shock into my K3 today, and thought I'd go for a ride, was worried that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but was I wrong! My old shock must have been well and truly shot, as this one actually had some damping over bumps!

Only thing is I had a bit of a moment on the way back - the roads round here are normally great, but I think the gritter lorries were out in force last night - went to overtake a car, and was crossing the middle bit of the lane in between where the car tyres normally sir, and the rear span up...felt the back end come round (in reality it was probably only about 5mm!, but it gave me a bit of a shock!

Just got me thinking tho, wondering if it was because of the new shocks damping settings, or just slimy roads....

Anyho...very pleased with the results - only problem is, its shown up the need to do the forks now! One fix always leads to another!!

Thanks for all the input from people on here...

Ta,

BB.

Brilliant! I want to upgrade my suspension, might be a summer job. Glad it gives a noticable and significant improvment!

Yea, theres salt on the roads. The gritter's have been coming around enfield alot, all the roads are a powdery white. My bike will be dissolved to just its plastic bits by the end of the week

Matt

Only cost me 30 odd quid from ebay - well worth the money imo...glad I was bored last night and cracked on with it!

SV650Racer will tell you that you are wrong - its not meant for the bike it can't possibly work ... you MUST buy an Ohlins if you want to improve your suspension!!

... sorry about that, another happy other bike OE shock swap customer ... SV650Racer can't seem to accept its an improvement and it gets my back up at times ... my bad ...

Anyway, have you actually checked the current settings and done any sort of 'setup' or just slung it in?!!?

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

SV650Racer will tell you that you are wrong - its not meant for the bike it can't possibly work ... you MUST buy an Ohlins if you want to improve your suspension!!

... sorry about that, another happy other bike OE shock swap customer ... SV650Racer can't seem to accept its an improvement and it gets my back up at times ... my bad ...

Anyway, have you actually checked the current settings and done any sort of 'setup' or just slung it in?!!?

I can see his point - but my thinking is for under 40 quid, surely its got to be worth it - I mean, if a bespoke shock is say 400 quid, I would guess that this is more than 10% better if you catch my drift - I dont expect it to rival a shock designed for my bike, and my weight...

I just slung it in, the rebound and compression are standard - well I presume they are, the little dots are aligned?? - I made a bit of a guess with preload, just so I could get out and try it - I expect that there is some improvement to get yet...

BB.

i take it you had 2 cut the battery box etc...aswell 2 fit it?

yes - not as bad as I thought - havent got a dremel, so just used a hacksaw, file and stanley knife to trim - looks pretty good, even if I do say so myself...

Originally Posted by Biker_Billy

I can see his point - but my thinking is for under 40 quid, surely its got to be worth it - I mean, if a bespoke shock is say 400 quid, I would guess that this is more than 10% better if you catch my drift - I dont expect it to rival a shock designed for my bike, and my weight...

I just slung it in, the rebound and compression are standard - well I presume they are, the little dots are aligned?? - I made a bit of a guess with preload, just so I could get out and try it - I expect that there is some improvement to get yet...

BB.

Her

The point I have always tried to make is that although its not gonna be as good as a race shock, cost benefit analyses it is the best VFM - as it DOES work!!!

Anyway, I find the best way to start of is to get a mate to hold the bike up at the front, then putting your weight on the rear seat, push down as hard as you can, then 'release' the bike. It should return smoothly but sharply, if it reaches the top and then 'pogo's back down, you don't have enough rebound.

Compression I tend to initially set up as a factor of rebound ... i.e. if I have no rebound on, then I'll set with no compression, full compression, full rebound and everything in between. I do this as I want to avoid 'pumpdown', which is where the rebound compared to compression/bumps is such that the suspension will effectively 'ratchet' down.

You then have to get out and ride it and set it for how you like it!!

There are plenty of guides out there, the go-star one is good, but the above is my very basic no-brainer method!

Thanks Blue - oops, yeah sorry, HER! lol.

Thanks for the link to the setup - I'll be giving it a go over the next few weeks and see how it goes.

If I had 400 quid burning a hole in my pocket I would consider a bespoke shock, but I haven't...so I won't...either way, I'm pretty happy!

BB.

Originally Posted by Biker_Billy

Thanks Blue - oops, yeah sorry, HER! lol.

Thanks for the link to the setup - I'll be giving it a go over the next few weeks and see how it goes.

If I had 400 quid burning a hole in my pocket I would consider a bespoke shock, but I haven't...so I won't...either way, I'm pretty happy!

BB.

I've done a ZX636 shock conversion on my curvy track bike, it was great. I then splashed out on a Ohlins shock ... how do I put this ... it was a case of 'diminishing returns' after the 636 conversion

The most significant difference was from being able to jack the rear right up with the height adjuster, I'd say that give you more gain than more controlled damping ...

Finally if you pick the correct OE shock, then you will have the right spring for you, so we really are only talking about more precise damping and the ride height ... unless you really are trying to get that last few percent (or really do have ?400 burning a hole (how can that ever be?? )), IMHO a race shock simply isn't worth it over a correctly selected and low mileage other bike OE shock