Rear suspension donor bike

Hello,

I've just bought a 2013 Suzuki Gladius:



...and I really like it! It's my first big bike and ripe for modding.

I would like to upgrade the rear shock by getting one from a GSXR, but i'm not really sure what to look for. How do I know if I need one from a GSXR 1000, or a GSXR 750? Is there a certain year I should look for? Is there another bike with a better rear shock that I should get instead?

I was hoping that someone on these forums could get me started. There are lots of GSXR 1000 shocks on Ebay for reasonable prices. Would any of these do?

Thanks in advance.

P.S: First post!

[Bibio]

welcome to the forum and congratz joining the big bike club, thats a lovely gladdy you have there

my advice regarding any suspension work is to do it right. dont bother with trying to fit a shock from another bike and just save more and get a proper aftermarket one like Nitron, YSS, Ohlins, etc.etc that will be built to your weight and valved for the bike.

the big question you is how much do you weigh in your birthday suit?

something you should be asking yourself is, do you believe that you have the skills to utilise the upgrade in suspension performance?

what sort of mileage in one day do you intend on doing 30-50-100-200-400?

if you are close to around 10st then tbh it might be best just keeping the bike standard till you get more experience under your belt and in the meantime keep saving for the upgrades you desire or another bike with better suspension as standard. depending on your weight you dont need to upgrade and its all the fault of shiny magazines and websites telling you need to do it, like tail tidy's, mini indicators and all that other tat they they say makes a bike look better (its all brain washing). now having said that once the SV (in any guise) has its bouncy bits upgraded its a whole different ball game as regards handling wise but its only evident if you can push the bike to to limits to take advantage of it, otherwise your throwing good money down the drain.

its your first bike bike, your excited about it but in reality you will change it in a few years anyway.

[Adam Ef]

That said, I would get a fender extender fitted on the front straight away.

[shiftin_gear98]

Welcome, enjoy. Just ride it.

[garynortheast]

Welcome along! Definitely fit an extension to that front mudguard.

the big question you is how much do you weigh in your birthday suit?

I'm about 80kg. It's all muscle, I swear!

my advice regarding any suspension work is to do it right. dont bother with trying to fit a shock from another bike and just save more and get a proper aftermarket one like Nitron, YSS, Ohlins, etc.etc that will be built to your weight and valved for the bike.

Aftermarket suspensions cost an absolute ton. The nice thing about GSXR shocks is that they come to around £100 or so, which is much more manageable.

Is there anyone who has actually swapped their rear suspension with that of a GSXR?

Welcome along! Definitely fit an extension to that front mudguard.

I was thinking of doing that, but drilling holes is quite daunting. I might take the plunge and do it though.

Today I changed the front headlight and bulbs to a HID one. It's much brighter now. I might ride it around the neighbourhood tonight provided there's a break in storm Brian's weather.

[SV650rules]

Welcome to the forum, nothing wrong with the Gladius as a riding tool, but Suzuki took a lot of flack about the 'girlie' styling, yours looks good in black and white.


https://pyramid-plastics.co.uk/acces...rtNumber=05020

Fitted one to my 2016 AL7 - black matched the existing mudguard, but yours is white. That radiator is exposed to getting a stone into it, a radiator guard would not go amiss, fenda extenda will help with stones getting to radiator and also help keep water off the front plugs (although on Gladius and later they have 2 plugs per cylinder so water in one 'plugole' not as serious as earlier models, which could badly misfire, normally cured by using heaps of silicone grease). To fit extender you only have to drill 4 quite small holes, I did take the front mudguard off to do mine and its not difficult. main problem was getting the brake pipe anchor point out of its hole.



http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=227521

You are never gonna get a legal beam off an HID bulb in a reflector designed for a filament bulb, the nearest I found is the Phillips chipped LED one in this thread -


As suggested by other posters, just get on the thing and enjoy riding it - good advice from Bibio will save you money, not too much wrong with standard Suzuki setup riding at legal speeds, if and when you reach the limit of standard setup let us know. You are about the same weight as me and I find handling absolutely fine - my 'chicken strip' is pretty narrow, but still there.

I think ABS is more use to a road rider than uprated shocks, it has cut in a couple of times on mine on slippery surfaces like banding and probably saved my sorry 4SS from an 'off'.

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by fumbles22

I was thinking of doing that, but drilling holes is quite daunting. I might take the plunge and do it though.

I didn't drill mine, I fitted it about 5 years ago with windscreen goo and it's never moved since.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

I didn't drill mine, I fitted it about 5 years ago with windscreen goo and it's never moved since.

Similar I used silicone sealant clamped overnight, mines still stuck. Plus any excess will just peel off.

You can use araldite, but it's impossible to get off once it's set, unless you heat it

[SV650rules]

The kind of glue most vehicle makers use are polyurethane base ones like Sikaflex 552 AT or similar, they are happy to stick to most normal plastics. May be overkill for a light piece like a fenda extenda and a good quality silicone (or maybe no-more-nails) may well be up to it if there is a decent overlap. I have seen some rear hugger extenders offered with double sided tape, some good tapes can be very strong (they are normally 1 to 2mm thick foam ones with a good pur glue, the foam takes up surface irregularities to maximise contact area of glue).