ZX636 Shock Install

So here's how I got on with putting in the new shock I got from Skov.

We've got a ladder, a rope, and a garage. Let's do this!


5 mins later...



Cue removing old shock. It was actually really uneventful...none of the bolts were corroded in, only needed a quick crack with a long bar and away they went. Completely unexpected after changing the shock on the yellow SV in the pictures, which was a nightmare.

Linkage out and cleaned up and regreased, all the bearings were fine. Looks like someone greased them at some point prior to me owning the bike, which was nice of them.

Then we had to contend with the battery box. Wouldn't fit with the bit on the tank hinge still in place, so it had to go:





Cut about an inch off the front of the battery box, and all was good with the world. Unfortunately the battery now didn't fit. So we spaced out the undertray as a temporary measure:



The long bolt is securely in place and holds the battery so there's a gap of about 3mm between the shock reservoir and the battery:



Not massively visible here, but it's there.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a slimmer battery - I ran one of them (can't remember the number, but I've got one in my garage) for about 6 months before I killed it by leaving the lights on overnight, and we tried the fitting with that. Once that's in it only needs spacing out about 10mm to not contact the shock reservoir, so the undertray will be back to looking normal.

Made a massive difference to the bike, loving how planted it feels when cranked over now. Only thing that worried me was the higher spring rate - ended up with about 5mm of thread left on the preload by the time it was set correctly. I clearly need to eat more pies

Fitting finished today.

Picking up from yesterday, took the battery out and you can see the space gained by spacing out the undertray, along with the cut I made along the front of the battery box:



We don't want that massive gap near the top of the wheel, though, so the spacing bolts come out and the normal ones go back in.

Neither battery will now fit past the shock reservoir, so we need to put something in the bottom for it to sit on. In true bodge-it style, I went with this option:



If I didn't know better, I'd say it's what it's designed for - it fits absolutely perfectly. Note that it's empty and has been washed out. The lid's been left on so it doesn't collapse, but it's also able to compress slightly so the reservoir can squash into it - better alternative than rubbing on a battery, imo.

Next up, the new battery - it's a YB12B-BS. Note that if you get one of these, make sure you buy one that's decent. A lot of them have a cold-cranking-amp rating of under 150, which ain't ideal. The Varta unit here has a CCA rating of 190. Alternately a YB14B-BS should have a CCA rating of 200 even for a cheaper unit and has a slightly higher capacity. It may be physically a bit bigger, though. Size-comparisons with a standard YTX12-BS:





The battery now sits on top of the bottle underneath such that it's got about a 2mm gap between it and the shock reservoir (I told you the bottle could have been made for this...):



This is where the standard battery would fail - when put in place here you can't put the seat on as the highest edge of the battery pushes into the bottom of the seat. The 20mm or so difference between the slimmer battery and the stock battery means that it fits nicely.
All wired up and fuse-box put in the gap over the shock reservoir:



Aaand seat back on (but not bolted up yet ), side-view of how it now looks:



You'd never be able to tell it wasn't stock. Honest