New suspension impressions

[raylarrabee]

Well, after 3 consecutive weekends of not getting around to it, I finally put in my Progressives and a '96 Katana 600 shock.  Took about 2 hours, total, and really was something anybody can do, regardless of wrenching experience.

Front:
I employed the "lazy" method of replacing the springs and fork oil.  Let me just say that I'm glad I decided to replace the oil, because it was DISGUSTING!  I'll get some pics up sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'll try to do it justice in words.  The oil in the forks was dark, dark gray, cloudy, and looked like somebody had crumbled up a handful of charcoal and dumped it into the forks.  

I replaced the fork oil of doom with some new, pristine 15 wt fork oil and dropped the springs in.  I used some schedule 40 pvc end caps (for 1/2" pipe) per Pantablo's suggestion.  They went in easy and cut out the need to break out my Dremmel.


Rear:
The rear shock swap started out a bit rough.  Th botl at the top of the shock was torqued down so tight (and rusted) that it took some WD-40 soaking and a 3' pipe on the end of my socket wrench to get it off.  After that, it was smooth sailing, and the Katana shock fit in perfectly.  I had some trouble getting the chain tension right after getting it all bolted back together, but figured it out.


Impressions:
Honesty, I'm a total newbie, and have the riding skills to match, so I wasn't expecting to notice much of a difference in the handling, since I'm not exactly pushing the bike to its limits.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Everything feels sooo much more stable now.  Braking is dramatically improved--little to no substantial dive, even during a 50-0 quasi-emergency stop (done on a wide road with no traffic in sight   ).  Cornering was also night and day compared to the old setup.  The bike just feels so much more stable and strong in the corners; it gave me so much more confidence and I finally had a "breakthrough" of sorts in gtting over my fear of leaning (and learnign to trust the tires).


All in all, I could not be more happy with the new equipment.  Plus, it just feels good to get my hands dirty and do the work myself.  The total cost was less than $100, including a new torque wrench, 3/8 - 1/2 drive adapter, and a qt of 15 wt. oil.  Absolutly worth it, and I highly recommend these mods, even for somebody with no mechanical experence.  Easy Peezy.


OK, that was the longest post ever--sorry, but I just got back from a 90 mile "test ride" and I'm still all smiles.

[cummuterguy]

2 questions....

1) how many miles on your bike... cause i'm worried about my fork oil as well

2)how does it ride now as far as bumps.... I want to put the katana shock on mine too, but I commute 45 minutes(each way) a day, and worry the ride will be too rough....

[raylarrabee]

it's a '92 with 13K on it.  The fork oil was beyond funky.  This winter I'll probably take the forks off, strip them down, and make sure all is well with the internal parts--I can olny assume the grit in the oil was at least partly metal shavings.

As for the bumps, the shock came set on max pre-load (7 out of 7), and I didn't bother changing it.  It was pretty stiff over raised manholes and other bumps, but I think if you tuned down the preload and played with the rebound you could get it  reasonably tame.  As it is, I would probably not want to ride on the DC streets for any length of time.  I can tell you more after I get a chance to fiddle with the tuning.

[cummuterguy]

ok.... keep us posted on the bump thing.... I ride thru some pretty heavy construction areas (election year....lot's of road work)
mine is a 2000 with 11k... so I guess I better get on the fork oil thing...

[JamesG]

That is normal for fork oil. I've changed fork oil with as little as 100 miles on it and its was already dark and metal flaked.

[BustemUpBob]

Well when I installed the progressives on the front of my bike, (89 W/9000m) the oil was horrible, and I really found this out because I had to do the full dismantle, my oil seals were shot. Now as JamesG said it becomes that way very quick. Because dumb little me nicked the one oil seal on the top of the tower. After I was all done, rode it and it leaked so I had to do it again.
Little Hint if installing new front oil seals,
1 Buy The Haynes Manual
2 Use a plastic bag over the top of the fork before you pull the new oil seal or dust guard over it.
Or you can be like me and do it again!!!
Warning Used Fork Oil Stinks, Smells Like A$$.

[70 Cam Guy]

2 questions....

1) how many miles on your bike... cause i'm worried about my fork oil as well

2)how does it ride now as far as bumps.... I want to put the katana shock on mine too, but I commute 45 minutes(each way) a day, and worry the ride will be too rough....

Can't say I commute 45 minutes each way but making 1, 2, or even 3 trips to school in a day for a semester, I got a good impression of the swapped suspension (14 miles each way).  I have my preload set to 4 of 7 on my Kat shock and while the ride is firm, it is not harsh.  I weigh a good 175 before gear if you're curious.  Hey if you don't like it you can always sell it here for probably no loss

back on topic... Glad you like the swap.  I also had the same impressions when I did the swap last summer.  

[raylarrabee]

the shock I bought came set to max preload, and I didn't check the rebound.  I'm gonna have to fiddle with it to figure out how to tune it for city/country riding.