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GT suspension improvements


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Intrigued by the very positive comments here about the gains that can be made with various after-market suspension parts, I took myself off to a local suspension guru this morning, who advertises that he uses the highly-praised UK brand K-tech.  The business is called Ride Dynamics, so that’s a good start!   Thanks to captainscarlet for introducing me to K-tech.

It’s only about a 30 minutes drive from home, so a consultation to get a feel of the business and its owner seemed worthwhile.   And it was – the workshop was spotless, a place for everything and everything in its place, as was the office.   Joe was working on some fork legs when I arrived, and spread out on a steel-topped bench were assorted parts including steel shims so thin I could almost see through them.   I’d never before seen the innards of the fork – only pictures – and it looked mighty complex.   It reinforced my intention to have a professional do the work – I have neither the tools nor the expertise.

We talked about my requirements, chiefly a Rolls Royce (or Cadillac) ride.   Joe is familiar with the shortcomings of Tracer suspension, saying that he had at least two MT-09s in his workshop every month for upgrades, and indeed there were two such bikes there awaiting work, along with many others. 

I was quite impressed with the apparent know-how that Joe exhibited, his willingness to listen and discuss, and the options he offered – all without calling me ‘mate’ all the time.

Upshot is that we have agreed an all-up price – labour plus K-tech parts plus setting-up the bike when done – of just over AUD$2100 (USD$1425, Euro €1270, GBP£1171).   This includes the new Razor-R rear shock as well as fork internals upgrades.   

By no means cheap, but if it gives the improvement I’m looking for in ride comfort I may not later need to buy the ~AUD$500 Bagster seat (at least, that’s what I’m telling Mrs Wordsmith)! 

I hope that the availability of the required parts here in Oz is such that the work can be done quite soon so that I can test things on a planned short-ish ~1000km two-day loop.   Then, I'll have a real work-out on two much longer multi-day tours each of ~4500km later in the year.

Stay tuned for updates and objective comments.

Edited by wordsmith
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Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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1 hour ago, wordsmith said:

Upshot is that we have agreed an all-up price – labour plus K-tech parts plus setting-up the bike when done – of just over AUD$2100 (USD$1425, Euro €1270, GBP£1171).   This includes the new Razor-R rear shock as well as fork internals upgrades.

 

That's not a bad price at all, considering he is building the parts to your specs, installing them and then getting everything setup to your wants and needs.  I'll be following this with great interest.

***2015 Candy Red FJ-09***

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Thanks, betoney.   I originally intended to source the parts - if possible - from K-tech in the UK, saving the 19% European VAT/ sales tax thereby, but the price quoted is pretty competitive so I cannot be bothered to jump through all those hoops.  Joe's installation charges are reduced by 15% as he's also the parts vendor, and the rider set-up fee of $45 is also waived.   I'd mentally budgetted for about $2000, so although it's still lot of dosh, it's close enough.   And I guess I'll be able to put the almost-new OE shock up for sale, possibly recouping a little of the cost.   

Main thing is, though - is it gonna work and be worth it?   Judging by the enthusiastic comments and reports from others here, it should be!   And after some thought, unless there's going to be a delay of many weeks in having the work done, I'll defer my planned ~1000km circuit until it has been completed: the country roads I'll be riding will quickly tell the tale!

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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21 hours ago, StealthAu said:

Does the new shock retain hydraulic preload adjustment?

According to Joe - yes.   I'm hoping for the installation to be done on Aug 19th, obviously depending on arrival of the K-tech parts.   I'll post some pix of the finished job, and maybe even one or two of the actual installation, if he'll let me hang around!

I'm deferring my planned two-day ~1000km circuit until the job is done, which over that distance and many varied road surfaces and conditions should give me an excellent feel for the results, and the ability to get things fine-tuned if necessary.

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Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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12 hours ago, wordsmith said:

According to Joe - yes.   I'm hoping for the installation to be done on Aug 19th, obviously depending on arrival of the K-tech parts.   I'll post some pix of the finished job, and maybe even one or two of the actual installation, if he'll let me hang around!

So what have you gone for?  I'm presuming from you previous posts that it's a Razor R shock at the rear with remote preload adjuster?  What's he doing for you at the front; cartridge kit or re-valving and re-springing your existing forks?

CS 

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2 hours ago, captainscarlet said:

So what have you gone for? 

Piston kit, 8.5 springs, oil.   Razor R.

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Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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On the subject of suspension could someone tell me if each of the following are equivalent? Raise read 5 mm  or raise the forks 5mm above the triple tree? Both would put more weigh on the front. Have always wondered.

Edited by Ddog gt
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6 hours ago, Ddog gt said:

On the subject of suspension could someone tell me if each of the following are equivalent? Raise read 5 mm  or raise the forks 5mm above the triple tree? Both would put more weigh on the front. Have always wondered.

Agree with Tracerracer. Additionally, the rate at which geometry changes is different for the same height adjustment at front or rear. It's not 1:1. What you should do depends on what you want to achieve, everything is a trade off once you've started with getting sag and valving correct for you. 

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33 minutes ago, captainscarlet said:

Paging @wordsmith, so what's the verdict?

CS

Haven't got there yet, cap'n.   Mrs Wordsmith and self struck down by a dreaded lurgi of a 'flu type after a few days interstate and crowded airports and flights full of inconsiderate coughers and sneezers who clearly passed their bugs on to us.  Installation postponed to Tuesday Sept 3rd (next week)...

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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UPDATE ON PROGRESS:    Two things happened this week (since Sunday), one having a profoundly negative effect on my reporting of the other!   FIRST - on Sun my PC died a death, and I lost everything, but after much furrowing of the brow and the handing over of many doubloons to an expert, it was restored to life late today.

SECOND - what I have therefore been unable to report is the outcome of Tuesday's job by Joe at Ride Dynamics at Yatala.   I'd prefer to scribe a full and complete report: let me just say that after the 33km ride home from RD on Tuesday I was bitterly disappointed and kicking myself - but only that I had left it so long!   

A longer 181km outing today along the southern end of the poorly-surfaced Brisbane Valley Hwy to the west of Brisbane showed more of what Tuesday's brief ride home had indicated, namely that the improvement in suspension compliance is considerable, comfort much enhanced, and I'm a happy chappie.   More tomorrow...but with pix!

BTW - my fully-kitted weight with all gear on - albeit wearing the lighter summer mesh option of my two jackets - was 84.5kg = 186 pounds.

 

BTW -
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Edited by wordsmith
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Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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