Choosing the correct spring rate

[wordsmith]

Quite all right, dazzler!   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 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!

[texscottyd]

4 hours ago, wordsmith said:

...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!

I am far too polite to say "I told you so"

Therefore:  I repeatedly suggested you should invest in this upgrade, remember?  

[wordsmith]

2 hours ago, texscottyd said:

I am far too polite to say "I told you so"

Therefore:  I repeatedly suggested you should invest in this upgrade, remember?  

I would have listened more intently had you offered to pay for the work!😪

[dazzler24]

12 hours ago, wordsmith said:

Quite all right, dazzler!   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:

   

A longer 181km outing today along the southern end of the poorly-surfaced Brisbane Valley Hwy 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!

Huzzah!  Firstly, commiserations over the death of your PC followed by congratulations that it has once again risen from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix and secondly for the roller coaster ride that I went on when I read the following part of your experience with the new install....

Quote

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!

 OK so at the end of the day you are clearly pleased with the result.  Excellent!

I now look forward to your detailed 'full report'!  I assume you will be posting that over on your GT supension improvements thread?

Cheers and congrats.

 

[wordsmith]

6 minutes ago, dazzler24 said:

Huzzah!  Firstly, commiserations over the death of your PC followed by congratulations that it has once again risen from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix and secondly for the roller coaster ride that I went on when I read the following part of your experience with the new install....

 OK so at the end of the day you are clearly pleased with the result.  Excellent!

I now look forward to your detailed 'full report'!  I assume you will be posting that over on your GT supension improvements thread?

Cheers and congrats.

 

Yes I will, once I work around the shortcomings of my supposedly-fixed PC!   This is how the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.   Pix too.   Thanks for staying the distance with me!

[wordsmith]

GT suspension upgrade - September 4th 2019  

I'll have to be briefer than usual, for my supposedly-fixed PC is still sulking.

The work took Joe - owner of Ride Dynamics and suspension guru par excellence - some three and half hours of steady work, with no coffee or smoko breaks and no time-wasting Facebook chat.

As I had said before, his workshop is neat, clean, tidy, a place for everything and everything in its place, including the multitude of specialist tools required for this work.  I couldn't imagine an amateur like me working with cheap hand-tools in a home garage being successful. 

We again confirmed what I was looking for, we chatted briefly about my riding weight, whether pillion and/ or luggage is routinely carried, etc., and hi ho, hi ho!, it was off to work.   After I swore on a stack of Bibles that I wouldn't get in his way or want to chat constantly, Joe allowed me to stand by - not too close! - to observe and take pix.   It was a very interesting experience as calm, methodical work proceeded.

As the various parts emerged from the front fork legs Joe explained the function of the various bits - springs, pistons controlling oil-flow, and so on.   To my novice eyes, the new K-tech components looked as if they'd just come from a high-end Swiss watch manufacturer, beautifully finished as they were.

The rear shock was a more straightforward swap, and although I was surprised at the weight of the new Razor R shock with remote adjuster, the OE shock was much heavier.   The new unit has adjustable length, so about 10 or 12mm (half-an-inch) was wound out, lowering the bike's rear by that much after I said that I like to be able to fully flat-foot at rest, which is barely achievable with the OE unit.

Sag - which I had always believed to be what happens to a woman's breasts and a man's belly as they age (the latter has happened to me!) - was precisely measured with a cunning device as small incremental changes were made until the desired settings were reached.   Joe reckons that it's rare for an owner to need to return to him for further tweaking, but of course it's there as required.   After he had a short test-ride to check everything, it was my turn to ride home, with my thoughts already given after that short and brief 33km ride.

Yesterday's 181km outing along very familiar roads was intended to give me more time to evaluate things on terrain of widely-varying surfaces and conditions.   There is a distinct improvement in ride quality, best explained that the sharp reactions to road surface irregularities were ironed-out and a more compliant and composed and comfortable ride eventuated.   A very good example of what this means was quickly apparent, as I found that I was no longer constantly being bumped-up off the seat and inched forward until my gonads were crushed against the rear of tank: I was 'planted' more  firmly in the chosen spot.   Of course, larger irregularities in the road-surface - and there are plenty where I went - were still felt, and I don't want to try to convince members that this was a magic-carpet ride, but certainly it was a pleasing outcome for me.

Memories of subjective impressions are such that it would be fruitless for me to try to compare the new GT ride with that of my later BMW Boxer twins, which are much heavier bikes and with high-end OE components, including BMW's incomparable Telever front-end, but I am happy.

I now intend to take that planned ~1000km circuit some time in the next week or two (but not at next week's end, for it will be Friday the thirteenth!), by which time a couple of shorter outings will have put a few hundred kilometres on the new suspension and allowed everything to have bedded-down.

A very good question at this point might be - "was it worth the $2100 spent on the K-tech upgrade?".    I'm fortunate enough to have spare disposable income, so while not quite a no-brainer the matter of cost was not a great concern.   But others may prefer to take a different lower-cost approach, maybe getting specialists like Ride Dynamics to make changes to the OE components by simply changing oils, shims, springs, whatever, and tinkering with the adjustability of the ex-factory suspension.

The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned on whether or not I'll want/ need to buy a new BAGSTER seat to replace the GT's OE seat, which although light-years ahead of Gen1 seats is still only 'just' for me.   A new BAGSTER seat would cost $450 -$550 depending on specification, but from past experience I know that it would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.   I'll make that call after the 1000km outing in a few weeks time, but in any case they are not yet available.

Finally, big thanks to captainscarlet who introduced me on this Forum to K-tech and the whole shebang.   Pix follow...

 a place for everything...

 new Razor-R rear shock

 work under way...

 new (red) and old OE shocks.   

 spotless workshop..

 draining oil from fork legs..

 OE (right) and new oil-flow pistons 

 fork off...

 new K-tech oil-flow control pistons

 beautifully machined...

 new rear shock installed

 sag-o-meter

 job done!

Edited September 6, 2019 by wordsmith

[dazzler24]

Well done wordsmith!  I didn't expect you to get back with a review quite so soon considering the ones and zeros of your PC were up to hijinks!

Nice collection of pics there as well.  Just from your photos I can see that the RD workshop is very orderly, neat and tidy.  That usually speaks volumes of how things operate within a business.

That rear sag measuring device is very flash!  Looks like it would give accurate and very repeatable measurements when compared to using a tape measure.  Can I assume that 37mm, as displayed, was your final sag measurement front and rear?

Had a chuckle at the following quote. 🙂

30 minutes ago, wordsmith said:

Sag - which I had always believed to be what happens to a woman's breasts and a man's belly as they age

While you have done a major upgrade in one hit I am 'fortunate' to have split my cost by having the front shocks upgraded (Andreani) a couple of years back which I had done in a suspension shop as I too didn't have the tools (or courage) to attack that job.  I'm happy to do the rear shock though as that seems relatively straight forward and there are several 'You Tubes' on how to do it.

This is the part I'm particularly intrigued about:-

As we are almost identical weight wise and I'm assuming riding style wise, what did Mr. Salter from RD do with the rear shock spring ?  Did he change it out or was it left as the standard issue stock 95N spring?

I too very much like to flat foot as much as possible and the fact that there is height adjustment with the Razor R is a real bonus.  Did Joe adjust the front to compensate for the rear being lowered do you know? i.e. raise the forks through the triple clamps?

And yes the Gen 1 seat.  I've had work done on mine three times now to try and reshape it to my liking!  The final iteration is 'OK' but not OK if you know what I mean.  Before I started that journey I baulked at the high cost of aftermarket seats but in retrospect should have gone down that path as I've probably paid that, and then some, and still not entirely satisfied.  Sounds like you loved your 1st BAGSTER.  I'm tipping that you will succumb to the fond memories of the original and there will be another one on order before too long. 🙂

Anyway, thanks very much for your feedback on this exercise.  I for one certainly appreciate it.

Cheers.

 

[wordsmith]

Not sure about the designation of the shock spring, but can ask Joe if required.   I do know that he seemed to spend quite some time adjusting things down there.

Onto seats - which I find easier to understand than some other topics - if I do proceed with a new BAGSTER seat it will be my third - on my last Gen1 Lava Red Tracer I had red stitching and piping put on it, and while that made absolutely no difference to its comfort it did look very smart indeed and attracted a lot of attention, quite possibly also adding to the ease of the eventual sale of the Tracer.   They are beautifully-made and add enormously to rider comfort.

Edited September 6, 2019 by wordsmith

[dazzler24]

I would have to agree with you, just looking at your photos alone, that they are made to a very high standard. And yes the red piping and lettering does make it look that little bit more classy.

Out of curiousity, what made you choose the BAGSTER over all of the others makes that are out there?  Did you have the opportunity to test ride one first or just go on recommendations?

Also did you choose a low seat or standard?

Cheers and thanks again.

Edited September 6, 2019 by dazzler24
Seat height question.

[dazzler24]

EDIT:- Just found your post from back in July that refers to the subject that answers my questions. 🙂

 

[jdavis]

8 hours ago, wordsmith said:

GT suspension upgrade - September 4th 2019  

 job done!

@wordsmith Told you RD was very good at their work. Glad your pleased.

Edited September 6, 2019 by jdavis

[wordsmith]

17 hours ago, dazzler24 said:

EDIT:- Just found your post from back in July that refers to the subject that answers my questions. 🙂

 

Seek, and thou shalt find...

[wordsmith]

On 9/6/2019 at 7:03 PM, jdavis said:

@wordsmith Told you RD was very good at their work. Glad your pleased.

So, jdavis, I now know who to blame if things go pear-shaped!

[jdavis]

1 hour ago, wordsmith said:

So, jdavis, I now know who to blame if things go pear-shaped!

You just admitted that you liked the outcome.