Suspension....rebuild or cartridges and a Penske??

[Manxkiwi]

+1 to above post. Spend as much as you can justify on suspension. You will save some money on tyre life and you can put the OEM (POS) back in when you sell the bike. You will not regret your purchase, if you can afford it.

Re-valving OEM shocks is a waste of money in my opinion, because they're still made of crap material etc and change performance drastically as soon as they change temp. This is one of the big pluses for simply buying a good brand shock. I put the Nitron NTR2 on my GT, best money spent so far. IMO forks aren't too bad, but I'll probably look at Racetec gold valves etc over winter.

Another thing not many people realise; is that most OEM suspension has little or no ability to 'blow out' in the stroke (high speed compression - abrupt bumps). This is addressed with a shock replacement and decent re-valve of the forks. People often think they're bottoming out the forks. But what they're feeling is hydraulic lock and a very harsh ride. Linear springs and the ability to 'blow through' sharp bumps makes for a 'magic carpet' ride! I coined that phrase when I had my Sprint GT forks done. What a world of difference!

To sum up my (rather lengthy) opinion; You don't really realise what you're putting up with, with poor suspension, until you get good suspension. Then you think 'why didn't I do this years ago'? Ha ha.

[johnmark101]

8 hours ago, Manxkiwi said:

 

Re-valving OEM shocks is a waste of money in my opinion, because they're still made of crap material etc and change performance drastically as soon as they change temp.

Another thing not many people realise; is that most OEM suspension has little or no ability to 'blow out' in the stroke (high speed compression - abrupt bumps). 

I did a basic revalve and spring replacement of the OEM forks and shock on my Ninja 1000 and it actually made quite a difference.  Drastic improvement in stability and feel with a small but noticeable improvement in bump absorption.

The front forks of the Tracer GT feel harsh over less than smooth pavement and are lacking in the ability to absorb sharp bumps.  I managed to get everything fairly well sorted on the stock suspension with the exception of the high speed compression, which I could not dial out, even when reducing the overall compression damping up to the point where it was too soft.  This is exactly the reason I started contemplating suspension upgrades for the GT.  I am pretty certain I would have been happy with just doing the revalve and spring replacement for the forks and shock as I did with my Ninja, but this bike will see more touring duty and I want a smooth ride but not at the expense of excellent handling......so for that reason I bit the bullet and ordered the new rear shock and AK-20's.  The cost sucks but I am pretty sure that will be long forgotten after the first ride on the new suspenders.   

[Manxkiwi]

On 7/8/2020 at 10:32 PM, johnmark101 said:

I did a basic revalve and spring replacement of the OEM forks and shock on my Ninja 1000 and it actually made quite a difference.  Drastic improvement in stability and feel with a small but noticeable improvement in bump absorption.

The front forks of the Tracer GT feel harsh over less than smooth pavement and are lacking in the ability to absorb sharp bumps.  I managed to get everything fairly well sorted on the stock suspension with the exception of the high speed compression, which I could not dial out, even when reducing the overall compression damping up to the point where it was too soft.  This is exactly the reason I started contemplating suspension upgrades for the GT.  I am pretty certain I would have been happy with just doing the revalve and spring replacement for the forks and shock as I did with my Ninja, but this bike will see more touring duty and I want a smooth ride but not at the expense of excellent handling......so for that reason I bit the bullet and ordered the new rear shock and AK-20's.  The cost sucks but I am pretty sure that will be long forgotten after the first ride on the new suspenders.   

Yes, you will always improve stock suspension (especially rear shocks) with a re-valve etc (if it is re-buildable). But you will always have a crappy shock body, mass produced with poor tolerances and from poor materials, with no ability to contain temperature differences. Which was my point; if you miss out the step of re-working your stock shock and go straight for a good replacement, you'll ultimately save money.

It is expensive doing suspension properly and I (most people?) could only really afford it later in life. But, I'm pretty sure you won't regret it. As I said before, you don't realise what you're putting up with until you get really good suspension set up for you and your bike. 

[johnmark101]

21 minutes ago, Manxkiwi said:

As I said before, you don't realise what you're putting up with until you get really good suspension set up for you and your bike. 

Yes, I agree.  Even just getting the rebuild on my Ninja was enough for me to know this as it was a big improvement.  I expect what I am doing with the Tracer will be even better, which is why I am willing to pay the price.

 

[jreinhardt]

I have been a Traxxion Dynamics fan for many years. Every bike they have supplied AK 20's and a Penske shock for have transformed the handling and comfort of the bike.

[SKYFLIX]

Just finished the AK-20 cartridge install today. I won't say that it *transformed* the bike, but I do feel that it handles the big bumps better than the stock suspension ever could for someone my size. The ease of the full cartridge installation was well worth it for me, but if my budget had been a little tighter (and my garage a little cooler ::grin::), then I feel like a re-valve / re-spring would be a great solution as well. Start to finish, it took me about 4 hours to do the cartridge install. And I had never done anything like this before. Were I to do it again, I imagine I could do it in half that time.