Arvo Alan et al...
I must me the only ST1100 owner that has bits that are beginning to wear out on it then
All after is about an ST (1997), that I have owned since new for almost 17 years. The final drive is out of another ST (1999), I own which now has the final drive from my original bike fitted to it so I could do a trip to Townsville a few years back. The final drive from the 99' ST I rebuilt using new components and features in all the pics below. The 99' bike had had a hard life. That's a background sorted.
Apologies if photobucket has upended or distorted the images...but I think you'll get the gist of it
I found that the progressive fitted easily, too easily in fact which got me to take a second look...mainly because the OEM shock utilised compressible bushes at their mounting points, whereas the Progressive utilises a fixed ball socket...so the when I first fitted it I found an excessive amount of adverse free-play at either end, at the mount points...so first task was to shim the
new hole of the TOP mount point.
I then measured the original OEM top bolt at a point where they was no wear...this compared to the
non-shimmed mounting point to be 0.2mm larger...not overly excessive, but shim worthy nevertheless.
The distance between the
RED arrows of the redundant spacer measured 24mm, wheres the distance between the
GREEN arrows of the Progressive replacement measures 23.35mm. Again not too an excessive distance. But added to the above AND given there are
no longer and compressible bushes to absorb any movement...I think getting a better fit for the TOP mount prudent. Also I have used a new non-OEM hi-tensile M10 (actually 9.80mm) bolt. Will procure a new OEM or make my own stainless steel bolt later on...but first I need to go for a ride
OK that drive from that well ridden 99' ST...finding an egg-shaped hole here shouldn't have come any any great surprise, after all when I first removed the rear wheel from the bike (which still had it's original OEM shock), a 152K's and less than 3 years old...all I got was a floor full of rust and metal fragments...yet the bike still was ride-able, albeit 1000K's from having 5 neutrals. But I digress
The
egg-shaped hole of the LOWER outer mount on the final drive. The
RED circle shows the area or greatest wear. The
ORANGE the rebound wear side. And the
BLUE shows where the 8mm threads once were that
conveniently came out with the LOWER attachment bolt.
Something you heavier riders that tow trailers may wish to think about
...more in the next pic.
This 2mm lip is the
only portion of the LOWER mount point that accommodates the
14mm section of the lower mount bolt on the
inner surface. The
rest of the load, is on the M8 x 1.25 threaded section.
Ideally I would have liked to bore out this side of the mount to at least 16mm and re-bushed it. But at present I do not have the equipment to do so. So plan-B, to ream it to a size to whereby I have a
round hole to work with. This necessitated taken the outer mount (
only), hole to 14.58mm
Then to make a bespoke bolt for the lower mount (sorry it's upside down...thought I sorted that). I have made this from stainless steel.
Next, I needed to
create more thread to replace that which was lost due to the hammering that has damaged the mount in the first place. I think I may be able to heli-coil this later...will be
touch n go as there really isn't too much parent metal to play with here. So as the
punch out hole had some surplus material, I have tapped the hole right the way through
Ta Dah! All fitted nice and snug...only wish I had a bridge port mill so I could have cut a proper hex on my bespoke bolt
..I have put Locktie 243 on the threaded section and (not shown in this pic), I tied a piece of lock wire around the protruding thread as a tell-tale safe guard.
So...just leaves my verdict on the Progressive rear shock now that its fitted with out any end or side play.
Well if your what now seems to be a average Aussie bloke of about 100kg or better...you'll love it
If however, you a bit like me, around 70 to 75 Kg, you will find it a hard. More so if (also), like me your STead is fitted a 17 year old Corbin seat with 170K+ on it.
But I bought this knowing that and also I can re-build it to suit my now dimpled derry-air of 61 years
I have loosened the spring pre-load to it's lowest physical limit without having it rattle about, which worked out to be 203mm...another bit of trivia I worked out was 1 complete revelation of the pre-loading nut, shortened (or lengthened), the spring by 1 to 1.5mm.
Cheers, the can :-)