OzSTOC
Farkles, Gear & Accessories => Farkles and Gear General Section => Topic started by: Down Under on February 18, 2012, 10:09:01 AM
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It's been 6 long weeks of waiting but my new Wilbers rear shock has finally arrived! :runyay
As I've decided to keep my ST for another 2 years or so, I thought I'd to go all out on a decent rear shock. Should get around to installing it early next week. I'll post some pics of the shock surgery, followed by a ride report.
(http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc462/DownUnder193/051.jpg)
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If it performs as good as it looks I am sure you will be happy with it.
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Cool...
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so whats wrong if anything with what Mr Honda designed and fitted?
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Just wondering if you had a problem with the original shockie :well and if so............??
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Just wondering if you had a problem with the original shockie :well and if so............??
I've always felt that the rear shock on the ST1300 was a bit undersprung for 2 up riding and the rear shock rebound damper just didn't have the range of adjustment to cope with our rough roads. After riding close to 30,000 kms, I thought the front and rear suspension was starting to feel a bit tired and could do with a freshen up. I gave the bike the full Racetech treatment with a focus on setting the spring rates and valving specifically for 2 up riding.
I replaced the OEM springs with 1.2kg standard rate springs and gold valve emulators. I had the OEM rear shock rebuilt with a slightly heavier spring and gold valve emulator. It made a big difference, especially to the front end. On good roads the bike handled like it was on rails and amazingly it was much more stable in dirty air. The rear shock rebuild was an improvement on OEM but it still rode a bit harsh, especially on rough surfaces. After a long day in the saddle on our finest regional roads.....NOT.....the rear shock lack of performance was really noticeable.
After experiencing the moderate improvement in ride quality and handling with a budget suspension rebuild, I'm convinced that the ride could be even better with a top end rear shock that has a greater range of adjustment. So as the bike is now nudging 50,000 kms I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and take the plunge on a 3 way adjustable Wilbers rear shock. It's an expensive experiment but from the research I've done it would indicate that its worth it.
If I lived in another part of Oz where the roads weren't too bad I'd probably stick with the Racetech set up, but the poor quality roads around my area prompted me to look for something better. I'm not bagging out the OEM suspension set up, it just didn't do the job for the riding I do
Tony
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Honda's are renowned among suspension gurus as being under sprung and over damped. :o
Wilbers are a quality company too, so no worries there. :thumbsup
There are two adjusters. Are they for rebound & damping? Or does one do preload?
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Honda's are renowned among suspension gurus as being under sprung and over damped. :o
Wilbers are a quality company too, so no worries there. :thumbsup
There are two adjusters. Are they for rebound & damping? Or does one do preload?
The adjuster in the top right of the pic is the compression pre-load adjuster. It'll replace the OEM adjuster. The cylinder on the left is for controlling high/low speed spring compression. Compression damping controls the speed at which the spring compresses when you hit a bump or pot hole, or when the bike is squatting under hard acceleration (the later feature wont wont apply to the ST :grin). At the bottom of the shock, the rebound damping is adjusted by a rotating dial. This will be a pain to access but once it's all set up I shouldn't have to fiddle with it too much.
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Now it's times like this I sometimes wish I was mechanical minded :|||| I could ask all these questions like ???? and???? and other interesting stuff. All I know is that I think it has 2 parts that mine hasn't got, and it's prettier :thumbsup
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Finally got around to installing the new shock. I've posted some pics etc in the ST1300 part of the forum for anyone whose interested.
Tony