My Re-Spring of the S10 ES Shock

[ballisticexchris]

Alrighty guys I just installed and finished checking sag after going with the 550 Eibach spring and spacers that Stephen was so kind to sell me.

Measurements are done in full riding gear and aprox 20 lb tools and spares for everyday travel. BTW, I was shocked at how heavy the Klim Badlands gear is. Fully geared up with water bladder I'm 30 lbs over my weight in street clothes!!

Before:
Stock suspension Sag measurements with tools no panniers, raised dogbones.

1 Helmet/standard 0
Static 64
Rider 98

1 Helmet + luggage/standard 0
Static 60
Rider 95

2 Hemets/standard 0
Static 50
Rider 85

2 Helmets + luggage/standard 0
Static 46
Rider 82

After:
Sag measurements with tools no panniers, Eibach 550 spring, raised dogbones. 214 street clothes/244 geared up

1 Helmet/standard 0
Static 41
Rider 75

1 Helmet + luggage/standard 0
Static 38
Rider 71

2 Hemets/standard 0
Static 26
Rider 60

2 Helmets + luggage/standard 0
Static 22
Rider 56

Due to injury I'm unable to test but I am confident this will be a fantastic upgrade to the soft OEM suspension. A few tips when removing shock is to rotate bottom clevis almost 90 degrees and the shock will slip right out of the top as you use pryer to lift and drop wheel. Next time I'll probably remove wheel to make it easier.

 

[ballisticexchris]

BTW, thank you Karl for doing all the hard work to make this very nice upgrade possible.

 

[sblissner]

One more set of adapters still available.

 

[sblissner]

I removed the rear wheel and raised the swingarm as high as possible, once the shock and dog bones were removed. That made extraction of the shock very easy. Also place your tongue firmly in your left cheek, right cheek if left handed.

 

[Grizzly]

Hi Folks,
Well, I did the re-spring mod to the rear shock (2014 XT1200ZE model) a week ago and I'm really pleased with the results
.
I've had the bike about 3 years now and although I managed to find reasonable settings for solo riding, I struggled with comfortable settings for 2-up and 2-up with luggage. It wasn't so much a problem with decking the pegs but more to do with the rear suspension feeling "dead" and unresponsive!
I think this was due to the excessive sag causing the shock linkage to be working in the wrong area and also possibly bottoming out? - noticed the shock has a suspiciously long bump stop - which probably helps reduce the harshness of bottoming but also would tend to add to the "dead" feel??

Anyhow, I decided to go for the middle ground spring-wise and ordered the 525lb Eibach spring.
When I stripped the old spring off I found it's free length to actually be 216mm not the 213.5mm Yamaha quote.

I turned-up the adaptor on my small bench lathe - the limit of it's capacity, I would say, -but it turned out great - just took it easy.
I modified Karl's dimensions slightly - I made the effective spacer thickness 12mm to give slightly more pre-load - 18mm on the new 525lb spring (compared to 19mm on the original 430lb spring with it's 216mm length). I also changed a couple of other dimensios slightly to give a snugger fit in the spring and on the existing retaining collar (I also did not skim this collar as Karl did)
At the top spring location I used 2off 3.5mm cross section o-rings super-glued onto existing spring seat. This results in the new spring being a push fit onto the o-rings to reach the seat.
It works fine - but I think if I was re-visiting this I would try and make a more rigid adaptor collar for the top of the spring?

Once refitted it was time for some tests - and it's a massive transformation - suspension now feels much more fluid and reactive - the way I like it, and results in a much plusher ride.
I've now tested it solo several times, 2-up for a couple of longish day-trips and 2-up + luggage for a 3-day trip away with my wife - and all conditions are a vast improvement - especially 2-up and fully loaded!

Strangely, I was expecting to have to "UP" the damping settings to control the rebound on the stronger spring? - but that is NOT the case - the damping seems to work much better now - without any problems - I'm really surprised at this but that's fine!

I'm not going to bore everyone with "before" and "after" sag numbers - but for reference/comparison, my weight is 260lb and my wife is 160lb (both weights are in minimal street clothes, so a bit more in bike gear) and I think the 525lb spring has been a good choice.


Cheers.......................................Grizzly

 

[Grizzly]

Quick update on our weights!
I was over-pessimistic!!! My weight is 225lb and wife 140lb so weight in full bike gear probably 250lb and 160lb??? Cheers...............................Grizzly

 

[bigbruce]

Can some one explain to me how you adjust the compression and rebounds damping indepently on an ES model?

 

[Sierra1]

Can some one explain to me how you adjust the compression and rebounds damping indepently on an ES model?

Can't. Your selections go from hard-std-soft, and +3 to -3. I recommend that you ride awhile on hard, then soft. Determine witch setting is the closest to what you want/need. Then ride at +3, and then -3. Bigger changes are easier feel the difference than small ones.

 

[Super08]

You've got a lot of settings but cannot do compression and rebound on their own. You have 4 spring preload settings with soft, std, and hard for each of the 4 preload settings. Then for each of the damping settings (soft, std, hard) you can adj from -3 to +3 so 7 settings to fine tune. That gives you a total of 84 possible suspension settings. (4 x 3 x 7 = 84) With the stock spring I road at max preload all the time as I found it too soft. I later changed my rear spring to an aftermarket one with a heavier rate.

 

[bigbruce]

So are the damping settings for compression or rebound damping? Also I don't think there is any preload adjustment on the front forks correct? Thanks

 

[Super08]

Yes the damping settings do both together, it would be nice if they would publish what is happening with them in each setting.

 

[bigbruce]

Maybe a suspension tuner will answer the questions. I am very skeptical that rebound and damping work together pushing a switch!!!

 

[WJBertrand]

The best authority on how the damping works on this bike would seem to be the factory service manual and it indicates that both rebound and compression damping are adjusted according the four selectable loading configurations. There's no theoretical or engineering reason both rebound and compression damping cannot be adjusted simultaneously. It's just a matter of rotating some stepper motors. Unless the suspension tuner has specific experience with the Super Tenere ES system, I would not consider that person an authoritative source.

 

[bigbruce]

I went to the Race Tech website and they are recommending a 20.20 kg/mm rear spring for my 270 lb weight. They also list spacers that are to be used with their spring. The RT site still does not differentiate between the standard and ES version and there recommendation for front springs is almost the same as stock. I am curious what you guys think about there recommendation. Would be curious if there is a general consensus as to the best place to order these springs. Thanks in advance. Bruce

 

[Tenman]

I went to the Race Tech website and they are recommending a 20.20 kg/mm rear spring for my 270 lb weight. They also list spacers that are to be used with their spring. The RT site still does not differentiate between the standard and ES version and there recommendation for front springs is almost the same as stock. I am curious what you guys think about there recommendation. Would be curious if there is a general consensus as to the best place to order these springs. Thanks in advance. Bruce

Shoot Norwest suspension an email. He was former a race tech guy. He did my suspension.

 

[bigbruce]

Not many opinions, has everybody sold their bikes and gone orange?

 

[Bart]

I also recently upgraded the shock spring for something slightly stiffer and looking at the shock while it was off the bike the damping adjustment is at the top of the shock. On every shock I have seen the rebound adjustment is at the bottom and compression at the top. This makes sense when you look at how a shock works. I cannot see any of the rebound circuit linking to the top so can only conclude that we only have compression damping.....unless anyone knows otherwise ????

 

[WJBertrand]

Some forks have rebound adjustments at the top, including the ES version of our bikes. You just need to plumb the rebound circuit through the cap mounted valve. I’ve also seen internal mechanical extension rods that allow adjustment of rebound from the top.


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[Bart]

"Some forks have rebound adjustments at the top, including the ES version of our bikes. You just need to plumb the rebound circuit through the cap mounted valve."

Yes, I agree about forks but they are constructed differently to a shock.



"I’ve also seen internal mechanical extension rods that allow adjustment of rebound from the top."

Are you talking about forks or shocks here, have you an example ?


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[WJBertrand]

I’ve seen this on both forks and shocks. Both forks and shocks have rebound and compression circuits. There’s nothing fundamentally different in the operation of a shock vs. a fork that precludes similar solutions for both. I’m sure, based on its behavior, that our ES shocks include rebound damping adjustment control.

Where the rebound adjuster is located on the Super Ténéré ES is kind of a moot point though since it’s an upside down design as mounted.


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