My Re-Spring of the S10 ES Shock

[Brick]

Karl,
Ok... so I'm scraping the LH peg now at full preload on my 14ES with luggage but not fully loaded... I'm at 200 lbs plus riding gear. What say you as to which spring I might need?

Agreed, however the difference may not be that noticeable. I did it to address two distinct problems, scraping the LH peg and the fact that the suspension with full pre-load was almost 50% used up even with no luggage. So you may want to think of the outcomes you are after before you launch into this.

K

 

[Karl]

I cant really say for you, if you are 200lb and carry 50lb or so of gear, you should get similar sag results to what I got (which I did unloaded). Pre-load and sag is one thing, spring rate over the full range of motion is something else and you may find the spring I used too much?... Different people like different setups also. If you do go for the lighter spring you can always put a higher rate one on for not too much more money I guess.

K

 

[WJBertrand]

An update. Got some highway riding in with the pre-load still lowered to the one-up with the damping at medium +3. After about 150 miles highway and around town riding, I have some pretty good impressions. In spite of both side cases and my top case installed and a back pack in the right case, the ride height remains good. I'm judging this in part by observing where my low head light beam cut off lands on the cars in front of me at night. As delivered stock and riding in the same load configuration with the pre-load setting at either one-up + luggage or 2-up, I was getting flashed by on coming traffic at night and the high beam was basically useless unless you wanted to inspect the power lines or check for owls in the tree tops. I cranked the lights down about 2 turns before I changed the spring. Now it seems slightly low so I may need to crank these headlight aim settings back up a bit after I test more pre-load settings. Kind of tells you what Yamaha thinks the ride height is supposed to be in my mind.

The amazing thing is how supple the ride is now at the one-up setting while still preserving correct ride height. My theory is that by preserving the ride height, there is more suspension travel available in the early compression phase, before the linkage becomes steeper in it's progression. The damping is lighter at this setting but still seems to provide a well controlled ride for cruising. There's no pogoing after sharp rises and falls in the roadway. The suspension just seems to step over speed bumps in my work parking lot. This is possibly the plushest, controlled ride of any bike I've ever owned. I might still need to bump it up to the hard damping setting for spirited riding on bumpier, twistier roads but have not yet had the opportunity to test this.

I don't think I'll need to re-set the pre-load to one-up + luggage unless my bags and top case are relatively full. I too was dragging the left peg occasionally so that will be another measure of where to set things up. Running over rises and speed bumps, the front suspension does not seem to be out of balance to the rear at this point.

 

[Karl]

That is a great result, it is always good to get a second opinion. I still have not been to my favourite very twisty road (3/4 of a days ride away). I did sweep around my favourite 270 degree turning smooth on-ramp last night (its a left hander) and it was smooth and planted (on soft +3), no scraping at all.

 

[WJBertrand]

Sounds like we are getting similar results Karl. One thing I need to do is replace the OEM rear tire. It's done 10,300+ miles and it's pretty much finished and squared off from my 3600 mile summer tour. When the tire gets like this I can feel the front and rear following different paths on grooved pavement.

I also discovered that Summit racing, besides the aforementioned 500 lb/in (+16%) and 550 lb/in (+28%) springs also offer a 525 lb/in spring:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/eib-08002250525

This spring represents a 22.7% rate increase. All three springs have the same dimensions so would all need the same spacer. If I decide the 550 lb spring is too stiff, I'll be looking at the 525. Kinda wish I'd noticed it before.

 

[regulator]

I contacted Matt at Race Tech this week to discuss new spring and spacer for my shock and possible fork upgrades.

He REALLY wants to get his hands on an ES to evaluate various options for both the shock and forks. I'd be happy to lend my ES to the project, but PA is a little far from Corona, CA.

Anyone in SoCal interested in helping Race Tech out? Email and contact info for Matt below:



Whomever provides the motorcycle will have their choice of what they may choose for upgrades:

· Fork & Shock Springs Upgrade

· Fork & Shock Re-Valving (Gold Valve System)

· Service & Rebuild of Forks & Shock.

· All of these processes will retain ES function.


Estimated Prices will range from $150-200 for just a set of fork or shock springs. $500-800 for complete fork upgrade, $350-600 for complete shock upgrade parts/labor. Race Tech Upgrade Conversion of the stock forks/shock will retain ES function. Race Tech will need the motorcycle for 2-3 weeks with permission to operate it as we will need to test setup & fine tune for the final product offering.

IF we are able to offer a G3-S replacement shock (unlikely on an ES model unless owner drops the ES function) RT brand G3-S Shock price range is $900-1400 depending upon features.

Until we learn from R&D what the options are I cannot be any more specific but as noted the motorcycle provider will be offered their choice of how far they care to go/choose to spend. As soon as R&D is completed I can then add the ES to our online product search & highlight it on our Adventure/Dual Sport web page: http://racetech.com/page/id/151

Thank you for choosing Race Tech!

Matthew Wiley
Race Tech Suspension
909-273-4985 cell#
951-279-6655 RT ext# 108
mwiley@racetech.com
www.racetech.com

 

[Karl]

A bit far for me too, I would so do this for the fork work alone.

 

[WJBertrand]

I'm not too far but I don't want to give up my bike for 2-3 weeks.


-Jeff

 

[Lutsie]

I'm close and can get by for 2-3 weeks with out the s10, but to expensive for me. Hopefully this works out for someone.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

[Spaggy]

I'm 300lb without gear. I see Eibach has a 600lb spring with the same dimensions. Do you think that would be a better choice for me or would I be pushing my luck with the rest of the shock being able to keep up?

 

[Karl]

I think the 600lb spring would better suit a 300lb rider, particularly if you ride with luggage.

There is absolutely no telling how the shock damping and pre-load adjuster will cope with the higher rate until you try it.

The only other option is to use the 550lb spring and add a but more initial preload, this wont help with possibly overloading the preloader but the damping will then be consistent with what I have seen.

If you are able to buy in the US, buying both springs is also not out of the question as they are much cheaper there.

K

 

[regulator]

Did you guys remove the muffler and pipes to get the shock out? It looks might tight in there.....

 

[WJBertrand]

Did you guys remove the muffler and pipes to get the shock out? It looks might tight in there.....

Nope, not in my case. It's pretty tight alright and I had to work the swing arm up and down as I wiggled the shock out. The only thing that pulling the exhaust would help would be to be able to fully extract the bolt from the rocker in the linkage to get it out of the way. As it is the bolt hits the exhaust and can't fully withdrawn. That would make life easier if you could get that rocker out of the way.

 

[Karl]

Same here, left the stock exhaust in place.

 

[regulator]

Thanks. Got mine out today. Much easier with the swingarm raised.

 

[tomatocity]

Keep posting the performance reports. Stock rear suspension usability is max'd out for me. Looking forward to a spring upgrade so I can travel long trips.

 

[Judd]

So, does RaceTech have something whittled up yet?

 

[regulator]

They received an ES setup for evaluation about a week ago. I expect we will hear something from them shortly.

 

[Judd]

That's good as the fork and shock seals on my bikes seem to start leaking with-in 30K miles and I'm near 20K at this point.

 

[fjrden]

So much information I'm weaning here to improve my S10 A short while ago I was looking to change to more 2up touring machine but this mod could sort out all the bottoming out and scratching pegs to early. Thanks