My Re-Spring of the S10 ES Shock

Karl

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Yeah, the problem with something like that is that it is designed for 6 inch diameter springs. The hooks are huge, you could possibly modify them tho..

I made my compressors with some M10 rod (3/8th or 1/2) and some nuts and washers and some steel blocks I drilled a hole through. It takes some time, but totally doable. I did an 1150lb/in spring with them.

K
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
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OK, Race Tech has a beta kit based on Karl's work available. You have to work directly with Matt Wiley (mwiley@racetech.com, 909-273-4985 cell#
951-279-6655 RT ext# 108) as the shop itself is not yet up to date and of course there won't be anything on their website yet. Here's Matt's comments:

"The quote for the collar is $60, Eibach Spring $125.00: $185 + tax & shipping (unless you want to stop into RT for weekday pickup?).

Regretfully I am not allowed offer the club discount on this as collar is custom make from billet & Spring is Eibach brand.

RT really wants an ES bike for R&D, they will get one eventually & we will have full F&R options hopefully by spring. Let me know I you would like for me to make the order for you? Spring will take a few of days as it is special order, collar can be ready as spring arrives so 3-4 day lead time.
"
 

Karl

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Cool, have you done your install yet? It would be good to get your feedback on the collar made to the drawing. Whilst I made my spacer to the drawing, I am a novice machinist so mine may have been a bit off.

K
 

WJBertrand

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I have not had time to complete the install. The collar fits well with the spring. I just received some Tusk motorcycle spring compressors, so I'm all set. The manual says to set the shock to the home position before removing it. It sounds like it releases most of the preload. Did you do that Karl? I'm a little confused about the procedure, even after reading it through a couple times.


-Jeff
 

Karl

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Jeff, absolutely remove all the pre-load before you remove the shock. What that does is reduces the amount of force you need to put into the spring to compress it far enough to fit. If you have spring compressors made for bike springs it should be a breeze.

Probably the trickiest part is getting the shock in and out of the frame. I cant describe how I got it out exactly, but it can be done, be ready to move the swing-arm a little whilst you are doing it. Patience here. Also if you can remove the lower shock linkages completely, I think that would help. I did not do this, the exhaust would have to be moved to get one of the dog-bone bolts out and this would have added extra time.

Be aware that the pre-load piston/collar has a small pin aligning it to the shock body, make sure this is properly seated before you release the load of the spring fully.

K
 

WJBertrand

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Thanks for the tips Karl. I plan to dive into this next week during the thanksgiving holiday. When you say you removed the preload did you just set it to the lowest setting (one rider no luggage) or use the home position? If the latter, I would be interested in the procedure steps. Thanks

Oh, and here are the spring compressor set I bought:

http://tinyurl.com/nuwf5zu
 

Karl

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I am sure your Tusk spring compressors will be fine, just try to compress it evenly and use some lube on the threads.

Just put the bike pre-load to the lowest setiing, no need to do more than that.

K
 

WJBertrand

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Installed my spring this morning, the spacer I had made to your drawing worked perfectly Karl. I stacked a series of 3 o-rings around the upper collar using some industrial super glue, to take up the slack. We'll see how it works out. The tusk spring compressors are brilliant, making that the easiest part of the job! Quite a bit of fiddling, wiggling, raising and lowering the swing arm to get the shock out, but not too bad. Went back in a lot easier. Frankly, the hardest part of the job was reinstalling the fiddly rubber bits, especially the grommet where the hose and wiring enters the adjustment motor housing. Just a few photos below:



Comparison of stock spring (yellow) to Eibach spring sitting on spacer. Another 1-2mm thickness on the spacer might be good.



Tusk compressors in action. You need to make sure they stay spaced 180 degrees apart. On my first attempt removing the OEM spring, one of the compressors slid out of place. And I had to loosen and reposition it.



The new spring is on!



Shock re-installed with new spring and spacer.


-Jeff
 

Karl

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Well done,

That rubber cover pre-load pump cover thing is a bit of a nightmare isn't it...

Perhaps I should draw up a top spring spacer that takes up the space and gives another couple of mm pre-load. I thought of this before, however I was thinking that making two parts for some people might be a bit over the top.

Hope the test ride goes well.
 

WJBertrand

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Karl said:
Well done,

That rubber cover pre-load pump cover thing is a bit of a nightmare isn't it...

Perhaps I should draw up a top spring spacer that takes up the space and gives another couple of mm pre-load. I thought of this before, however I was thinking that making two parts for some people might be a bit over the top.

Hope the test ride goes well.
Family obligations today for Thanksgiving but maybe I can get out for a short ride tomorrow, though the weatherman is threatening to make it wet.
 

WJBertrand

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Got out for very short ride to test the spring. It's immediately noticeable the bike sits a bit higher. I'm a little lighter than Karl at ~230-34 pounds and have been running the two-up setting with side cases and top box mounted but mostly empty or maybe about 1/3 full. After installing the spring I initially set the suspension down to one-up with luggage and the damping at medium +3. This feels just slightly stiff with all the bags empty and I can tell there's a little more reach to the ground at stops. After riding a few surfaces, including a stretch of dirt, I re-set the suspension to one-up, again medium damping +3. This feels pretty good and the back of the bike still sits a bit higher than with the OEM spring.

So in the end I think this spring re-centers the preload settings so that they're actually relevant to me. The rate increase of about 28% is maybe just a tad more than I needed, I think about 20% would be perfect for me but this is much closer than the OEM spring was, so I'm sticking with it. I purposely rode over some speed humps to test the damping (also that dirt segment) and I don't think the spring is overwhelming the damping at all. I felt no need, at least on this short test, to bump the damping settings up to hard. After testing the bike, I think the 10mm spacer thickness is about right.

I can feel the front suspension doing a bit more work now, and before, I think the soft rear was all I could feel. More riding will be needed to determine if I need to do anything spring wise up front.


-Jeff
 

regulator

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Thanks for the update Jeff.

Based on your experience, it sounds like I might want to go with a slightly lighter spring to get my 200 lbs. optimally down the road. Agree?
 

WJBertrand

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Not sure if it's available but I think an 0800-250-0500 (500 lb. in.) Eibach spring might be good as opposed to the 550 lb.in. Karl and I are using. If you travel with luggage all the time or 2-up often, you might still be ok with this spring. I need to put more miles on to be sure as I only did about 25 yesterday.

Update, just did a little research looks like a 500 lb. in. Spring is available from Eibach:

http://m.summitracing.com/search?keyword=0800.250.0500


-Jeff
 

regulator

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Yeah, I saw the 500lb. listed.

The good news is that I'm in no hurry since riding here in the Northeast will be minimal for the next few months. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts after more testing.
 

Karl

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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
 
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