Picking up my bike after suspension upgrade

[bluninja]

Just had my DL650 in for a full upgrade on the suspension at KSS. Robert just called me to get my butt down there pronto to check it out and take it home before he heads off south for the next round of the nationals. Just a cup of tea and some muffins and I'm off. Really looking forward to this.

[Dogboy900]

Hope you do a write up of it. I have no spare money at the moment but getting a suspension upgrade always hovers at the back of my mind.
Looking forward to hearing how it improves things :)

[bluninja]

First impressions:

I climb on the bike and it no longer sinks at the back :)
Bike feels more stable and tracks through bends without adjustment even with a few minor bumps and rough surface. Previously the front end was adequate but vague and it would wander wide over rough tarmac and repairs in a corner.
Braking hard from 100kmh no longer has the front diving and I can 'feel' the front as I'm slowing.

I did have to play with the brakes as I didn't need them in the gentle roads I've tried so far (New Plymouth to Oakura; then New Plymouth to Inglewood via Windsor, Henwood and Egmont roads).

I did notice that the smoother more absorbant ride meant I was carving the bends at 15-20% faster and thinking I was taking it easy. On 1 bend marked 65kmh I took it at 100 and hit a big bump about 50cm from the centre line; the bike moved about 10cm out with the bump and I was then able to just immediately change the line to move away from the car on my side of the centre line. No fuss, no flapping, no shaking.

Robert Taylor at KSS was really good; one nasty hiccup (not from Robert), but sorted immediately. I have my old fork springs and OEM rear shock all boxed up. I have a 13 spring on the rear, but if I need to move up to the 14 after more time riding than todays test ride allows Roberts said to take it back and he'll change the spring. BTW I originally had a 9.5 rear spring as standard....so no wonder it was saggy at the rear with me on it.

Will give it a better ride this weekend, but my face and head was hurting with the helmet on and my eyelids are puffy and making seeing a pain. Might head to Manfield on Sunday and give it a long distance workout.

[baffa]

Great to hear OP.

Got the rear end rebuilt by KSS recently, was a huge improvement, but the front was too soft by comparison. Have maxed out the front suspension and dialled the rear in a bit, which has brought the bike alive, but eventually Ill need to get the front done to match.

[arcane12]

Sounds great! I need to win lotto, I mean work harder, so I can afford a bike worthy of such treatment :D

[bluninja]

Sounds great! I need to win lotto, I mean work harder, so I can afford a bike worthy of such treatment :D

I could have just starved for 18 months so that my weight was in the range for the suspension :eek5: The good thing is that the Ohlins rear shock can be moved to another bike, rebuilt, or sold, if I upgrade the current bike.....or I could try and sell the OEM shock :whistle: So it's not like I'm just blowing the money for the one budget all rounder motorbike.

[caspernz]

Good call to spend a few bucks on suspension upgrade. I done the same to my toy a couple of years ago, best money I ever spent on a bike. Loud pipes, Power Commanders and all manner of so called go fast stuff? Meh, power is nothing without control...but Mr Pirelli thought of that before many of us :2thumbsup

[Marmoot]

I used Safety as excuse/reason to get my suspension upgrade done.
It worked like a charm with the wife, as well as myself.

[GrayWolf]

The Original owner of my MT had an Ohlins rear and a CKT (KSS) front rebuild done.. I've since ridden a standard MT, and the difference is quite astounding once you are travelling at 100kph or over. tracks better, more feel of the front wheel. Less bounce and sponginess overall, without being harsh. Vastly reduced dive under hard braking, Mine has the 6 pot R1 calipers. it is certainly a worthwhile upgrade.

[nakedsv]

Its amazing what an upgrade will do, especially if the stock strom suspension is anything like as bad as the stock sv ones.

[bluninja]

Its amazing what an upgrade will do, especially if the stock strom suspension is anything like as bad as the stock sv ones.

It is :) ...basically the DL650 is an SV with a bigger fuel tank, front wheel and longer forks. Had Robert at KSS rebuild my forks and supply an Ohlins rear for my race bike a few years back.

[skinman]

what sort of money is involved in suspension upgrades
I am considering doing mine as I am too light to make the stock suspension work properly. Does not soak up things like bridge transitions & other short bumps at all. Either that or its completely knackered.

[SVboy]

Can I too ask exactly what RT did/what model Ohlins/what spring types etc and how much it cost; I have a mate with a DL thinking of taking the plunge.

[bluninja]

what sort of money is involved in suspension upgrades
I am considering doing mine as I am too light to make the stock suspension work properly. Does not soak up things like bridge transitions & other short bumps at all. Either that or its completely knackered.

You'd be better emailing or pming KSS (or any other suspension provider) for speciifics. I think on another thread RT said $250 for a set of front springs, which he will exchange if the rate (as per calculator) is not right for you and the bike.

I paid just over the 2k mark for front fork springs, emulators, and an Ohlins rear shock all fitted and ready to drive away (after the set the sag). SVboy, sorry no model numbers to hand as the receipt is all filed away somewhere, but it's the model below the hydraulic preload adjuster one. An extra $400 to be able to twiddle a nob for preload rather than use a spanner on the few occasions I'd need to adjust it.

[bluninja]

Gave the bike a much longer road ride yesterday: New Plymouth to Mokau to Hamilton stopping at Te Kuiti for fuel. Then Hamilton to Te Kuiti to Taumeranui to Whangamomona to Stratford (filled up with fuel) to home. A good selection of open smoothish roads, twisties, bumpy twisties, and a short stretch of gravel. Really impressed with the overall ride and handling compared to stock. Only area fro improvement is that on fast sections with bumps it feels like I'm being kicked in the arse over each one. This was more noticable at the end of the day as I got tired and started to be more planted on the seat.

Great view of Mount Ruapehu from the top of Tahora saddle, and Mount Taranaki looked great at twilight covered with a blanket of cload against a clear dusk sky. Wonderful light for viewing, not so good for seeing the road surface changes and the road ahead, but the front was settled over the sudden drops and bumps and able to change ines pretty well if the corner tightened, or there was a big pile of rocks blocking half the road just round the bend.

So summary as it stands. Front great. Back a bit harsh, particularly over high speed bumps.

Mods made Ohlins S46DR1 rear shock. Spring rate increased from 9.5 to 13 at rear. Front; Race Tech fork emulator and Race Tech springs at 0.95. AND Ohlins suspension fluid.

[Road kill]

what sort of money is involved in suspension upgrades
I am considering doing mine as I am too light to make the stock suspension work properly. Does not soak up things like bridge transitions & other short bumps at all. Either that or its completely knackered.

My father in law has a C50,,,suspension knackered by 10,000kms.

What ever it costs it'll be the best performance up grade you'll ever spend money on.

[SVboy]

Thanks BN-I will pass that info to my mate-sounds like a reasonable deal for a big improvement.

[pritch]

Robert was saying a year or so back that Ohlins had introduced a more reasonably priced line of shocks.
They come without the all-singing all-dancing range of adjustments, but if KSS set the shock up for you, adjustments should be minimal anyway.

[Marmoot]

If the back feels a bit harsh, just try reducing the preload by 1-2 mm

[bluninja]

Thanks, Robert thought I may need to go up a spring rate with less preload if the current spring and preload is a bit hard. Will talk to him later in week once he's back from Nats and got time to breathe.

[Robert Taylor]

Thanks, Robert thought I may need to go up a spring rate with less preload if the current spring and preload is a bit hard. Will talk to him later in week once he's back from Nats and got time to breathe.

It needs slightly less high speed compression damping inside the shock, a bit of internal tweaking to optimise it further for you. We remove it, dyno it, pull it part and reshim, then reassemble and re-dyno to graphically verify the change. All part of the follow through to make sure you get the long term result you desire. Our roads are challenging so sometimes this is required.

[bluninja]

It needs slightly less high speed compression damping inside the shock, a bit of internal tweaking to optimise it further for you. We remove it, dyno it, pull it part and reshim, then reassemble and re-dyno to graphically verify the change. All part of the follow through to make sure you get the long term result you desire. Our roads are challenging so sometimes this is required.

Goodo. Will call you in the morning, thought I'd give you chance to breathe after the weekend.

[bluninja]

Well after a few weeks of settling in the bike was back in to Robert to adjust the Rebound and compression to my preferences. When I picked the bike up Rovert showed me the graphs from his dynamometer of the standard shock settings and the new adjusted settings; which would have been interesting if I really understood what it menat (other than he'd adjusted it and the tested that it was setup properly, not just 'try it and see').

Took the bike out for a quick spin and tried to find every bump I could. It was settled as before but a little softer.

Yesterday I gave it over 400kms of testing and I really really enjoyed my wee strom for the first time. The suspension upgrade has given me 2 bikes in one. There's the capable wee strom that pootles capably everywhere at 4-6000 revs, though much more sure footed and compliant. Then there's the 'hidden' fun bike that flies through the corners with the engine at 7-9000 rpm.

I went ot Whangamomona and the ride was great. The gravel road out the other side felt much easier. However the Uhura road was a blast. The road to Uhura is sort of narrow with tight bends that flow and always changing incline...and with bumps and ripples in the seal. I was running a little late and decided to press on. I had a grin on my face all the way through...even when I hit a ripple that was a min speed bump and both wheels left the ground...the wheels touched again and immediately settled. Beyond Uhura there was 1-2 km of deep big chunky metal (I hate gravel!) and the bike just trotted through slowly.....sure I could feel every chunk of metal but the bike felt steady all the way through...well apart from the down hill bit when the front was shaking it's head and twisting and the back was following a different path. A touch more throttle and it was all inline again.

By the time I had got to Te Kuiti I'd had rutted twisty road, a weird wide smooth flowing section on the Uhura road, new tar seal, 3 lots of deep metal roadworks and 15 kms of gravel. So a pretty good test.

Road steadily back to New Plymouth through Awakhino and over Mount Messenger. Beautifully compliat suspension, able to hold my chosen line at slower speeds perfectly and the more I rode the more confident I was that the suspesnion would do a super job...so much so I just looked where I wanted to go, pointed the bike and rolled on the throttle...what bumps? :)

[Dogboy900]

Thanks for the update. Nice to hear how its is going and how good the after sales service is too!

[Robert Taylor]

Well after a few weeks of settling in the bike was back in to Robert to adjust the Rebound and compression to my preferences. When I picked the bike up Rovert showed me the graphs from his dynamometer of the standard shock settings and the new adjusted settings; which would have been interesting if I really understood what it menat (other than he'd adjusted it and the tested that it was setup properly, not just 'try it and see').

Took the bike out for a quick spin and tried to find every bump I could. It was settled as before but a little softer.

Yesterday I gave it over 400kms of testing and I really really enjoyed my wee strom for the first time. The suspension upgrade has given me 2 bikes in one. There's the capable wee strom that pootles capably everywhere at 4-6000 revs, though much more sure footed and compliant. Then there's the 'hidden' fun bike that flies through the corners with the engine at 7-9000 rpm.

I went ot Whangamomona and the ride was great. The gravel road out the other side felt much easier. However the Uhura road was a blast. The road to Uhura is sort of narrow with tight bends that flow and always changing incline...and with bumps and ripples in the seal. I was running a little late and decided to press on. I had a grin on my face all the way through...even when I hit a ripple that was a min speed bump and both wheels left the ground...the wheels touched again and immediately settled. Beyond Uhura there was 1-2 km of deep big chunky metal (I hate gravel!) and the bike just trotted through slowly.....sure I could feel every chunk of metal but the bike felt steady all the way through...well apart from the down hill bit when the front was shaking it's head and twisting and the back was following a different path. A touch more throttle and it was all inline again.

By the time I had got to Te Kuiti I'd had rutted twisty road, a weird wide smooth flowing section on the Uhura road, new tar seal, 3 lots of deep metal roadworks and 15 kms of gravel. So a pretty good test.

Road steadily back to New Plymouth through Awakhino and over Mount Messenger. Beautifully compliat suspension, able to hold my chosen line at slower speeds perfectly and the more I rode the more confident I was that the suspesnion would do a super job...so much so I just looked where I wanted to go, pointed the bike and rolled on the throttle...what bumps? :)

This exercise raises interesting technical points. This customer required a significant increase in spring rate and this is by no means an unusual scenario with loading variations etc. The spring rate and the base preload determines the ride height ( static and dynamic ) is correct for the overall loading. Of course as it gets deeper into its stroke there is a much steeper rise in the spring force curve, and that can impinge on the ability to absorb abrupt bumps. Such bumps we have in ''ample sufficiency''
So it ends up being a combination of spring force and damping. Damping is about controlling rate of change of position. Because the spring force curve is a lot steeper we subsequently found that in this instance a lot less high speed compression damping was required in order to allow the shock to move more readily over such abrupt bumps, and therefore much more compliantly. This is something that cannot be adjusted out externally, its all about pulling the shock apart and coming up with a modification to the main piston shim stack, which we did. The product is not ''deficient or wanting'', its just that the stock settings fell out of range for this customer, as they would for any shock. In the primary markets ( Northern Europe and North America ) they have a much much higher ratio of groomed roads and of course riding is very seasonal. So there is a lot less issue with abrupt bump absorption quality as relatively they are so few and far between.
We also reinforced the rebound stack, just a little. It is thought that if you increase spring rate significantly ( to compensate for a higher load ) then you must also increase rebound damping significantly. This is in fact not so, because there is more load ( weight ) resisting rebound happening. It more or less self compensates.
Nick Cole with his race ZX10 is a good case in point. We run a very aggressive spring rate in the front forks, but because he is rather tall and heavier than the other Superbike riders and he ''gets over the front'' with body position the forks work better with a soft rebound stack.
Unashamedly, our shock dyno gives us a major advantage over our competitors as we can graphically see the effect of the changes we have made, we are not ( in effect ) flying blind. Changes are made, redyno'd and we know if the force curves are pretty much exactly where we want them to be BEFORE reinstalling into the bike.When we sell something and it proves in practice to be not quite ideal we will put it right ( improve it further ) for the customer, at no further cost. That ( sorry I guess this is a sales pitch that some on this forum will vilify me for ) is the ADDED VALUE if you purchase locally off us, and KEEP NZ WORKING. The chances are VERY high that had this customer bought off the internet resellers in the States (and our pricing is actually not that different ) it wouldnt have been sprung correctly ( we got that right first time ) as these faceless indiscriminate resellers in the States have no conception of our roading conditions and are not on the spot to follow it through, measure up and set up the bike etc. Certainly it wouldnt have been revalved for the same reasons. So the customer would have resignedly have thought ''this is as good as it gets'' and to put it right would have been a spring, labour , oil, gas and shims. $500 to $600 on the initial purchase price.

[Robert Taylor]

My father in law has a C50,,,suspension knackered by 10,000kms.

What ever it costs it'll be the best performance up grade you'll ever spend money on.

Hate to tell you this.....it didnt work well at 5kms!

[BuzzardNZ]

Can anyone recommend a place in Wellington that can sort out the suspension for an SV1000?

[Digitdion]

Can anyone recommend a place in Wellington that can sort out the suspension for an SV1000?

Take it to Robert Taylor in New Plymouth.

[GTRMAN]

Dukic performance

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

[Robert Taylor]

Can anyone recommend a place in Wellington that can sort out the suspension for an SV1000?

We get people that ride up from Wellington, all the time.

[Snails pace]

Robert put an Ohlins (OS-SU 823) on my DL650 a few years back. 60000km later i have just sent it back to Robert for a service an harder spring. Like the others it was a great improvement, especially on gravel roads that I spend a bit of time on. The shock is still very good but now that I am doing more two up with camping gear etc I felt there was room for improvement. Now with a 2nd DL650 (same model) with the standard shock on I notice immediately the difference. As has been said previously it just holds the road better.

[bluninja]

So you like DL650s then :) This is now the 3rd Suzuki 650 twin engined bike I've owned...1 SV650 curvy (Roberts did the race suspension for that) a pointy SV650S for commuting year round in the UK at 1100kms per week...and I decided I needed something other than an SV650 so I got a DL650 :laugh: