SRV250 rear suspension - Help please!

[simpy1]

Hi guys,

After riding my Yamaha SRV250 for a few months now, I am noticing more and more that the rear suspension is super hard. I guess I didn't notice it too much at first because I have nothing to compare it with!

Even at 50kph on residential roads, if I go over a bumpy patch, it feels really rough, and it takes away any confidence I have in the corners - feels like the tyre would leave the road if I went around a bumpy corner!

The pre-load adjuster is at the 'softest' position it could be.

Anything I could try short of replacing the shocks?

[simpy1]

Oh and one more thing - does anyone know if I could use the rear shocks from another bike (I'm thinking a more common model like a Virago).

And I've seen plenty of pics of SRV250s with aftermarket shocks, but buggered if I know where to buy any from!

[geoffm]

Have you set the sag? With the preload on softest, they coudl be bottoming out, and hence you now have a hardtail when you hit the bumps.
Geoff

[Robert Taylor]

What you are mainly feeling over abrupt bumps is the shock hydraulically ''choking off'' The very crude piston design cannot flow enough oil at the velocity such bumps try and move the shock at. No amount of external juggling of spring preload or rate will improve it significantly because the high speed compression damping limits how fast the shock shaft will move to react to the nastier bumps.
The harsh reality is that low and even mid price aftermarket replacement shocks will not significantly improve the abrupt bump compliance problem. No one makes decent performing shocks for commuter bikes such as your SRV

[simpy1]

Thanks for the replies. The shocks are definitely not bottoming out!

So I guess it's hard to know - aftermarket shocks might be a waste of time really. I think I should go and sit on a few other SRVs at TSS to see what they're like, and if mine is the same, I'll just have to live with it!

[simpy1]

After doing a bit of sitting on other bikes, mine are definitely too hard (even at the softest setting). I've been searching and searching for the correct length of rear shocks, and I don't really trust my ones for measuring. The manual doesn't say a length, but some Japanese sites (from what I can gather) seem to say that 317mm or 320mm would work.

So if I buy aftermarket shocks designed for this sort of bike (lightweight commuter) then would matter terribly if they were slightly (3-5mm) longer or shorter? I just don't want to drop a bunch of money on replacements only to find they don't work as expected...

[Robert Taylor]

After doing a bit of sitting on other bikes, mine are definitely too hard (even at the softest setting). I've been searching and searching for the correct length of rear shocks, and I don't really trust my ones for measuring. The manual doesn't say a length, but some Japanese sites (from what I can gather) seem to say that 317mm or 320mm would work.

So if I buy aftermarket shocks designed for this sort of bike (lightweight commuter) then would matter terribly if they were slightly (3-5mm) longer or shorter? I just don't want to drop a bunch of money on replacements only to find they don't work as expected...

A little bit of extra length is most usually a positive and unless you are short of leg you dont want them shorter. Dont have high expectations of aftermarket shocks for these as the likely contenders ( as for the oem shocks ) are all built to a budget meaning budget performance. This can be a lottery!