KSS optimised Ohlins rear shock fitted to our V2K.

[ruaphu]

Our big Kawa cruiser had a shite standard showa rear set up that was neigh on useless for two up riding. It constantly caused grief so I kept an eye out for a suitable replacement. We managed to get our hands on a near new second hand ohlins rear shock (with remote adjustable preload - RAP) from the states. These are no longer available new, but are considered the best choice for these bikes.

Once fitted, all good but a touch on the soft side when two up and luggage. Took it to the shock guru, Robert Taylor at KSS for assessment. He pulled the shocks details from it's numbers found the spring was too light for what we needed.

After discussing options we went with Roberts advice and opted to do a rebuild and customise the shock to our two up riding needs. The RAP unit had new oil installed. Shock unit has new oil, new o-rings as well as suitable gas pre-load (stops cavitation on rebound, something the standard shock suffers badly from). Being a USA set up unit it had to have the stroke modified to get the maximum movement. The US setup has internal shims and a big bump stop. The oversize bump stop was changed to a more suitable unit and 13mm of internal shimming removed. The biggest change was the installation of a 21Nm spring set up on 16mm of static pre-load.

Once the shock was remounted also opted to change the overall length of the shock to give a static, unloaded lift of 30mm to allow the bike to sit slightly higher with the two of us aboard, not sag like on the standard setup.

We set out on our usual round the mountain ride to test and adjust the set up which has a good cross section of everything. On the standard shock this road was a pain n the backside (literally). If ya tackled this ride at typical highway speed we often touched down and bottomed the shock in many places. Consequently this ride was done cautiously to avoid these issues, making a good ride tedious. On the new set up, the difference is like night to day! The bike handled compliantly providing great feel and it felt 'stuck' to the road, not fidgety or twitchy like the standard set up was. The KSS tuned set up makes for bloody good riding.

Most noticeable was the fact we never 'touched' down or bottomed out and we done this all at the open road limit. Both of us are amazed at the complete change in the bikes ability having the rear end sorted. Still tweaking the set up, done 450 Km's so far on it.

Rob Taylor and his crew at KSS done a great job sorting the shock for us, very much appreciated. They are brilliant to deal with, take on board how ya use ya bike and set things up accordingly. Pricing was good and the service brilliant. The workshop is awesome, ya could eat ya dinner off the floor. If you need your bike suspension sorting, take it to KSS.

Next on our list, will be sorting the front end properly with KSS.

Cheers

[Mental Trousers]

New suspension is much cheaper than a new bike but the result is the same - a huge improvement in handling.

[Boo]

I agree have just got my bike back the weekend gone, it was a custom build very fast service.