well after much deliberation ive decided to go for a hagon rear shock

and ohlins springs up front

ive 11k up now in 6 months so ive given her somwhat of a rodgering ...he he

anyway the rear was not to bad but as speeds increased it was getting abrupt on sharp bumps

the front has alwas been pretty soggy ..but im pretty sure its got worse as the miles have passed by


ive ordered the springs but the shock came today

ive used hagon twice before on road bikes and found them to be much better than standard ..off road ..i dont klnow

ive found that they seem to have a good range with the hydraulic preload usually set reasonably low for solo use leaving a good deal of adjustment for weight addition ..and a very resectable ride quality

i fitted it today ...pain in the ass as the rear tail and exhaust box and link pipe have to be removed for just one bolt ..grr

on the road ..its a lot lot better .. and being able to control the rebound damping has made it a lot more controled ..it does however show the front up even worse now ..the difference in reaction
is prounounced
im pretty pleased so far as ive settled the peload around 25 percent solo with no luggage so i think the spring rate is abouit right for me as standard ..im 100kgms grr and the damping is nice and smooth

so far so good ill come back when ive done some more riding and off roading ..and played with the settings a little more

ive steered clear of proggressive spings on the tenere ..ive used them before ..what i found was the faster you went the more sense thay made ..but slower riding produced a harsher ride
now i may be wrong because i fitted them to a road bike ..full spring kit ..so maby they would be better on the tenere ..but i want to keep a nice ride quality on the blacktop ..i have them im me wee strom and they ride really well
one things for sure the standard springs are woefully soft now so somthing has to be tried

im going to try 10w oil to start with and see how its goes again trying to retain a decent ride quality
i should have em in next week

at the moment the hagon feels very promising ill keep ypou posted

By minkyhead at 2011-06-27

By minkyhead at 2011-06-27

By minkyhead at 2011-06-27

By minkyhead at 2011-06-27

Shock looks good, could I ask how much you paid? I need to do something with mine, I've been toying with doing the Hyperpro kit, but that only sorts the spring, not the damping... it is cheap though. I did enquire about an Ohlins, and that was about �600. I don't mind paying a lot, but only if the results are worth it.

__________________
-- Triumph Explorer 1200 --

hello doug

the basic shock is 295 ..and 429 with the prelpoad adjuster fitted
the basic shock on the tenere would be a ****** to adjust the preload

locking ring system .....
i think the hydrolic one is the only way to go

i took it out today and rode some of the most bumpy single fen roads in the uk probably
gave the bike a good hammering ..and did some standing and sitting
and then some slower stuff
the road is on the moss and is patched ..potholed subsided ..rutted and generally deformed a few patches of almost level followed by pick you hole .. it runs for three miles with a few bumpy twists and turns thrown in
its a great place for testing
..after a hour or so i came up with ring two[out of five ] preload arm
and 2 and a quarter turns in on the rebound
i
i have to say the shock is a huge improvment ..its taken some big hits ..both on the sraight and on the bends ..even sitting down it copes real well in big dips and hits .... must say i was delighted with the responce and ride quaility
when standing it did kick back on some holes but i was well over 60 and had taken the weight off by standing
i dont thing i can blame tha shock for that ..sitting it took the same bumps really well ,,
on the trail i get a nose bleed at 35mph so ill have to try and dial in a setting that suits standing ar that kind of speed

a good trick with the ten is to set the spring with the rebound off /on minimun
although its very bouncy like this you get a good feel of the spring reaction on the bumps and potholes .
so after the prload is set
put the bike on the centre stand .and then abruptly push it off to load the rear ..it will bouce up and down
increase the rebound and repeat until the bike settles without bouncing .. and that pretty much does the trick
ill be ridin much slower on the trails so ill see how soft i can allow it to be on front up back down terrain ..havnt got that far yet

i fitted a hypro set to me old vara and lost a lot of ride quality low down ...now that said there was no compression adjustment so it could be the spring was out of tune with the damping

the front forks were harsh in the same way ...but when you went faster the suspension was way better ..im no expert by ut go figure ?? i reacon the hypro spring is better suited to somthing with rebound or compression and rebound fitted

im guessing oil flow in the hagon is more in sinc with the spring ..as a weak shock ..i suppose is still a weak shock after the spring is put on
ill get off road asa p but im hoping to have the forkspring done before i do

hypro fitted to old bike

By minkyhead at 2009-07-21

i never thought to take a pic when it came
this is the shock i fitted to me dl1000
the tenere looks the same but is considerable longer
that was one motivation for trying it as they have been goodshocks on the road bikes and of course the price helps more than a bit


By minkyhead at 2008-11-10

By minkyhead at 2008-11-10

just to update ...ive got the springs in and ive been offroad today

...after some messing ive backed the hagon off solo ..to no added preload and around 1.25 rebound ..this seems to suit the steady pace i ride ...

the springs were fitted with 660 ml of 10w oil ..these have scored a great hit with me ..its just all round better on and off road ...even purposly braking hard on big bumps was more than ok ....overall im delighted with the result
the preload wound level with the top of the fork leg seems good on and off road ..i dont think ill be messing with it further unless its heavily loaded
the road quality is much improved .. i would recomend them without reservation

Ohlins springs arrived and put them in the other night. I just replaced the springs and left the original fork oil in. I'm going to change one thing at a time and see what the difference is. Plus couldn't be chewed to take the forks off to get um oil oot. (Did this with bike on side stand just unload the front as much as you can, I used a block of wood under the sump, and do ONE AT A TIME).

Had the first run last night what a difference.

Pulls upto first junction and front hardly moved which had me thinking it's too firm. Half an hour "bump hunting" later proves me wrong. Did a 'lil trail and rode the bike into as much bumps as I could find. Back on the tarmac and do a emergency stop going down a steep hill.

Before: I found the forks coped OK with little high frequency type bumps but took too much travel on the really bumpy trails. The biggest problem was the diving under braking, anything other than gentle one finger pressure on the lever had the front end dipping anything from a couple of inches to a full on nose dive which just unsettled the bike and me for that matter.

After: Front is a lot stiffer certainly doesn't sag as much but haven't measured this yet. Still copes with the high frequency bumps, haven't done a rough trail yet but took a couple of medium hits last night OK. The transformation has been the braking. Normal stopping and the front hardly moves, the most I could get it to dip was a few inches under more aggressive stopping. Front end just feels sooo much better, the bike much more composed and stable and I'm sure the braking as in stopping distance has improveed as well.

It now shows how bad the rear is, still waiting for me shock to arrive, just hope it turns up before me trip to Mull.

I now have a different bike, couldn't be happier, if you got a Z get the forks sorted.

Do the Ohlins springs use the fork spacer or do you remove them? and the oil, is it different from the stock oil.

Hyperpro springs are longer, so the spacer comes out. the oil is thicker too.

I recently discovered (after some new head bearings) that the 5mm lowering (specified by hyperpro) of the front forks is quite necessary to stop speed wobbles at 60-70mph.

Like you, I noticed that the braking was vastly improved after the upgrade.

__________________
>-------<

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Actually it's pretty easy to adjust the preload on the stock shock, because it's a stepped ring and there's a spanner in the toolkit. The problem with the stock one is that this adjustment doesn't achieve anything - even with the preload wound up to max it's still a soggy piece of crap .

Any aftermarket one is likely to have a threaded lock-ring that needs rotating several times to achieve a significant change, although obviously it allows much more fine adjustment. So I agree with you that a remote adjuster is worth the money.

...which is why there's a frighteningly expensive package from Nitron sat next to my desk at the moment, the contents of which will be going on the bike over the weekend.

__________________
I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400

Where did you get the Ohlins from Skunk?

KAIS performance there are a few UK Ohlins dealers these were the cheapest by a couple of quid. The price of nearly all them was �120, though one place quoted 170, guess they don't sell too many.

Hagon - � 434.50 with Hydraulic preload adjuster
Hyperpro fork springs and oil �123

Bike used mostly for A roads, 40 mile commute, Occasional tour where I don't avoid rough roads.

Occasional Green lanes and I want to do more of these.

Looking to make some improvements and am not sure which are the ight springs to go for.

G