Rear Shock for 1100 Evo?

[koko64]

Spoke to my suspension guy today and the shock is ready.
A 700lb spring (Eibach) for my 200 lbs was fitted and the damper revalved and fully serviced. He said the oem compression damping was apparently as bad as the spring, so I'm glad its been worked.

[koko64]

Fitted the shock, put some shock tools under the seat and went on a 150 mile ride. Initially, quite a lot of bumps disappeared on known roads and the tyre feel was good. The effect on the front end feel was excellent on turn in too. The effect of the rear suspension on the front is greatly underestimated. The rear felt a lot more stable at lean angle and I could feel the surface of the tyre on the road through my butt, hands and feet (you know the feeling).

My buddy on his adventure bike showed me some roads in South Gippsland I hadn't seen since a ride with Dusty Rhodes quite a few years ago. Some were very bumpy and this gave opportunity to test settings. After trying some extreme settings to get a feel for things I ended up a click or two from the tech's damping settings (he clearly knows what he's doing) . I did reduce the spring preload 2-3mm which got the sag numbers I wanted. The adjustments I made were all in the range the tech predicted.

For $465 it was bang for buck and less than half the price a basic Ohlins you might revalve. If your butt is a sensitive chassis dyno you may want to buy a shock with separate compression and rebound damping and even high and low speed compression damping adjustments. After being so tuned into every bump and noting the initial improvements which I grew into over the ride, I longed for a $1500 shock with all those adjustments because I was so focussed on the rear suspension. This illustrates the limitation of the basic shock design and the human ability to grow and adapt into each performance improvement.

I noted after the ride that I had been riding faster through corners with more accurate steering. The improved rear shock really allowed me to utilise the previous good work done on the forks. Following my mate, he overshot a turn off he spotted at the last second but I apexed it under brakes with good feel and security. Again the traction and control while cornering and during aggressive steering inputs was excellent.
A great job by a master technician whose bikes win races and championships. A shout out to Peter at Promecha.

[koko64]

 IMG_1803 by Tony Kokonis, on Flickr  

Red Eibach spring. Note the machined spring retainer. Out of 20 clicks I have it in the 14-15 range. It's a budget compromise.

[koko64]

   IMG_1801 by Tony Kokonis, on Flickr 

[koko64]

 IMG_1804 by Tony Kokonis, on Flickr

The scissor lift I used to support the bike once it was on the rear stand. Here it's supporting a Guzzi V50.

[koko64]

One thing I didn't do was ask here was what weight spring I should use for my 90kg/200lbs.
The spring fitted is an Eibach 0600.225.0700.0. The tech said it was a 12.5kg spring.
Any thoughts from our suspension guru's?

[stopintime]

Not a suspension guru, but as an experienced heavy weight rider  I say that you're too skinny for a 12.5  Of course the 1100 is geometrically different from my S2R, but still. Do you get good numbers with it?

[koko64]

The numbers are good for static and rider sag, but the progressive geometry is quite aggressive making me think I could get away with a softer spring.

[Charlie98]

What was the shock you had worked on... a stock Sachs?

[koko64]

Yes, I picked up a very low mileage stock Sachs shock for cheap. It was also cosmetically in great shape compared to the one on my bike. Resprung, revalved, & serviced.

[koko64]

After consulting the Eibach importer I am going to use a 650lb spring for street use. This is consistent with my use of 1kg fork springs for the track and 0.9-0.95 (0.92) fork springs for the street.