A New Beginning.

[Megadan]

Wooooooohoooooooo. Good thing it is 101 degrees outside, otherwise I might have too much fun lol

[JerryHawk250]

Whoo!! I'd be dragging that in the garage with a bigazz fan and a ice chest of cold ones. Let the games begin.

[2LZ]

After you get it assembled, bust out a weedeater and edge that driveway! :-p

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Whoo!! I'd be dragging that in the garage with a bigazz fan and a ice chest of cold ones. Let the games begin.

I wish I could, but the garage doesnt have enough room thanks to my friends engine that was supposed to be dine last week.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

I wish I could, but the garage doesnt have enough rioom thanks to my friends engine that was supposed to be dine last week.

Drag the engine out in the driveway. The Hawk is more important. lol

[Cravin01]

Look Dan ..Your a new daddy just in time for Fathers Day!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by 2LZ

After you get it assembled, bust out a weedeater and edge that driveway! :-p

Edge the 4ft tall limestone wall that borders the driveway? No thanks.

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Drag the engine out in the driveway. The Hawk is more important. lol

I would, but it is kind of locked in place until he gets finished. Hopefully tonight...

Originally Posted by Cravin01

Look Dan ..Your a new daddy just in time for Fathers Day!

I would rather not be, but it is what it is.

[Megadan]

Had to enlish help from a friend, but I managed to get it up on a 5 gallon bucket and get it on it's wheels.


I went ahead and rolled it into the garage in the little space I made for myself so I can start working on it. Thankfully the garage has AC in it, so I opened the vent and shut the door. Now the garage and myself can cool off for a little while.

I need to make a trip to the hardware store to grab a few things anyway, so it works out. Trying to decide on where to start with it. I think I will strip the body panels off completely and start with the suspension and then maybe the electrical side of things. I need to paint the cylinder head so I can install it. With this heat and sunshine it should dry pretty darn quick.

[Cravin01]

The heat has really put a hold on some things I'd like to do, I already spend most of the day out in it and on my off time that's usually the last place I want to be.

[Megadan]

Yeah, working inside an airconditioned garage space sure beats melting to death outside. Did a video I am working on putting up before I go back down there and do a little more work. Got the bike mostly stripped down to this point. The hardest part is figuring out where to start honestly.

[Megadan]

Quick little look at the original shock and the KEOGHS shock from Aliexpress. Even though they listed it as 320mm, it is actually the 325mm unit. Not a big deal to me, but it does raise the rear of the bike roughly half an inch. When I put my bike up on the jack stands the rear wheel was off the ground, after installing the shock the rear tire was just barely touching.




The only other thing that needs to be done to use this shock is to make spacers so it fits between the mount tabs. The closest ACE Hardware to me did not actually have any suitable spacers so for now I bought a big old stack of 2mm thick flat washers. My rough measures showed the factory shock ends to be 29mm wide at the top and 39mm wide at the bottom. The Keoghs shock is 19mm wide on both ends. So for now I have 5 washers up top and 10 on the bottom. It worked out perfectly. Since the top required an odd number of washers I offset it to the left of the bike, although it really doesn't make a difference which side it favored. I just went left because the exhaust is on the right... logic lol.



I haven't touched the preload settings at all, it came with the preload set that high already. Initial impressions are that it is definitely much firmer right off the bat, likely because of the linear spring rate.

As far as the dampening. At this point it has very little, although I suspect that the shock needs the gas pressure adjusted. It's not quite pogo stick, but it's a lot faster to rebound than I would like.

[pete]

been there & done that with washer stacks on the mounting eye bolts..
and bent the bolt.... replaced them with one peice spacers and never bent it again...

the damping valves for the forks.... do you have to drill the damping rod holes bigger so
they no longer work as dampers & just hold the forks togeather...


...

[Emerikol]

Just getting caught up on the thread, Dan. Congrats on getting the bike delivered and at least unpacked! Personally, I would have just slammed it together and gone out for a ride, but I'm like that. I would have done the upgrades a little at a time and maximized the riding time. In any event, glad to be part of this new adventure with you. Any word from the cops on your old bike?

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by pete

been there & done that with washer stacks on the mounting eye bolts..
and bent the bolt.... replaced them with one peice spacers and never bent it again...

the damping valves for the forks.... do you have to drill the damping rod holes bigger so
they no longer work as dampers & just hold the forks togeather...


...

Which is why I said, "for now" - as in temporary so I can get loads of other stuff worked on in the mean time. I guess you missed that part, or the whole sentence where I said; "The only other thing that needs to be done to use this shock is to make spacers so it fits between the mount tabs.". So yes, I am more than aware that I need to make my own spacers, but for the sake of getting the rear shock in place I used the washer stacks.

As far as the valves in the forks. Yes, just like every other cartridge emulator, they do require increasing the compression dampening hole size and/or total number of holes in order to create more port area in the dampening rod than that of the valve being installed.

I ran Racetech Gold Valve cartridge emulators in my GL1000K0, and they absolutely transformed the way the bike rode and handled. Not my first rodeo with this type of work.

That said, the damping rod does not just become a place holder that "holds the fork together. Only the compression side of the damping rod gets modified. The rebound ports are left untouched, and all rebound damping is tuned via fork oil weight.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

Personally, I would have just slammed it together and gone out for a ride, but I'm like that. I would have done the upgrades a little at a time and maximized the riding time. In any event, glad to be part of this new adventure with you. Any word from the cops on your old bike?

A lot of this stuff actually makes the most sense to do during assembly of the bike. It is already half disassembled, and a lot of this work really doesn't add much time to the assembly of the bike. This is more or less the same process I went through on my last bike. Since I have to wait for the MCO to arrive before I can register and ride it, and that means a wait of 2-3 weeks, it's not like I don't have time to spare to do this stuff anyway.