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Been tearing (what's left) of my hair out trying to find a bolt-on swap for my tired 750ES shock.
I've got Jim Lindemann of Lindemann Engineering (one of the most respected suspension shops on the Left Coast) willing to give rebuilding it a shot, but he doesn't expect an miracles - from what he recalls back in the day (seems he did suspension tuning for several Yosh Suzukis back in the day), the preferred performance rebuild of this shock involved pitching it in the bin in favor of a Fox twin-clicker.
Unfortunately, used aftermarket shocks are impossible to find, and new ones can cost more than KBB thinks this bike is worth. I've been scouring manufacturers' application charts for dimensions and spring rates, plus eBay for mounting eye type - and just can't seem to find a bolt-on that would work.
Now, I do have a Honda CBR600F4i shock in my carage right now that's about an inch shorter than the GS unit, but with the same mounts. (Just to clarify - the captive bearing mounts are called "clevis", right? What are the fork-type "U" mounts called?). The problem with the Honda shock is that I've been told that the spring loading rate is likely twice as stiff as the GS shock due to the difference between Suzuki/Honda shock linkages and increased leverage (something like 700lbs for the Honda vs. 350-400 for the 'Zook), meaning that installing the Honda shock would be darn-near like simply strutting the GS due to the beefier spring.
Now, I know a few GS'ers have used GSXR shocks (or even Bandit?) on the monoshocked GS's, but don't know any other details - like whether or not the stock swingarm was retained, or any other machining/fabricating involved in the swap. Can somebody give me some insight here? I also have a GSXR1K shock on my bench right now, but can't seem to come up with a method of mounting it short of cutting off the "U" mount and welding the mount from one end of my stock shock - but I believe the body of my stocker is steel, where the Gix shock is aluminum.....?
Just don't know - any direction would be appreciated. All this frustration, of course, comes from wanting to retain as close to stock appearances as possible, for better or for worse!!!
TIA,
-Q!
I've got Jim Lindemann of Lindemann Engineering (one of the most respected suspension shops on the Left Coast) willing to give rebuilding it a shot, but he doesn't expect an miracles - from what he recalls back in the day (seems he did suspension tuning for several Yosh Suzukis back in the day), the preferred performance rebuild of this shock involved pitching it in the bin in favor of a Fox twin-clicker.
Unfortunately, used aftermarket shocks are impossible to find, and new ones can cost more than KBB thinks this bike is worth. I've been scouring manufacturers' application charts for dimensions and spring rates, plus eBay for mounting eye type - and just can't seem to find a bolt-on that would work.
Now, I do have a Honda CBR600F4i shock in my carage right now that's about an inch shorter than the GS unit, but with the same mounts. (Just to clarify - the captive bearing mounts are called "clevis", right? What are the fork-type "U" mounts called?). The problem with the Honda shock is that I've been told that the spring loading rate is likely twice as stiff as the GS shock due to the difference between Suzuki/Honda shock linkages and increased leverage (something like 700lbs for the Honda vs. 350-400 for the 'Zook), meaning that installing the Honda shock would be darn-near like simply strutting the GS due to the beefier spring.
Now, I know a few GS'ers have used GSXR shocks (or even Bandit?) on the monoshocked GS's, but don't know any other details - like whether or not the stock swingarm was retained, or any other machining/fabricating involved in the swap. Can somebody give me some insight here? I also have a GSXR1K shock on my bench right now, but can't seem to come up with a method of mounting it short of cutting off the "U" mount and welding the mount from one end of my stock shock - but I believe the body of my stocker is steel, where the Gix shock is aluminum.....?
Just don't know - any direction would be appreciated. All this frustration, of course, comes from wanting to retain as close to stock appearances as possible, for better or for worse!!!
TIA,
-Q!
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