Shock fitted & tested
OK so the shocks in and looks very sexy against the black colour of my bike. One mans biased opinion of course lol.
I weighed both shocks as a matter of interest and the K-tech is only 100 grams heavier.
The first thing I had to do was jack up the RH side of the bike to get the rear wheel off the ground by using a trolley jack under the RH footpeg mount. Rear stands on spools dont work for this job as it still loads the shock up via the swing arm
Once you've got the weight off whip out the rear wheel to give you more room and vision. Then it's just a matter of taking out the top and bottom mount bolts and removing the OEM shock. The K-Tech comes set to the exact length of the OEM one so it's an easy swap. Fit the reservoir mount using the bolt holes for the LH pillion peg bracket and your done.
I found the preload adjuster rings were wound too far down the thread giving a bike sag figure of only 7mm once I let it off the jack. This compares to 15mm that I had with the OEM shock set on preload position #2.
So I backed the rings off until I had 15mm of bike sag. I then got my buddy around to measure up with me on the bike. I got a rider sag measurement of 34mm, up 5mm from the old shocks 29mm. This last figure will be different for everyone depending on their own weight but 34mm is pretty ball park, esp for sports riding. Wouldnt want any less. The spring rate is listed at 95N/mm in the K-tech owners manual but I'm not familiar with N/mm I only know kg/mm.
First impressions were good: I went out for a spin on the worst road in the vicinity of my local town and while it still bounced off the real bad bumps, it didnt do it nearly as harshly as before. At the end of the day it is still a firmly sprung sports bike.
But.. it tracks way better through the bends and holds its line nicely. Very pleased with the way it keeps the rear end in line, no more wallowing when really pushed hard on undulations. And this is with a 3/4 worn rear tyre too.
On the return journey I backed off both the compression and rebound damping by three clicks each and it helped soften up the ride even more.
So it's a thumbs up from me. I'm going to do some more playing around with the damping adjusters and alter the ride height with the shock length adjuster. Will keep you posted if I find anything of interest that improves the handling.