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Suspension


bayarearider

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I know this is preaching to the chior for those that have aready made the change;

But if you are on the fence about spending the $$ to upgrade your suspension and weigh more than ~160lbs, save your farkle monies and pony up for the single greatest improvement to the quality of enjoying your VFR ride.

After about a year with my 04 and around 3K miles, the once firm feel of the ride quality was beginning to wane as my ride familiarity with the bike increased.

Again kudos to the information gleaned from this forum and bargain hunting perseverance to go for the upgrade. Worth every dime.

It's a new bike. It only took a fraction of the 200 mi.+ day on Saturday to feel the confidence building road feel, solid tracking and rock steady carving through my foothill /coastal loop.

Fork rebuild with new springs & Ohlins rear, Michelins and Voila!

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Guest Laurent91580
:fing02: i upgraded mine using a crappy shock off ebay and it was much improved. cant imagine what an ohlin would do for me!

nice pipes by the way!

Yes, you can't ! You must have one on your bike to discover all it can do for you.

Here in France there is a shock absober manufacturer called EMC; it build good stuff, with a good price /efficiency ratio.

A friend of mine , who have a motorcycle repair shop used to say : "With an EMC , you change of schok, with an Ölhins you change of bike ! "

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I just redid the boingers on my '04. The springs and valves on the front went on about two weeks ago; they felt great and really improved the feel of the front, but it made the shortcomings of the rear shock very obvious. It seemed like ever time I hit a bump I could feel the back wallowing around as it tried to damp out the input. My Wilbers finally showed up on Friday, and I went to work changing it out. It matches the front alot better, but damn, that thing is stiff! I hope that the stiffer ride doesn't take much getting used to; the wife and I are leaving on an 11-day trip on Thursday and a stiff an uncomfortable ride is not something I'm looking forward too. Guess we'll see. I am looking forward to my first trackday of the season to see how this thing really works, though!

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I ordered my HyperPro shock, HyperPro front springs and Race Tech Compression Gold Valves last week. I will probably have them by mid-May. VFR is a great handling bike, let down by avarage suspension and your posts shows me that I am doing the right thing to do the upgrade in spite of the cost. I can't wait to get them installed and try them out!

I also went for Rapidbike module, K&N Air Filter and either BOS or Leo Vince slip-ons (will make the decision in a few days). I will post pictures as soon as I have them, I hope I can post pictures of installation process as well.

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I just got a very clean used CBR900 shock via eBay for my '04. I'll be sending it to Jamie Daugherty to rebuild it, probably install a Gold Valve and swap springs (for my high weight) before it gets installed on my VFR.

I'll swap the OEM fork springs for RaceTechs (which are sitting in my garage now) at the same time. I'm expecting huge improvements at both ends! smile.gif

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Ohlins all the way. :biggrin: Can't wait to get the forks on. :491:

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Rusty I know you got a 6th Gen, sorry 6.5 :cool:, but where is your compression damping remote adjuster fixed? The hose looks very short?

Bren, waiting on "his" Öhlins

Edited by Bren
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Fork rebuild with new springs & Ohlins rear, Michelins and Viola!

Where did you put the viola? I don't see it in the photo... :laugh:

This is off topic(ish) but reminded me, looking at your beautiful pipes.

I followed a wine-red VFR800 home last night. Dunno what pipe he had on (I think it was a TBR low-mount), but it sounded gorgeous: not very loud, but a very nice tone (nicer than my Satantune, to be honest...)

He'd probably gone for the cheapest option (apart from a helmet, he wasn't wearing proper bike gear either), and while it sounded nice, it looked bad from behind, with two gaping caverns under the rear cowl where the OEM mufflers used to live.

On the plus side, he lives only a couple of blocks from me, and the wine colour looked nice. Probably a cabernet or pinot noir...

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Rusty I know you got a 6th Gen, sorry 6.5 :laugh: , but where is your compression damping remote adjuster fixed? The hose looks very short?

Bren, waiting on "his" Öhlins

The compression adjuster is the black knob on the end of the remote reservoir closest to the hose. The hose on the Ohlins is short, wish it were an inch or two longer.

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Ohlins all the way. :laugh: Can't wait to get the forks on. :cool:

Your profile shows an RC51 as gone. Did you do a RC51 on your VFR and are installing RC51 R&T forks? What calipers are you using?

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but they are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo expensive!!!

you vfrd guys are all rich.........care to take on an apprentice?? :laugh:

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Ohlins all the way. :cool: Can't wait to get the forks on. :491:

Your profile shows an RC51 as gone. Did you do a RC51 on your VFR and are installing RC51 R&T forks? What calipers are you using?

I had a '03 RC51 that was decked out. Ohlin's, Thorsten carbon fiber parts, PVM wheels, cams, head work, Sato's, etc. When my wife got cancer over a year ago. I wanted her to do some riding with me. So I put the RC back to stock as much as I could, sold it, and sold of the rest of the parts. Bought the VFR. Keep 1 set of Ohlins forks for the VFR, as I had 3 sets of them. When I was looking at the VFR, I was lurking here on the forum for information. :biggrin: That's where I got the :idea3: for the Ohlin forks. LOL As for the calipers. I'm sitting on a set of 108mm Brembo monoblock radial calipers right now. Problem I'm having is that nobody I talk to can give me the information I need for the disc off-set without machining thing some. I want to do this as a complete bolt-on. If I can't use the Brembo's, I use the RC51 calipers, as they are a great set-up to begin with. I just don't have a set right now.

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yes that compression hose does look very short, about a 1/4 of the length of the one on mine...

The hose is long enough. The only problem I had fitting the shock was that I had to turn the hose on the shock body to the other side. In the picture. It shows it pointing towards the right side. I turned it to the left by loosing up the bolt on the shock body, twisting the hose around the bolt and tighting the bolt up again. The shock reservoir mounts on the seat frame, in front of the passenger peg. when I get home from work. I'll post a pic, OK. :biggrin:

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Keep 1 set of Ohlins forks for the VFR, as I had 3 sets of them.

So you've got 2 sets spare? Well, would you sell a set to me? Seriously!

(btw, how is your wife now after being diagnosed with Cancer?)

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Ohlins all the way. :fing02: Can't wait to get the forks on. :491:

Your profile shows an RC51 as gone. Did you do a RC51 on your VFR and are installing RC51 R&T forks? What calipers are you using?

I had a '03 RC51 that was decked out. Ohlin's, Thorsten carbon fiber parts, PVM wheels, cams, head work, Sato's, etc. When my wife got cancer over a year ago. I wanted her to do some riding with me. So I put the RC back to stock as much as I could, sold it, and sold of the rest of the parts. Bought the VFR. Keep 1 set of Ohlins forks for the VFR, as I had 3 sets of them. When I was looking at the VFR, I was lurking here on the forum for information. :biggrin: That's where I got the :idea3: for the Ohlin forks. LOL As for the calipers. I'm sitting on a set of 108mm Brembo monoblock radial calipers right now. Problem I'm having is that nobody I talk to can give me the information I need for the disc off-set without machining thing some. I want to do this as a complete bolt-on. If I can't use the Brembo's, I use the RC51 calipers, as they are a great set-up to begin with. I just don't have a set right now.

I hope your wife is doing well.

As for the calipers, you may want to send a message to a member here, BusyLittleShop. IIRC, he had a similar issue with some R&T forks and Brembos for his RC45. He ended up machining his own out of magnesium or some foolishness, but I think he had found an off the shelf option as well.

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Thanks for the replys about the wife. It's been an up and down year to say the least. She feels fine. She had her last chemo this week. :biggrin: Still is some concern about her CA125 numbers going up. Wait and see after her doc app. next week.

The 2 other sets of forks are long gone. Those were the first things that got sold. Both sets had the superbike valve kit in them too.

Larry machine his caliper mounts out of magnesium from what I read. I'm going to ping him later.

Here's the pictures of the shock installed. First 2 are of the reservior. And the last 2 are of the spring preloader.

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  • 1 month later...
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I have received the suspension bits (plus some more!) I ordered about a month ago. Unfortunately, they will have to wait until I get back from holiday with the family. I will keep you guys posted!

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