VIFFER93 Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 OK. After riding countlees track days on my 3rd gen track bike I needed to do something about the suspension on my 3rd gen street bike. For a guy my size the stock suspension is less then adequate. Unfortunately my Wilbers connection dried up and I do not have 1200.00 bucks for a new shock. So I went to my motorcycle/suspension guru and we did some research. First, Penske will still build a 3rd generation shock if you find a Penske dealer who will actually call Penske and ask them. The bad news your still into it for $1000.00 So we started to look in to options. I found a RC51 SP1 shock on EBay for $100.00. It was used and "leaking", but as luck would have it it was cheap enough to take A chance. Now this shock is NOT a direct swap. The sp1 shock body is shorter, the clevis does not match and the spring conversion needs some planning. Fortunately Penske helped with the spring rate and parts conversion. Eric ordered a new shock body, new clevis and internals and he found out that the shock was leaking because the previous owner did not use Penske parts to repair it. So for an investment of about $500 in parts Eric converted the rc51 to a VFR750 shock. Installation and test ride to come. The moral of the story is... Penske will build you a shock if you ask the right person. The parts in the middle of the picture are the RC51 parts Eric swapped out. Ride test coming soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V4 Rosso Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 Nice custom shock. And full adjustibilty for about half the cost, well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JamieDaugherty Posted October 15, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 15, 2013 Penske is great about parts help for stuff like this. You will never get the "Duh..." sound from them. I do mix-and-match shock builds like this every day so it's nice to have a helpful person on the other end of the phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted October 15, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 15, 2013 Sounds like great support from Penske. $600 isn't too bad, considering how you have a brand new shock designed for your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer DucatiTerminator Posted October 15, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 15, 2013 I don't have any direct experience with their shocks, but I believe Hyperpro is making shocks for the older VFR's for anyone looking for another option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VIFFER93 Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 Penske is great about parts help for stuff like this. You will never get the "Duh..." sound from them. I do mix-and-match shock builds like this every day so it's nice to have a helpful person on the other end of the phone. Penske was great, to work with. It is a long boring story about the Suport from Penkse but you are absolutely correct we never got a "Duh" or "No.. we don't have those parts". The Penske rep took some time and got the right stuff for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer CornerCarver Posted October 16, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 16, 2013 Great result, didja have to ask for "Roger?" I have a Fox twin clicker for the 3rd gen that I am looking at to see if I can mod it to fit my VF500F project... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer YoshiHNS Posted October 16, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 16, 2013 What's the eye to eye on a VF500 shock? Think an 06 CBR600 shock would work instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JamieDaugherty Posted October 16, 2013 Member Contributer Share Posted October 16, 2013 The VF500 shock is pretty long. A new lower clevis would be needed no matter what. Along with a variety of other modifications of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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