ScottC

Thanks for all your input, I'll move forward with this. Both Sonic Springs and RaceTech are well regarded here. Any reason to chose one over the other? Are there other options? It was mentioned that RaceTech provides spacer material to be cut to length, I didn't see any reference to that for Sonic Springs. Are the Sonic Springs longer than RaceTech? Both RaceTech and Sonic tell me .95. I'm about 185 with gear on, and a top case. Just put a 929 shock on, the factory spring rate is,per RaceTech, just right for my not-so-large self. I see a lot of folks saying their RaceTech calculated spring weight is too stiff. Perhaps I go .90? Not sure the oil weight, I'll leave what's in there for now, keep it simple. The valves I hope to do around Christmas, surely I can wait that long on the oil that's in there. The whiskey advice was easily the most significant. Definitely after. Thanks again, ScottC

Hello everyone, I'm looking to buy a set of springs from Sonic Springs for my 5th gen. I want to get the RaceTech valves too, but budget doesn't allow both right now. Is there any value to putting in just the springs now and doing the valves later? Or is that asking for trouble. Don't want to cross the streams, you know. I assume a change of oil weight is in order with the heavier springs. There will be some duplication of effort too, I'm not worried about that. Thanks Scott

All, I wanted to post a follow up to my 929 shock install fun. I thought I was a genius with my idea to rotate the reservoir counter clockwise 90 degrees, so it points forward. Nope, not a genius. The longer bolt and the shock don't exactly line up, they're at a slight angle to each other. If the upper mount is rotated, you can see the bracket getting bent and torqued funny as you tighten the bolt, and certainly th eshock was getting a force on it it wasn't designed for. I didn't like that, so I turned it back. The frame crossmember where the blt attaches, the bolt and stack of washers seem very strong, I can't imagine any issues from this torque. I'm light-ish, 175lbs, and don't ride 2-up. I hope I'm right. I'm one of those 5th gen guys with interference, no question about it. I trimmed off the flap extending forward from the battery box. Not my favorite thing, but looking at the original shocks' upper mount, it's pretty clean up in there, so I don't expect issues. I did try 45mm, still had interference. I did find a speciality fastener shop, courtesy of the BMW car dealer. I got a grade 8.8 with a 17mm locking nut, nylon insert. Much harder than what I had, it took some time on the grinder to get it to clear the shock. No issues with rotating the shock apart from preload adjustments. I can grab it with something to get that done. Impressions: This is only my second motorcycle, so I'm not qualified to say more tham "I like it", so there you have it. I measured 38mm difference in length between the original and the 929 shock, and I made my stack of washers 40mm. From there, it looks like I have 19mm increase in ride height at the back, if I measured right. I used the settings from SportRider magazine that vifferluv pointed out. With all that, it seems to like to turn better and seems more steady in faster corners. Slow stuff and regular commuting, these settings are too harsh, I'll probably leave them though. So, that's my story. Now about them forks... Thanks Scott

Hello, I'm in the middle of this modification too. I've got a couple questions. Seems like there are 2 kinds of 5th gen people doing this mod, those with interference between the reservoir and those without. I'm one of those with:) If I rotate the top of the shock 90 degrees, to the reservoir points forward instead of to the right, I have plenty of space. Is the shock OK with this? Will it damage anything internal? It seems the spring tension makes this quite difficult, but force can trump good judgement. I know the spring doesn't care, it's the internal bits I'm concerned about. One alternative to rotating the top of the shock is to trim the plastic that extends forward from the battery box. I'd rather not do that, it looks to provide some protection to some electrical parts. I think that's a very good thing and don't want to compromise that. I'm probably over thinking that, but, hey, it's my motorbike. Has anyone trimmed this piece without taking it off the bike? Any other problems stem from this? I could also, maybe, add more spacers to my top mount setup. I'm using a stack of washers, 40mm for now. I see that some have gone as high as 45mm, that would probably clear the plastic. I do have space between the bottom of the shock and the dogbone. My concern is that at 40mm, I measure 19mm more ride height, assuming I measured right. If I add 5mm more to the shock, that's a lot more ride height. I measured from a flat on the axle nut to the bottom of the key slot on the helmet lock/seat release latch. Also, about the bolt that holds it all in place. It seems it's there to hold things in place, and any force to it from suspension movement is pretty minor. If this is the case, there's no need to use a super strong bolt. If I could find one around here easily, I would, I haven't been able to find larger metric sizes locally. Should I make the effort to get a high strength bolt? Last question....by using washers, the shock is not keyed at the top, nothing to resist preload adjustments. Any problems here? Thanks a ton. Can't wait to get riding again, been off the road to long. Scott