Hotbrakes

After a good long ride yesterday, the JD 929 shock lost its damping abilities after sitting in traffic on the interstate. I expected this due to the proximity of the motor to the shock reservoir but did not have a long enough screwdriver to tighten up the comp/reb adjusters mid ride. I know they are just a hair tighter than halfway in the adjustment range. Otherwise the shock feels great. I also refreshed the fork oil with 500cc's in each of OEM 10wt. Reinstalled the forks and raised the front up a bit more, Genmar bar riser spacers prevent it from going too high, but the steering felt much better. The combined suspension improvements yielded much more confidence and feel (til the shock got hot) and I was cranking down some local backroads at the same pace I would normally only do on the Super Duke. Advance Auto sells aluminized cloth material and I may secure it around the top of the shock to better insulate it from the engine and exhaust. Unfortunately during the failed install of the shock with reservoir on the right I removed quite a bit of the shielding from around the headers. In conjunction with that and the reservoir being on the left and almost touching the valve cover, prolonged sitting with engine temps above 200 degrees seems to affect the damping performance. I'm no suspension expert by any means, but I know when a bike feels right and have the race results and laptimes to prove it.

Not a bad price but does it only have one damping adjuster? Meaning both compression and rebound are all in one similar to the stock shock?

The 929 shock with accessible preload adjuster was necessary for my application. The VFR carries a varying load from nothing but me, to grocery runs, to work clothes (including firefighter turnout gear), to overloading for extended trips.

After much anguish and an overflowing 5 gallon Swear Jar, a JD 929 shock is in my 05. I initially trimmed and mutilated every bit of plastic around the headers off to the right, hopefully this doesn't make my butt too hot or the overheat the LBS. Shock is installed with reservoir on left, damping adjustments accessible on right. Had to bend some brake piping out of the way and grind the LBS support frame where it bolts onto the frame on the left. Used a wizzy wheel to do this. All in all tank was loosened, wheel removed, chain guard removed, and linkage triangles/dogbone removed. No need to separate the shock extension, with the swingarm jacked all the way up, rotate the upper shock mount bolt over the reservoir and wiggle it in up from the bottom of the swingarm hole. Lower swingarm an inch or two to fit a hand in above the chain and straighten the upper shock bolt out. Insert bolt up through frame hole under tank pivot. Reattach linkage. All bolts torqued to 33ft/lbs (pounds/foot). The key was taking my time and carefully grinding the left attachment of the LBS bracket. Bike feels amazing now! By far the worst experience I have ever had working on a bike, but one of the best (and necessary) mods for the 6th Gen to maintain its status as my long range guided missile. No pics, although the aftermath in the garage is impressive, sawzall, Dremel, Dremel bits and wheels, hole saw, drill, air hose, wizzy wheel, grinding wheels, wrenches, allen keys, sockets, piles of plastic and metal shavings. Surprisingly no blood. And the bike still runs.