jstanwood

I like it!

And here's the crappy sketch: Hose routing guess Knowing what I know now, if the hydraulic hose could exit the shock at these angles, there should be good clearance between the hose and the headers.

You might have to work on a left-side mount with a high-mount pipe. Klaus said they could rework the bracket if necessary, but I don't see how one would fit under the left footpeg mount, because the fuel pump gets in the way. I thought about the piggyback res., too, but the res. is larger than it looks. It's definitely bigger than the manual preload adjuster from the stock shock, so I am not sure it could actually fit there. I also thought about putting the res. under the seat, but that would defeat the cooling purpose. It was already a tight squeeze with the hugger I have, and my luggage won't fit anymore. But, I use the shock with every ride, and I've used the luggage twice. I just finished a crappy sketch of how the hoses should leave the shock, and I need to scan it and send it to Klaus. (Architects like you, Brown81, and my wife would scoff at it, but it's been a long time since I was a draftsman, and I don't have all my drawing tools handy.) He said they could replace banjo bolts of necessary to get the right alignment. I just have a feeling I'm going to be redoing this again in the near future, anyway. I'm probably going to twist the hose on the res side so it's hidden better. I just have to be careful, because there's 125 psi of nitrogen trying to force the oil out if I break the seal from the crush washers. Too bad Martina can't drop her bike off at their shop for them to find a good solution. It's in NJ, not that far from NYC!

Dave, As long as you're honest about your riding style and weight, the 640 (no remote res.) is probably a great shock, too. You will be sure it's sprung for your weight, and the valving will be set up for the spring rate and your riding style. That may be all we were missing all this time, plus the fact that our shocks were probably sacked out. For all I know, I may not have to mess with the compression settings. If you skip the remote preload, the install should not be that hard. I think the toughest part for me was dealing with the hoses and the damn things hanging from them. With the "practice" I have now, I think it would be a 2-hour job to install the 640. You may still lose a knuckle or two, though.

I updated Klaus on my progress this morning, and he has more suggestions that we will work through. One may involve changing the banjo bolt for the reservoir hose so it leaves the shock differently. A 45-degree angled banjo bolt would help. I'm afraid to melt the hose with it so close to the exhaust, so it doesn't bother me that we have crappy weather right now. While the heat reduction and extra adjustments on the model 641 night be nice, finding a place to mount the res. has been a pain. Once Klaus and I find a good solution, though, he'll apply it to future jobs. Dave, I've managed to sneak maybe 50 miles since I originally mounted the shock, and the difference was amazing. But, like Dutchy said, it could be my imagination. The bike does seem a lot lighter on it's feet, and it turns much easier. I can feel the bumps in the road surface, but the shock soaks them up and maintains control. It's still less jarring then the stocker. I have yet to do my normal 3-hour loop. Testing on frost-heaved pavement has been good, though. Dutchy, maybe you should have ordered yours from the US! :unsure: My shock preload was just about perfect out of the box. I still have to install the new fork springs, but I thought one change at a time would be good. I'm glad you got to test ride yours, though.

I finally had time to get the space heater in the garage (laugh, you Southerners!) and spend a half-day of quality time working on relocating the shock reservoir. I'm getting much quicker at the disassembly and assembly process on the old girl. This time the fuel petcock even worked! I did lose a knuckle somewhere early in the process, though. It was still cold in the garage at the time, so I didn't notice until there was extra red everywhere that didn't match the paint. Nothing a shop towel and electrical tape couldn't fix, though. (We're out of Band-Aids ) Reservoir mounting bracket Here is the bracket that Klaus from Wilbers USA sent. The only modification I had to make was to make the slots a little taller to fit the bolts from the footpeg mounting bracket. A drill bit and a file made quick work of it. Dutchy, You now have a picture of what Klaus sent me, so you can pressure Wilbers or Thurn to cough it up. You essentially paid for it. It's included with the shock for other bikes. Hose routing With some careful twisting, I got the hoses to leave the shock at a better angle. They easily reach the reservoir and preload adjuster on the bracket. The reservoir hose may still be a little close to the headers, but I'll have to try it out and keep an eye on it. I used some creative zip tie routing to pull them away as much as possible. Reservoir mount Klaus from Wilbers USA recently sent a bracket for mounting the remote reservoir. I had to make the holes a little larger to get the bolts for the footpeg bracket to line up. Also, note the heatsink from my old Pentium Pro CPU (remember them? :lol: ) Final 1 This looks and works much better. I can reach the adjustments easily, and things are out of the way.

This is one example why I like the USA, customer service. Wilbers Germany told me I could order one for te equivalent of $40 plus shipping................ well euh thanks but no thanks.. With a little luck the rains will stop on Sunday so I can start tinkering with the spare footpeg hanger.... I think you can bargain with them. If you had a 5th gen, they would have shipped you a bracket. So, you know there is room in the profit margin for it. I'm waiting for it to warm up a little bit, too. I don't want the brittle plastics cracking in the cold garage. :goofy:

Update: I got an email from Klaus at Wilbers USA this week. He let me know he sent a bracket to mount the remote res. That was very cool of him--I didn't even ask! It just arrived today. :thumbsup: If I get time this weekend, I'll pull the bike out so I can tinker. I'll take pictures, of course. After a peek, it looks like it will mount on the right, between the subframe and the passenger foot peg hanger. A tube sticks out back for the res. to strap to. I still don't think the Corbin bags will fit, but it's not the end of the world if I have to sell them.

Your hose hangs out the same way mine does! :goofy: On a more serious note, you will see what I mean when you try to put the front of the battery box back in. It will hit the banjo bolt until you"modify" it. Mounting the external adjuster in a good place is the difficult part. Enjoy! View from above Of course, once I got the hoses routed nicely, the battery heat shield hit the banjo bolt. I was tired of fighting, so I grabbed the tin snips and pliers.

Thanks for reminding me to switch the battery tender cable from the scooter to the VFR. <_< Here, the thermometer says GO! However, the wind chill says NO! Actually, I just checked your weather, and it's not much different than here. I am just a wimp! EDIT: Well, I did it! It was good. <_<

Thanks for the offer! :goofy: Buy one and chop it, then post pics. I think $10 is a steal, and it's no big loss if it doesn't work well. If it works great and looks good, I'm sure I can find another hanger over here for less than the cost of shipping. Winter is making me patient, but it is supposed to get to 38f/3c today, so I may be a nut and test ride it. Even with the current setup, I can still put the bike on the center stand by using the front of the hanger. It was months before I realized there was actually a "grip". The reservoir is on there so well, that I can still use it as a lift point. My other thought was to make a bracket that bolts through the hole in the left hanger, but that would require fabrication skills and machine tools I don't have.