Fork upgrades and compatible swaps

[twotone]

Does anyone sell the ohlins cartridge yet?

 
 
Check out Norwest on page 1

[Eastern Kayaker]

Does anyone sell the ohlins cartridge yet?

I found computrackboston.com sells the Ohlins Nix-22 kit. I don't know anything about them, but check out their FZ-07 pricing on their website. Just select Yamaha Suspension and FZ-07 for the pricing. 

[ryan4130]

Does anyone sell the ohlins cartridge yet?

I found computrackboston.com sells the Ohlins Nix-22 kit. I don't know anything about them, but check out their FZ-07 pricing on their website. Just select Yamaha Suspension and FZ-07 for the pricing. 

 
 
So they make you add all their extra stuff including an extra $130 for any spring you choose? List prices jumps from $730 to $1150 lol... Weird website

[Eastern Kayaker]

@ryan4130 , I remember @pattonme mentioning that Ohlins does not include the fork springs with their cartridge kits.

[ratlab]

looks like they won't sell you the cartridge without you sending them your forks for installation.i would wait till the usual suppliers have them in stock.

[ryan4130]

I would also be down for a group buy if we get enough people who are down. To me it looks like lots of people are poking around but hesitant about the cost, but a group buy would help

[pattonme]

I can beat everybody's price. But nobody (in USA) has stock. I realize Ohlins has a lot of name recognition and reputation but a revised Andreani or Matris is still cheaper I believe and of course your's truly is right on $500 all-in.
 
And correct, Ohlins springs are typically extra.

[bentebent]

Looking at rear shock upgrades seems pretty straight forward. Looking at cartridge kits, not so much. For someone in Europe, the AK-20s seem out of reach, otherwise it would seem the best performing option. NIX-22 is still vaporware as far as I know. Both Andreani and Matris seem to have quite a bit of flaws when reading here at least. Has anyone looked at Maxton? Supposedly you can run the GP20 kit, I've mailed to inquire more on the topic. They do however run compression and rebound in both legs, which I believe is somewhat outdated? Anyone have experience with their products?

[rick]

Looking at rear shock upgrades seems pretty straight forward. Looking at cartridge kits, not so much. For someone in Europe, the AK-20s seem out of reach, otherwise it would seem the best performing option. NIX-22 is still vaporware as far as I know. Both Andreani and Matris seem to have quite a bit of flaws when reading here at least. Has anyone looked at Maxton? Supposedly you can run the GP20 kit, I've mailed to inquire more on the topic. They do however run compression and rebound in both legs, which I believe is somewhat outdated? Anyone have experience with their products?

if you have adjustable C and R in both legs, the compression adjuster will usually be at the bottom while rebound is done via a long rod from the top.  
Outdated or not, not sure why this matters. Besides, any suspension not controlled by a computer these days could be considered outdated. 
 
The Big Piston Showas can put the rebound in one leg and compression in the other and do it well because those legs have much bigger diameter pistons - as the name implies. 
 
My Andreani cartridges are far, far better than OE, but the compression damping suffers a bit because the small piston limits flow on big hits. Rebound isn't as demanding as movement is generally slower.

[thomascrown]

I never thought about it like that. If you have compression controlled by a single fork, it will easily be overwhelming on a fast square bump, especially a small diameter piston inside the fz07s toothpick fork. I'm very happy with the traxxion emulator kit, very controlled while still being far more compliant than stock. Glad I went that direction in retrospect.
 

[rick]

Yep, and that's the problem with these cartridges. I'm running really light fluid in the compression side (and std. 5wt in the R fork) and that's what everyone seems to be doing in bikes like the FZ, or the small block Guzzis or Triumph Thruxtons or even the FZ9. Run 5wt in the C leg with these cartridges and it's really harsh.
 
I couldn't pass up the deal that was offered a year ago for that cartridge + the Ohlins shock, so here I am.
 
Pattonme has been a bit AWOL of late, but at some point he's gonna send me a new piston + shims for my weight (to go into the C leg) and a "base" compression valve (like your cartridge emulator i'm guessing) that will sit at the bottom of the rebound side, much the way a 4 valve system would look where only the rebound is adjustable (my Futura looks like this and works just fine) . Hopefully, this will give me some big hit adjustability. This 3 valve set-up prolly won't be as good as a 4 valve (especially a fully adjustable 4V), but only one way to find out - kinda part of the fun.
 
Like I said, as is, it's still world's better than OE, but there's still a bit of room for improvement.
 
Good to hear those emulators are working out for ya.
 
 
 
 

[xsr900nick]

I'm planning on buying the Traxxion Dynamics damper rod+GVE kit, I'm an automotive mechanic at a shop and have access to all my own tools. I have some background in heavy equipment repair as well, in iv always enjoyed learning about new systems. Ive never been inside a motorcycle fork before, and only know about what I've read up on from this thread. I feel this kit with give me a good opportunity to learn a bit about my bike, and won't cost a hell of a lot to do either.
 
I am curious however, I've seen mention on other posts about various bushings that go bad within the first few thousand miles. I have about 8k miles on the bike so far and am wondering if there is anything else I should be changing out while I'm in there.

[jmacas87]

I'm planning on buying the Traxxion Dynamics damper rod+GVE kit, I'm an automotive mechanic at a shop and have access to all my own tools. I have some background in heavy equipment repair as well, in iv always enjoyed learning about new systems. Ive never been inside a motorcycle fork before, and only know about what I've read up on from this thread. I feel this kit with give me a good opportunity to learn a bit about my bike, and won't cost a hell of a lot to do either.  
I am curious however, I've seen mention on other posts about various bushings that go bad within the first few thousand miles. I have about 8k miles on the bike so far and am wondering if there is anything else I should be changing out while I'm in there.

Also curious as well

[pattonme]

Well for the XSR900... right, wrong board
 
It's just the lower (slider) bushings that get their teflon scraped off, in as little as 800 miles. There's a separate thread on that.
While you're in there maybe put a 5mm hole in the stanchion to increase oil flow between it and the outer leg. If you end up splitting the forks (not required for GVE but needed for bushing replacement), might as well replace the oil seals.

[jmacas87]

great! good to know

[pattonme]

Added Hordpower as vendor.

[keit29]

Matt, I haven't been able to read this whole thread yet, but have you seen this kit? Your thoughts? link

[Cruizin]

Matt, I haven't been able to read this whole thread yet, but have you seen this kit? Your thoughts? link

 
Traxxion was a vendor on our forum for couple years. Good folks and good work.
 

[pattonme]

Matt, I haven't been able to read this whole thread yet, but have you seen this kit? Your thoughts? link

I think I've discussed the pro/con on that somewhere on here. I don't want to get into it on this thread though. If you want to stick with a damper rod kit, then sure this is the best solution available. 
 

[ajpags]

@Pattonme - can you reach out to me - can't send you a DM here apparently. ajpags@gmail.com Want to figure out logistics for sending you forks etc. Thanks!

[Cruizin]

@Pattonme - can you reach out to me - can't send you a DM here apparently. ajpags@gmail.com Want to figure out logistics for sending you forks etc. Thanks!

 
You only need ten posts to open up pm's. Surely you can post or comment ten times?

[pdt155]

Ahhh, that would explain why I haven't been able to figure out how to PM people

[noodles]

I'm planning on buying the Traxxion Dynamics damper rod+GVE kit, I'm an automotive mechanic at a shop and have access to all my own tools. I have some background in heavy equipment repair as well, in iv always enjoyed learning about new systems. Ive never been inside a motorcycle fork before, and only know about what I've read up on from this thread. I feel this kit with give me a good opportunity to learn a bit about my bike, and won't cost a hell of a lot to do either.  
I am curious however, I've seen mention on other posts about various bushings that go bad within the first few thousand miles. I have about 8k miles on the bike so far and am wondering if there is anything else I should be changing out while I'm in there.

I want to change my fork oil as part of regular maintenance at 15k miles, and this has me thinking if there's something else I should be doing? 
In addition, if I'm changing fork oil I may as well drop in a new kit, right? The Traxxion one seems good. What's the deal with replacing this bushing, though? Is that defective part replaced by the drop in kits or ... where should I be looking for a replacement. I don't want my forks to fall apart at 24,000 miles because a $5 tube of metal failed and shredded whatever internals lie in the dark depths of my fork tubes.

[pattonme]

Damper rod forks are really not so complicated. Nobody sells the "correct" bushing as part of a solution except me, AFAIK. You can buy the bushing from AllBalls but it is NOT listed under the FZ07 application - everyone faithfully follows the factory spec even though it's wrong.
 
You can get full cartridge setup for a tad over $500 (Matris F15K series) or spend $300 and still only end up with (admittedly improved) damper rods. Or just put the proper springs in there and go up a lot in the oil thickness and have a livable solution for $30-100.

[noodles]

Damper rod forks are really not so complicated. Nobody sells the "correct" bushing as part of a solution except me, AFAIK. You can buy the bushing from AllBalls but it is NOT listed under the FZ07 application - everyone faithfully follows the factory spec even though it's wrong. 
You can get full cartridge setup for a tad over $500 (Matris F15K series) or spend $300 and still only end up with (admittedly improved) damper rods. Or just put the proper springs in there and go up a lot in the oil thickness and have a livable solution for $30-100.

I had thought of the oil thickness as a workable solution, but it seems like a rather difficult thing to get "right" without trial and error. And I don't even know what wt the stock oil is so I have no idea where to go w/ that. 
 
I only weigh ~160lb anyway. From what I gather the stock springs are fine but the brake dive is still crazy, and cornering has always been kind of vague and washy. If I could solve that for a minimum of expense and also not have my forks fall apart from a failing part that'd be great. But I don't want to ship out my forks. Even a few days down time is bad, I commute every day on 2 wheels. Maybe down time would be OK over winter.