FZ8 rear shock..

[farmer giles]

Two posts in two days..    The FZ8 Forum has never known such activity..   


Anyway...  I know this subject has been done to death but I wanted to share my experience from today.

So about 2 weeks ago I bought a 2nd hand but v low mileage standard shock from a 2013 FZ8 as the later models come with damping adjustment.

I fitted the shock this morning and it was a very easy fit as obviously it's a straight swap and then set about setting it up for my weight.

I ended up with max preload on the spring and the damping adjustment was 7 clicks back from turned fully clockwise..

This resulted in a sag of 30mm from the bike unloaded to me sitting on it which is about where it needs to be and when compressing the suspension and releasing with the bike on it's wheels the front and rear rebound at about the same rate so that seemed like a good place to start..

for the record I'm about 13 stone in my gear....

On the road, well I was amazed at the difference. I can feel the rear shock working and the whole bike just feels alot more stable even when using max throttle over bumps and ripples the tyre just grips instead of skipping about and spinning up which is what it did before. I also managed to stay in my seat for the whole ride which was also a bonus...

Over all I'm very pleased with how the bike rides now with fairly minimal investment as the rear shock was £40 off of Ebay and I had the forks re-built with 10wt oil whilst maintaining the the standard springs and have dropped the yolks down the fork legs by 5mm.

I'm sure with more investment in Ohlins springs, fork cartridges and a new, aftermarket rear shock it could be made even better but that would be the best part of a grand all in where I've spend about £120 so far..

Guess the message is you dont need to pay hundreds of pounds to improve the way your early model FZ8 rides, just a few choice and in-expensive changes can do the trick.

The only caveat to this is that with the max preload already dialled in the max rider weight for this to work is not gonna be much higher than 13st. To far above that and you'd have to get the shock re-sprung but even that is not that much money.. I think Hyperpro variable rate springs are about £85 new.

thanks for reading and I hope it offers some help to other FZ8 owners who are disparing of their rear end   

[farmer giles]

well I spent a little more time in the saddle today and I think I need a little more preload as with the extra grip now the back end squats a little too much from my liking. Unfortunately the shock is already set to maximum and there is no compression adjustment..  as a quick fix I will take the plastic washers from the spring on the old shock and add them under the spring on the new shock but that may not be enough so I might have to get a 5mm or 10mm alloy spacer made up in an effort to lower the sag to about 20mm from 30mm..  From experience on the old shock each click of preload changed the sag by about 5mm so hopefully it wont take too much packing.

It's still very ride able and over some familiar bumpy roads today I managed to stay in the saddle comfortably instead of having to brace my legs and lift my butt to stop me being fired out the seat..

just little tweeks I suppose, just a shame I've maxed out the preload already..  The later model FZ8 are not any lighter as they are pretty much the same up to 2014 so not sure why it's ended up like this but hey ho ..  it is what it is...