10-07-13, 09:36 AM
Ok I tested her quite a bit.
The shock performs superbly BUT the standard spring is on the soft side. This is unsurprising since the donor bike is considerably lighter.
I am just over 11 stone, maybe 13 in full gear and even with the spring preload wound to maximum my rear sag with me on the bike was about 52mm. Considering there is 119mm of suspension travel this is too soft (should be between a quarter to a third of travel, 30-40mm maximum). While fine for me keeping things under a ton, things might get interesting above that speed, or if you are 16 stone, or if you were to take a pillion :eek So if you aren't heavy & ride solo, the straight shock swap is fine. I'm a bit of a suspension perfectionist, & sadly the Fazer 600's spring was too long to fit onto the R6 shock, so I ordered & fitted a heavier Faulkner's spring (£27) to get my sag closer to optimum.
Slightly disappointing as the spring change complicates things & adds more expense, but I felt it was worth mentioning to anyone considering the swap over.
The shock performs superbly BUT the standard spring is on the soft side. This is unsurprising since the donor bike is considerably lighter.
I am just over 11 stone, maybe 13 in full gear and even with the spring preload wound to maximum my rear sag with me on the bike was about 52mm. Considering there is 119mm of suspension travel this is too soft (should be between a quarter to a third of travel, 30-40mm maximum). While fine for me keeping things under a ton, things might get interesting above that speed, or if you are 16 stone, or if you were to take a pillion :eek So if you aren't heavy & ride solo, the straight shock swap is fine. I'm a bit of a suspension perfectionist, & sadly the Fazer 600's spring was too long to fit onto the R6 shock, so I ordered & fitted a heavier Faulkner's spring (£27) to get my sag closer to optimum.
Slightly disappointing as the spring change complicates things & adds more expense, but I felt it was worth mentioning to anyone considering the swap over.