I bought a jack up kit this week and decided to fit it today. No issues there very easy job, however having not touched any of the rear shock properly before I only just noticed the state of it. The large silver linkage part with the 3 bearings was extremely dirty and all of the bearings were full of dirty sludge, the metal roller parts that are removable were all quite scored on each one and stained / burned an orange colour from the old grease. One of them had some slight corrosion too.
The worst however was the top of the shock. Is that one supposed to spin like the others? It is completely rigid and seized at the moment, I couldnt remove it to clean and re-grease it so have just left it where it is. I can take some photos if required. Is it an issue? How do I know what state of life the rear shock is in too? It doesn't look too bad but internally I cant see and don't know how to check it. Do you think it would be worth replacing the roller things in the linkage?
Can you post up some photos ?
May need to get some decent lighting up around it tho, particularly this time of year
As for the condition of the shock, is it actually absorbing impacts or are you on the receiving end of a battering? If you push down on the rear of the bike does it bounce straight back up or is there a more controlled upward movement? Does the shock have any fluid around the central stem or has any rust broken out on it? If the oil has leaked out of it you'd soon feel the difference, and not in a good way.
Clean out the grease in the linkage's roller bearings. They can take some serious abuse before collapsing, the discoloration may be due to moisture but may not be serious. However if any rollers drop out while cleaning them they should be replaced as a set, tho you'd probably get away with pattern replacements. Yamaha bearings are not usually cheap...
Sounds to me like the shock is original and has not been disturbed / removed since the bike was first made. If you have more than 30k miles up on the bike IMO it'll be time for some intervention - rebuild or aftermarket / alternative ;-)
I just changed my rear shock for an FG Gubellini unit. The original was in fine condition, but based on more experienced foccers, I knew it was only a matter of time before it NEEDED replacing.
It is a worthwhile upgrade. And apparently you can fit an R6 unit with a little modification. I would go down that road before rebuilding a unit that was never very good in the first place.
Not quite sure what to do with my early mid-life crisis. Ideas on a post card to P.O.BOX 150...
I just put mine all back after stripping and cleaning over winter.
Mine came out easily, there is no bearing at the top of the shock as all the movement is at the bottom. But if you have removed all of it apart from that you may as well get it out and cleaned up.
I'll try to get some photos up tomorrow although I am working later than usual so might not have a chance. I think the shock still works okay, I am not taking a battering like you describe and last time I did the compress rear end while stood behind the bike thing it did still have a controlled upward movement which was lightly slower than me raising my hands. I think the central stem was dry and there was no corrosion if I remember, it was just covered in a load of chain gunk and road grime which I've mostly cleaned off.
I'm more interested in the "bearing" at the top of the shock or whatever it is supposed to be. Mine isn't budging it all, everything else came out with only minor resistance. Nick how did you remove yours? If it isn't supposed to move anyway I may just leave it as it is and then clean and re grease the linkage like I have done and put it all back for now with the new dog bones in. I would like to get an upgraded shock at some point though.
So i take it the shock is still off & you havent tried the bike with the jack up yet?
I love my bike jacked up, made a real difference.
Not sure what to do with the noggyfighter...it handles so well & hasnt done many miles.if it starts up fine in the summer without giving me any problems then i might treat it to a hagon rear shock & some heavier fork oil.
All this reconditioning the original and getting R6 shock or thou shock i think is all very well if you just commute but for some performance that the fazer has always deserved since it's introduction i reckon a good aftermarket is the way forward.
£300 is perhaps a bit steep but a decent aftermarket will always fetch good money if sold on in future.lets say ideally you sold it a few years on for £150 so the thing has only really cost £150.
Think im just convincing myself here
Easiest way to go fast........don't buy a blue bike
Noggy, I'm not sure how you arrived at the idea that the modded R6 shock has limited performance utility; I can assure you that set up properly it's easily the equivalent of most aftermarket units. The units have separate low-speed and high-speed compression adjusters, unlike the single combined compression-rebound adjuster of emulsion-type aftermarket shocks, the likes of which Hagon produce.
I would compare it more to Nitron's higher standard 'race' shocks. Furthermore, they work out just over half the price of a new Hagon unit (providing you can of course find one fairly cheap on ebay, which is becoming progressively harder now that units are being snapped up & adapted to fit non-Yamahas). Finally, the R6 units are rebuildable and should you sell your 600, the shock can always be sold on to a Fazer 1000 owner for the same sort of money you started with.
Let's face it, road going R6s have a good reputation for handling, even on stock suspension.
But if you have an overwhelming desire to go aftermarket and blow your £££ I guess there's no stopping ya :-D
03-02-14, 10:34 PM (This post was last modified: 03-02-14, 11:03 PM by Yamazer-92.)
Thanks for clearing that up dcurzon! I'll leave that be then. As for the bearings, to clean them I just whiped them through thoroughly with a clean cloth I havent degreased them or put too much wd 40 in there (what I used to clean the actual linkage itself) because I thought that could be damaging. I have like I said just thoroughly cleaned with a clean dry cloth and then packed in a load of new grease. Should I have degreased them first?
As for aftermarket and replacement shocks I have heard the R6 shock is an excellent upgrade, people who ride SV 650's and bandits upgrade to shocks from gsx-r's, ninjas and the like because they are far better than the built to budget shocks we have. I actually find the fazer handles well though even on the standard shock as long as you turn up the pre-load a little. I have heard hagon aren't great and that Nitron are worth the small amount of extra money. I doubt ill start messing about with that until next year anyway, cheers once again for the help with my original question.
Oh yeah and no I haven't tried it jacked up yet Noggy but I'm looking forward to it its something ive wanted to do for ages. I went for the 25mm rather than 40mm as I've heard there can be side stand issues and I didn't want to make the bike handle differently. Might buy some 40mm one day to see the difference though.
He He guys...that has cracked me up :lol
well i've got absolutely no experience with R6 shocks so no doubt i am speaking shit really but you know i was just thinking that based on the crap standard parts on bikes, especially crap shock on the fazer that it wouldnt be my choice to replace with more standard parts and to replace with a 2nd hand part isnt really my cup of tea. (& yep i was thinking Nitron not Haygon, got mixed up, believe Nitron are supposedly the best).
But hey i take aboard what yous say, hadnt realised R6 shocks were actually that good.
who's selling one
Easiest way to go fast........don't buy a blue bike
Will second what's been said about the R6 shock. I had a Wilbers Ecoline (£350ish) shock fitted previously and I prefer the R6 shock. It's a quality piece of kit, just because it's oem doesn't necessarily mean it's a budget item - the R6 is an expensive top of the range sports bike and it's suspension components reflect that. To give an idea, to get a Nitron with the same amount of adjustability you'll have to pay £600+ for the "Race" model.
Due to the possibility of yet more extreme weather heading our way in south devon I put all of my shock and linkages back on the bike today so that I could put the wheel back on and take it off the centre stand. Was in a bit of a rush after work as only had about an hour of light left but was actually really quite easy and everything went back nicely with a little coating of acf-50 on all exposed parts. Even just about beat the weather, all the shock and new dog bones were nicely torqued up and everything had a decent amount of grease. I put the rear wheel and chain back on fairly loose for now as I was literally only moving it a few feet into the shed so I'll sort all that out properly next dry day off. As for the dog bones, wow. Bike feels right for me now when sat on it, nice and comfy and looks much nicer in my opinion too it has a mean look now and the bones themselves are nice and shiney. Can't wait until I can actually take the bike for a ride, need to paint and refit my exhaust first ...
(02-02-14, 08:05 PM)adeejaysdelight link Wrote: +1 for that.
I just changed my rear shock for an FG Gubellini unit. The original was in fine condition, but based on more experienced foccers, I knew it was only a matter of time before it NEEDED replacing.
It is a worthwhile upgrade. And apparently you can fit an R6 unit with a little modification. I would go down that road before rebuilding a unit that was never very good in the first place.
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