Shocking

My birthday is coming up soon and I had yesterday off so I treated myself by taking a ride and going to visit Terry Hay at shock treatment. Got the correct rear spring and had the shock serviced while we were there. As it would happen I'm the right weight for the factory fork springs so they were all good and added race tech GR2 compression and mid valving.

I asked about the fork rebound valving and instead of selling me them, which he could have and I wouldn't have known different, he told me that the factory reboung valving is good in the crim forks and does not need to be modified, and in fact the ports on Ohlins rebound valves for it are the same size as factory.

It's so much nicer. It handles better than before and now it soaks up mid corner bumps instead of launching off them going off line. One of the most obvious things I noticed was on the way home corrigations on the concrete bits of the highway that were transmitted straight into the chassis on the way there were being delt with by the suspension on the way home. A small amount was still coming into the chassis but no where near as much, and I could feel the front end tracking over them and keeping in contact with the road the way suspension is supposed to.

Yep, the difference from stock to being sorted is stark, on one of my 12R's being stock it jumps across mid corner ruts loosing your line and have to slows down or work hard to hold it, on the other 12 which has been set up for me soaks the exact same ruts like they were not there, yes you can still feel them but so much more confidence in it holding the line. Comparing the 2 bikes is always interesting and hands down the bike that has had the suspension sorted is so much better all round.

I highly recommend to do this before spending on zorsts, bling, and other stuff.

Most bikes arriving here in Oz need re-valving as the standard jobbies are not right for our rougher conditions afaik, spring sizes are always rider usage dependent anyway.




2cents...

Any reason you went up to Terry instead of going out to Laurie?

Simply because he is the Race Tech agent for Australia and I had my 6 done by him after some research and was extremely happy with the results.

I had my 848 done by Terry and the option of going for test runs around his place are perfect... more than happy to come back and make changes...