Suspension upgrade on my ZX6
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:11 pmA week or so ago I picked my bike up from SPM (tarren point) after having their new suspension Guru – James work on the front end.
To be honest I wasn’t sure if there was anything much wrong with my bike to begin with but I had read about this guy on various sites and people were raving about how they bought a new bike and thought it was awesome but sent it to him and it came back a different bike shit loads better. I basically took it to him to get him to have a look at it to determine if it was set correctly for my size and talk about what could be done to make it better and what differences I would find.
One of the store owners –Adrian has the same bike as mine and has had James work it over and he wanted me to take his bike out so I could feel the difference for myself. (they definately know about customer service down there
)
I am not too sure about the specifics of what he did but I know he put heavier springs in it as well rework the valves etc and Different fork oil. I can see that he has lowered the front as well. im much heavier than the 70 kg test pilots in japan (its all muscle of course
) so heavier springs were a must have.
Anyway as soon as I sat on the bike it felt different. I didn’t have much time to test it when I picked it up but one thing I noticed was that it is actually a more comfortable ride now.
Yesterday I got a track day in and the differences were amazing. You get the bike on a line and it will hold it without any hesitation. I can get on the gas confidently and to be honest it feels like I could give it to it heaps harder but that problem is in my head (maybe next week).
Another thing that stood out was braking. I had gotten used to bikes diving under brakes and having to wait for that to settle before getting into the corner. Now when I brake it doesn’t dive like that and when I release it there is no wallowing or unsteadiness that it had before. Turn 4 at eastern creek is awesome Its always been my favorite corner out there but now its even better. I have always found myself confident on that corner to go pretty fast and I find that if there is someone in front of me at that corner then they are usually behind me at the other end of it . Its awesome now. I loved roaring up the outside of them as they are braking and im only just easing off on the throttle. A little brake then hook it past them ha ha “so long suckers…” till they get me back 2 seconds later of course .
Basically the thing rides awesome now – it really is like a new bike. Unfortunately I have nothing left to blame about my slow lap times so I guess I better harden up and go faster huh. Having suspension that you know works and is set correctly is quite inspiring and has certainly helped in general riding and confidence at the track
Anyway call James at SPM and have a yarn to him. He is a bloody friendly bloke and is good for a yarn. He is fanatical about suspension but understands peoples budgets. He can do as little as set up the standard stuff or replace it all with whatever you want.
http://www.spmotorcycles.com.au/
James’ site is worth reading too http://www.zenodamper.com/ he is definitely here in Australia now so don’t be confused by the UK phone numbers etc on that site.
To be honest I wasn’t sure if there was anything much wrong with my bike to begin with but I had read about this guy on various sites and people were raving about how they bought a new bike and thought it was awesome but sent it to him and it came back a different bike shit loads better. I basically took it to him to get him to have a look at it to determine if it was set correctly for my size and talk about what could be done to make it better and what differences I would find.
One of the store owners –Adrian has the same bike as mine and has had James work it over and he wanted me to take his bike out so I could feel the difference for myself. (they definately know about customer service down there
)
I am not too sure about the specifics of what he did but I know he put heavier springs in it as well rework the valves etc and Different fork oil. I can see that he has lowered the front as well. im much heavier than the 70 kg test pilots in japan (its all muscle of course
) so heavier springs were a must have.
Anyway as soon as I sat on the bike it felt different. I didn’t have much time to test it when I picked it up but one thing I noticed was that it is actually a more comfortable ride now.
Yesterday I got a track day in and the differences were amazing. You get the bike on a line and it will hold it without any hesitation. I can get on the gas confidently and to be honest it feels like I could give it to it heaps harder but that problem is in my head (maybe next week).
Another thing that stood out was braking. I had gotten used to bikes diving under brakes and having to wait for that to settle before getting into the corner. Now when I brake it doesn’t dive like that and when I release it there is no wallowing or unsteadiness that it had before. Turn 4 at eastern creek is awesome Its always been my favorite corner out there but now its even better. I have always found myself confident on that corner to go pretty fast and I find that if there is someone in front of me at that corner then they are usually behind me at the other end of it . Its awesome now. I loved roaring up the outside of them as they are braking and im only just easing off on the throttle. A little brake then hook it past them ha ha “so long suckers…” till they get me back 2 seconds later of course .
Basically the thing rides awesome now – it really is like a new bike. Unfortunately I have nothing left to blame about my slow lap times so I guess I better harden up and go faster huh. Having suspension that you know works and is set correctly is quite inspiring and has certainly helped in general riding and confidence at the track
Anyway call James at SPM and have a yarn to him. He is a bloody friendly bloke and is good for a yarn. He is fanatical about suspension but understands peoples budgets. He can do as little as set up the standard stuff or replace it all with whatever you want.
http://www.spmotorcycles.com.au/
James’ site is worth reading too http://www.zenodamper.com/ he is definitely here in Australia now so don’t be confused by the UK phone numbers etc on that site.
