Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hi ,I am planning on getting my suspension upgraded and a mate told me about Biketek so I gave him a ring.Frank seems to be a very clued on fella and willing to have a chat,he says he can do a lot with the kawa suspension as well. He said he would change the front springs and revalve them but just revalve the rear as the standed spring will suit my weight.Has anyone had any experience with him as he seems like he knows his suspension?.

I've used Frank's services and been happy with what he has done.
Besides that I have heard someone criticise and put shit on every suspension workshop in sydney.
What you recieve back from any suspension person is reconditioned parts that may be revalved or re sprung or both.
Some people expect this to put them instantly on lap record pace but some adjustments are usually still needed to tune the suspension for your own needs.
A friend of mine took his bike to a well known workshop and the result wasn't very good. (after spending $2500).
He gave me a ride and it just wouldn't turn in to corners. It needed a heap of rebound taken off the front forks but he wouldn't touch it because it was supposedly "set up " for him. 6 months later he finally made the adjustment and it became a good bike again.

Back to the original question. Frank's work is good but give yourself plenty of time. sometimes he gats overloaded with work or has to go interstate with Yamaha race teams. He can't be too bad if Yamaha use him.
Yamaha would only use the best people in their efforts to be as good as kawasaki.

Eastoe wrote:I've used Frank's services and been happy with what he has done.
Besides that I have heard someone criticise and put shit on every suspension workshop in sydney.
What you recieve back from any suspension person is reconditioned parts that may be revalved or re sprung or both.
Some people expect this to put them instantly on lap record pace but some adjustments are usually still needed to tune the suspension for your own needs.
A friend of mine took his bike to a well known workshop and the result wasn't very good. (after spending $2500).
He gave me a ride and it just wouldn't turn in to corners. It needed a heap of rebound taken off the front forks but he wouldn't touch it because it was supposedly "set up " for him. 6 months later he finally made the adjustment and it became a good bike again.

Back to the original question. Frank's work is good but give yourself plenty of time. sometimes he gats overloaded with work or has to go interstate with Yamaha race teams. He can't be too bad if Yamaha use him.
Yamaha would only use the best people in their efforts to be as good as kawasaki.

Thanks for your info Eastoe ,i totally understand what your saying about people expecting miracles . He said to give him a weeks notice before sending them to him , can not wait till the tax check comes back .(provided it doesn't bounce) .Cheers mate

MAXUMIS wrote: Thanks for your info Eastoe ,i totally understand what your saying about people expecting miracles . He said to give him a weeks notice before sending them to him , can not wait till the tax check comes back .(provided it doesn't bounce) .Cheers mate

Hey maximus, what work are you looking at getting done? My forks need a service, just thinking about what else I should get done at the same time!

SteveW wrote:

MAXUMIS wrote: Thanks for your info Eastoe ,i totally understand what your saying about people expecting miracles . He said to give him a weeks notice before sending them to him , can not wait till the tax check comes back .(provided it doesn't bounce) .Cheers mate

Hey maximus, what work are you looking at getting done? My forks need a service, just thinking about what else I should get done at the same time!

Gday Steve , im going to get the front revalved + springs and the rear revalved (my weight is ok with standed rear spring) It will be a month or two before I get it done . The bike "feels" very soft at the track so I just want to make it feel more planted .

I've used three different suspension guys that all do good work and all work with top level race teams and none of them get the work done quickly. All the decent ones have too much work on all the time. I haven't used Biketek so I can't comment about Frank's work.

When Zeno 1st did my shock for Gumby, I went out, did one lap.
Came on because I thought my back tyre was flat.
Got madkaw to check it. All good.
Went back out and just rode it. Beat my best lap by 2 seconds.

Woot!

Thanks fella's , are the people out EC that set suspension any good ? I know it will need some tweak's here and there but I am not confident enough to give it a go.

I've found them to be good, they've setup and tuned both my track bikes suspension over the last few years, I am certainly not in danger of breaking any lap records but I could feel the difference in the bike after each time they refined the work.

You will need to whatever you've had done and go from there, for $80 it's not bad value.

MAXUMIS wrote:Thanks fella's , are the people out EC that set suspension any good ? I know it will need some tweak's here and there but I am not confident enough to give it a go.

If you don't understand suspension at all, it's not too bad for $80... but after watching what SW does, you will say you probably could have done it yourself.
I used them once, picked his brains, asked shitloads of questions, why this, why that, etc etc..... and I walked away with half an idea of what it's all about.
What I would recommend is...... put your $$ towards tyres and invested a bit of time on google or youtube to get an understanding of what's involved with dampening and preload etc and why. Really at the end of the day it's only spanners and screwdrivers, as long as you know what your doing.....

smithy5 wrote:

MAXUMIS wrote:Thanks fella's , are the people out EC that set suspension any good ? I know it will need some tweak's here and there but I am not confident enough to give it a go.

If you don't understand suspension at all, it's not too bad for $80... but after watching what SW does, you will say you probably could have done it yourself.
I used them once, picked his brains, asked shitloads of questions, why this, why that, etc etc..... and I walked away with half an idea of what it's all about.
What I would recommend is...... put your $$ towards tyres and invested a bit of time on google or youtube to get an understanding of what's involved with dampening and preload etc and why. Really at the end of the day it's only spanners and screwdrivers, as long as you know what your doing.....

My advice is the opposite of this. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. It's easy to look at someone and say that you could do it, but there are a lot of factors being taken into account when they bounce on your suspension and change the clickers. I've seen plenty of people crash after other people with a bit of an idea have had a fiddle with their suspension.

SWR will set your sags right and get the damping adjusted in the right ball park, so it's worth the $80 if you don't know what you are doing. It won't be perfect, but it will be close enough and better than what you and your mates will be able to do.

At slow speeds it's not that important, but as you get quicker it is, as the level of grip can change dramatically with the suspension set up. Suspension adjustment will all depend on how fast you ride, how you ride (body position etc), the tyres you use and what bike you ride, so you can't rely on other people's settings to set your bike up either. I have dropped 4 seconds since my suspension was set up and I need the shock re-valved again because I have run out of adjustment and can't back my rebound off any more and have added a full turn of preload on my forks. That's how much the speed that you ride effects your suspension. It's not rocket science, after all it is just spring rate and level of damping to adjust speed of compression and rebound; but, it's easy to mess up if you don't know exactly what you are doing.

Biketek - this is Frank Pons right ? If it is - one of the longest-running suspension experts in the game. He used to do Steve Gall's MX bike back in the 80's for the Yamaha Dealer team......he knows how to tune suspension.

Nelso wrote:

smithy5 wrote:

MAXUMIS wrote:Thanks fella's , are the people out EC that set suspension any good ? I know it will need some tweak's here and there but I am not confident enough to give it a go.

If you don't understand suspension at all, it's not too bad for $80... but after watching what SW does, you will say you probably could have done it yourself.
I used them once, picked his brains, asked shitloads of questions, why this, why that, etc etc..... and I walked away with half an idea of what it's all about.
What I would recommend is...... put your $$ towards tyres and invested a bit of time on google or youtube to get an understanding of what's involved with dampening and preload etc and why. Really at the end of the day it's only spanners and screwdrivers, as long as you know what your doing.....

My advice is the opposite of this. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. It's easy to look at someone and say that you could do it, but there are a lot of factors being taken into account when they bounce on your suspension and change the clickers. I've seen plenty of people crash after other people with a bit of an idea have had a fiddle with their suspension.

SWR will set your sags right and get the damping adjusted in the right ball park, so it's worth the $80 if you don't know what you are doing. It won't be perfect, but it will be close enough and better than what you and your mates will be able to do.

At slow speeds it's not that important, but as you get quicker it is, as the level of grip can change dramatically with the suspension set up. Suspension adjustment will all depend on how fast you ride, how you ride (body position etc), the tyres you use and what bike you ride, so you can't rely on other people's settings to set your bike up either. I have dropped 4 seconds since my suspension was set up and I need the shock re-valved again because I have run out of adjustment and can't back my rebound off any more and have added a full turn of preload on my forks. That's how much the speed that you ride effects your suspension. It's not rocket science, after all it is just spring rate and level of damping to adjust speed of compression and rebound; but, it's easy to mess up if you don't know exactly what you are doing.

Thanks guys , I have played with my suspension before with bad results (now have a bit of a fear about it)
Cheers Nelso ,I think that's a wise choice , Getting some new supercorsa's (SP's) as well , I will be really happy with the bike once that soft feeling is gone.
PS You hit the nail on the head Gos !! i think he's done some things with McCoy and Corsa ? Well he is from Spain , a lot of talent over there