Best Scrambler suspension mods?

B

bonnxton

Scooter
Fire away fellas.
What are your takes on the best suspension mods (for the money)?
I feel like the rear is a little harsh and the front dives too easily.

I had Works (Rear) Progressive(Front) on my Bonnie
and
IKON (R) / stock (F) on a Thrux.
Both were improvements back in the day;) but what's the current collective wisdom on Scrambleshocks?

Dave
The Nation's Capital
 
S

ScramblerKeith

moped
Dave I'm interested too. I had Ricor shocks on my KLR and loved it. I hope to do suspension upgrades at the end of summer on my Scrambler.
 
D

Deano

Two Stroke
Hi Guy's, my 10 cents for what it is worth.
Here in NZ we have a great option in the form of a company called CKTechnical. These guys do serious suspension work on the racetrack bikes, and offer both advice and service, by contacting them at [email protected]. Their advice to me was, 'not to go the YSS way' as they say the internal parts wear out quickly as they are made of softer metal parts. Nothing actually wrong with yss, but not for longevity and rebuildability. So for my Scrambler they resprung and revalved the front shocks and we put Ohlins standard bonneville units out back. Awesome, is my best description. I had expected complete ridding of all bumps, which was very nieve, but the real advantage lies in the handling. It really holds the corners with none of that wallowy feeling, and those big kidney punches are gone. Also, as a surprise, the stock seat dosent give me numb bum the same as before.:headbang2:
 
T

thistle66

Scooter
Deano said:
Their advice to me was, 'not to go the YSS way' as they say the internal parts wear out quickly as they are made of softer metal parts. Nothing actually wrong with yss, but not for longevity and rebuildability. /QUOTE]


In first to call BS on your suspension gurus for saying this....:pd2:

PS: I don't even have YSS on my bike. I have just read a bunch of reports on YSS (and I also notice ur guys email is ohlins@blahblahblah :pick:)

When a company/dealer starts dissing their competitors, that always makes me wonder...not that ohlins are bad, just that your ohlins boys may be giving advice more related to their own best interests than their customers. Maybe they're telling the truth...errrm, but right now I'm using Occam's Razor on this one.
Click to expand...
 
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D

Deano

Two Stroke
I totally agree with you thistle66 about being wary when a dealer starts down the put down track. The part I didn't mention was the rest of our very extended conversation. We covered many different options, and the YSS comment was just a small part of our disscussion where many things were questioned, including Ohlins negatives. The point was longevity, and you get what you pay for at the end of the day, the Ohlins option (here in NZ anyway) is f....n expensive.
At the end of the day tho, CKTechnical are amazing at what they do, and I totally trust their work with the race bikes, as well they have done a number of Bonnevilles now. I actually think the BS moniker should be levelled at me (not them) for not giving you the bigger picture. Sorry bout that.
 
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A

Aussiebikerdave

Scooter
Deano said:
Hi Guy's, my 10 cents for what it is worth.
Here in NZ we have a great option in the form of a company called CKTechnical. These guys do serious suspension work on the racetrack bikes, and offer both advice and service, by contacting them at [email protected]. Their advice to me was, 'not to go the YSS way' as they say the internal parts wear out quickly as they are made of softer metal parts. Nothing actually wrong with yss, but not for longevity and rebuildability. So for my Scrambler they resprung and revalved the front shocks and we put Ohlins standard bonneville units out back. Awesome, is my best description. I had expected complete ridding of all bumps, which was very nieve, but the real advantage lies in the handling. It really holds the corners with none of that wallowy feeling, and those big kidney punches are gone. Also, as a surprise, the stock seat dosent give me numb bum the same as before.:headbang2:
Click to expand...

"Their advice to me was, 'not to go the YSS way' as they say the internal parts wear out quickly as they are made of softer metal parts. Nothing actually wrong with yss, but not for longevity and rebuildability".

Deano, Always be careful when quoting someone else's "advice" and by implication, presenting it as fact. The facts are that I suspect you have no personal experience with YSS and the opinion of the suspension tuning company may well be tainted in order to bolster their own work. I gather from their email address that the company has an association with Ohlins. You might not know that the designers of YSS products were head-hunted Ohlins staff so it stands that there would exist a healthy rivallry between the two companies.

Your quoting the "advice" of CKTechnical regarding YSS is much the same as accepting as gospel that Yamaha was inferior on the say so of Honda.
 
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B

bonnxton

Scooter
Shock Wars!
So, I'm hearing YSS are great but fall apart in 3 or 4 days.
And Ohlins work best on bikes owned by Ohlins employees;)
Dave
 
D

Deano

Two Stroke
Deano, Always be careful when quoting someone else's "advice" and by implication, presenting it as fact. The facts are that I suspect you have no personal experience with YSS and the opinion of the suspension tuning company may well be tainted in order to bolster their own work. I gather from their email address that the company has an association with Ohlins. You might not know that the designers of YSS products were head-hunted Ohlins staff so it stands that there would exist a healthy rivallry between the two companies.
Your quoting the "advice" of CKTechnical regarding YSS is much the same as accepting as gospel that Yamaha was inferior on the say so of Honda.[/QUOTE]Again, my apologies. I am really glad to hear that the guy's who have gone with YSS are happy with them. I actually did have a set on my last bike, and I had no problems with them, but I am no expert at all, they came with the bike, and I just rode it and did nothing to them. I guess because I am looking at keeping the scrambler for life (hopefully) the idea of long life and overhaul ability appealed, but I guess that they are all rebuildable to some extent. But you are absolutley right about quoting someone else, my bad.
 
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Tomintoul

Tomintoul

Two Stroke
Well I'm hoping the Ricor shocks are not all hype as I've just thrown down a deposit on a set. At the minute I have Hagon Classics with the black upper shroud and they are fine, but I do occassionally go off the asphalt, and they aren't overly impressive then. Mind you, they aren't designed for it and are still a damn site better than stock. Cheap too.

bob

I was always of the impression that Öhlins was a bit of overkill for our bikes - only bought by those label whores and magpies who couldn't resisit the glittery gold. ;)
 
T

trustme

Scooter
Deano said:
Hi Guy's, my 10 cents for what it is worth.
Here in NZ we have a great option in the form of a company called CKTechnical. These guys do serious suspension work on the racetrack bikes, and offer both advice and service, by contacting them at [email protected]. Their advice to me was, 'not to go the YSS way' as they say the internal parts wear out quickly as they are made of softer metal parts. Nothing actually wrong with yss, but not for longevity and rebuildability. So for my Scrambler they resprung and revalved the front shocks and we put Ohlins standard bonneville units out back. Awesome, is my best description. I had expected complete ridding of all bumps, which was very nieve, but the real advantage lies in the handling. It really holds the corners with none of that wallowy feeling, and those big kidney punches are gone. Also, as a surprise, the stock seat dosent give me numb bum the same as before.:headbang2:
Click to expand...

Exactly the same experience,not surprising since we live in the same neck of the woods. Without making any criticism of the YSS product, the local backup was not great when I was buying, there was no service backup, springs were a generic one size fits all & not tailored to my weight & any change was my cost, where as the CKT guys provide an exceptional service that justifies the added expense for the likes of Deano & myself
Most of us probably have little idea how to set up suspension , an expert who can set the suspension up to your specific requirements is worth every extra cent you might pay over an internet purchase. Unfortunately your average bike shop probably has bugger all more idea than you on how to set up suspension.
 
BlueJ

BlueJ

Blue Haired Freak
Aussiebikerdave said:
Deano, Always be careful when quoting someone else's "advice" and by implication, presenting it as fact.

[snip]

Your quoting the "advice" of CKTechnical regarding YSS is much the same as accepting as gospel that Yamaha was inferior on the say so of Honda.
Click to expand...

Not sure why your panties are in a bunch, bikerDave, but at no point did Deano try to present the advice of CKT as a fact. He made it clear in his post that it was advice he'd gotten from them and was passing it along as informational only. For that matter, he didn't even imply that *he* accepted it as a fact, which is what you imply by telling him that his post is similar to declaring that Yamaha is inferior to Honda because Honda said so. And a shop who has had experience with multiple vendors and brands is probably a better source of comparative information than a bunch of individual viewpoints from folks that have used one or the other but not both. What Deano said was a lot more like saying that Yamaha is inferior to Honda because Phil Read said so.

And besides, most of the readers on this forum are adults who can figure out for themselves how to interpret things and folks that are going to take the time to post certainly don't need someone coming in and telling them about the validity or lack thereofof what they choose to say.
 
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D

Deano

Two Stroke
I was always of the impression that Öhlins was a bit of overkill for our bikes - only bought by those label whores and magpies who couldn't resisit the glittery gold. ;)[/QUOTE]


:huh:
The Ohlins shocks they have made for the bonneville are black actually. Look like the originals excpet they are not chrome. Although they did give me two stickers, which might go part the way to satisfy me if I was a 'lable whore' They dont have any writing to identify them. I think you are thinking of the flash ones like on the new Commando's.
I'm not sure if putting the best bits for the job on your bike could be considered overkill.
 
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RoyNC

RoyNC

Street Tracker
Like the original poster.... I am still waiting to hear about which shock set up people are using and have found enjoyable.

Can anyone who has actually made suspension changes tell us what they did and how they like it?
 
B

bonnxton

Scooter
Like the original poster.... I am still waiting to hear about which shock set up people are using and have found enjoyable.>>

Crickets..Crickets..
;)

I'm leaning towards YSS at the rear but still confused about how to fix the front without a "suspension shop" nearby.

Dave
2010 Scram.
 
ivar

ivar

TT Racer
Here's my Bonnie with Intiminators in front, Öhlins PL36 (in scram/thrux lenght) in the rear. (Thanks Localmotion for a good deal on the shocks)

Before I had stock forks + Ikon rears. Ok on asphalt, but on any sort of gravel, especially the forks were punishing. I could feel every single rock.

With the new stuff, I've spent more time on gravel than on sealed roads, and bike is very smooth. A little squirrely with the worn GT501 tires though, but a set of Tourances took care of that.

P1000466.JPG
 
S

simpson

TT Racer
I believe the KYBs are a nice, inexpensive replacement.

I have them on my Thruxton (Ricor Intiminators up front), and a buddy of mine just put them on his Scrambler.

-simpson
 
RoyNC

RoyNC

Street Tracker
simpson said:
I believe the KYBs are a nice, inexpensive replacement.

I have them on my Thruxton (Ricor Intiminators up front), and a buddy of mine just put them on his Scrambler.

-simpson
Click to expand...

I am trying to find a web site to get more info on the KYB's with no luck. Can you recommend any, or can you tell me where you bought them?
 
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