Just here to brag a little

[FoxyBLankworthy]

Easter Sunday was supposed to be a day of simple wrenching. I head over to The Cafe Kid's spot to tackle an oil change and adding a little pvc preload spacers to my forks. Got it meet cowboyup3371 (Welcome to Dayton! One more GS to the collective) and watch him fiddle around with his spiffy 550T.

Kparkfan popped in a little later to so some gasket swapping, and Dogma showed up a little later. So check out what TCK and Dogma figured out.

After much discussion and deliberation, and very little in the way of materials TCK and Dogma managed to find a way to get my new shocks on WITHOUT changing bushings.

GS McGuyvers. Stock shocks have identical sized sleeves inside the bushings, but the new shocks were too large on the top, and too small on the bottom. Here's what they did. They found a very thin piece of copper piping, with (almost) the proper ID. Dogma cut off a piece, split it down the middle, and coaxed into the top bushing sleeve, creating a super-thin liner. Pop it on the stud, low and behold, no slop. Fits like a dream.

The bottom bushing sleeve (the one that was too small) was slightly trickier. There was plenty of metal in the bottom sleeve, but it was Easter Sunday, and nothing was open....finding a 12 mm drill bit would be difficult even when stores were open. The only thing we had was a 1/2" bit I'd bought a few weeks prior. Too big. TCK happened to have some super thin aluminum, so Dogma drilled out the lower sleeves and they crafted another set of sleeves for the lower end. Pop them on, and what do you know? Perfection.

Here's your shout-out guys. You got them on for me, and I didn't have to mess with the bushings. Rock out, and thanks again!

 

[TheCafeKid]

Hey it was fun! I just wished we'd thought of it sooner. But that's why its nice to have an engineer as buddy...always thinking of ways to make things more gooderer.

One of these days when I crap about 2 grand I'd like to have a bench top lathe to make little things like that right in the spot...but I thought we did pretty darn good with what we had on hand. The inserts merely being shims to take the slop out of the sleeves and the sleeves plenty meaty to deal with the loading forces. Should be good to go. How the bike feel after we set the sag up?

 

[Steve]

How the bike feel after we set the sag up?

SAG???

There's nothing on that skinny little kid that will make that bike SAG.

.

 

[Dogma]

All in a day's loafing.

So. Josh, you need to crap money, eh? I think something could be arranged. A couple stepper motors, an Arduino with an InkShield and an old HP cartridge, maybe some new Yoga positions to move things along. My surgical skills are a bit rusty though. (Not as rusty as the rain-stick mufflers I finally took off the bike yesterday.) You'll need a lot more fiber (to make paper) and Mountain Dew in your diet (for the color). Can you get just the syrup from work? I can order up a new set of X-Acto blades. Mine are all dull and rusty.

 

[FoxyBLankworthy]

How the bike feel after we set the sag up?

Like a dream. I took her out after work that night and hammered a few corners on the long way home. Bird never felt so sure in the corners. With her carbs clean and synced, and the suspension feels like I imagine it probably should have new. Although the springs weren't as beefy as I'd originally hoped, I don't notice any problems at all. Even with the girl on the back,

And Steve, Thanks for the vote of confidence, but the old shocks were SO undersprung that it felt like sitting on a sponge. TCK measured the travel on the new shocks after I sat on the bike, and adjusted them properly. Glad to have friends who know what they're doing.

Dogma....I can think of nothing else to say that I love educated smartasses.

 

[TheCafeKid]

SAG???

There's nothing on that skinny little kid that will make that bike SAG.

.

Actually those shocks seem to be sprung rather on the soft side. I'd advise getting measurements required and getting new springs on order from racetech in the future. But they're still Wayyy better than the stock stuff and with heavier springs they'd be great shocks.