[ZeroPt99]

My stepbrother offered to replace my shock with an aftermarket one and revalve my front forks for me on my 01 yzf600r if I bought the parts.

He said my best bet was to buy a used shock and let him refurbish it, since a new one would be expensive.

I know NOTHING about where to get the parts, what parts I'd need, who carries them, etc etc.

Can someone give me some very basic pointers, maybe point me toward a website and suggest some good brand names?

Any help?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SprintST]

What kind of aftermarket shock is on it now? Fox, Penske, Ohlins, WP? They all should be rebuildable, buy qualified technicians. Race Tech offers some rebuild parts for stock shocks. I'm sure Hyper Pro, and a few others probably do too.

 

[ZeroPt99]

Oops, typo, I edited that. Nothing's on it right now. Everything is stock. He said the stock suspension on the 600r is shit and although it was adjustable, it was all still too soft and needed aftermarket parts to make it handle.

So I'm just doing my research since he's willing to do the work for next to nothin.

 

[Ian]

Do you think your riding would benefit from the money spent?

Have you set up your stock suspension as best as possible? Do you not like that?

If you were to buy an Ohlins shock and rework the front fork with springs and valves, I think you'd be looking at spending 1200-1300 in alot of cases... However, Ohlins doesn't make an Ohlins shock for the YZF. Although Penske does for ~750 bucks. But there's Fox also.

http://www.tricktape.com I believe Rezin can get just about anything.

 

[gerry]

Unless you are going to be doing some very aggresive twisty riding where you can really push the bike i dont see why anyone would need aftermarket suspension. Well maybe if you are to heavy for the stock suspension or if it really is hindering your riding. Make sure you have the stock setup properly and if you are still unsatisfied go ahead and spend the $$.

Any of the big name aftermarket shocks will work great. Ohlins, Penske, Fox, ***********. For the forks you would be best served upgrading the stockers, as you mentioned, with new valving and maybe springs.

A shock will run you between $600 to $1000+ depending on what you want. Fox cheapest, Ohlins usually most expensive. Forks can be reworked for $400 to $650, less if you just go with springs, depends again on what you want.

 

[ZeroPt99]

Ian said:
Do you think your riding would benefit from the money spent?

Have you set up your stock suspension as best as possible? Do you not like that?

If you were to buy an Ohlins shock and rework the front fork with springs and valves, I think you'd be looking at spending 1200-1300 in alot of cases... However, Ohlins doesn't make an Ohlins shock for the YZF. Although Penske does for ~750 bucks. But there's Fox also.

http://www.tricktape.com I believe Rezin can get just about anything.

Yes, I've had someone who knew suspension set up the stock suspension as best as possible for me. I like it fine for riding, but braking still feels mushy to me. When you dive on the brakes, it doesn't come back up again fast enough, and the guy said the stock forks just weren't gonna do any better.

I don't guess I need aftermarket suspension. I just wanted to find out as much as I could about it so I knew what kind of cost I was looking at.

 

[Ian]

I didn't mean you should question it that much. I meant, if you hadn't setup the stock stuff then spending that kind of money might not be the best bet. But if you had done that and you aren't happy with it then you should.

 

[ZeroPt99]

Ian said:
I didn't mean you should question it that much. I meant, if you hadn't setup the stock stuff then spending that kind of money might not be the best bet. But if you had done that and you aren't happy with it then you should.

Well, I know I'm new to riding... but I can still tell that the suspension sucks on this bike. It reminds me of my Z28. It's got good power and rides comfortably, and handles pretty well at normal speeds... but when you push it hard, it just feels soft and not very confidence inspiring.

 

[gerry]

usually the front is what you want to do first. If it seems to be diving to much under heavy braking a set of stiffer springs may be all you need. A set of Racetech springs are usually around $100 and installation can range from $30-$40 (but you seem to have that covered).

I would take a step-by-step approach. Dont do everything at once. Who knows, maybe $100 is all you need to make the bike work the way you want.

 

[jon super]

You can send off your front forks to places like Race Tech or Lindeman Engineering. Revalving and respringing will run you around $400 or so.

 

[ZeroPt99]

gerry said:
usually the front is what you want to do first. If it seems to be diving to much under heavy braking a set of stiffer springs may be all you need. A set of Racetech springs are usually around $100 and installation can range from $30-$40 (but you seem to have that covered).

I would take a step-by-step approach. Dont do everything at once. Who knows, maybe $100 is all you need to make the bike work the way you want.

That's what I finally decided to do, after talking to him. He's gonna get me the springs cheap and put them on when I go down there after Christmas.

It won't be perfect, but it'll be alot better. Right now, even with the suspension adjusted, the front dives when you come off the throttle, not to mention how it acts under heavy breaking.

The whole problem is that I bought a bike that is more of a sport-tourer than it is sport bike. It's a good bike, but it's heavy and got a soft suspension. The weight I can live with, but the suspension bugs me. I know the bike would handle great if it just had the right parts. One step at a time!

 

[SquidwardKX]

quick correction...it's not ***********.....that was just a nickname WP was named after its founder Wim Peters and has been changed to stand for Works Performance.

 

[Ian]

zeropt99 said:
That's what I finally decided to do, after talking to him. He's gonna get me the springs cheap and put them on when I go down there after Christmas.

It won't be perfect, but it'll be alot better. Right now, even with the suspension adjusted, the front dives when you come off the throttle, not to mention how it acts under heavy breaking.

The whole problem is that I bought a bike that is more of a sport-tourer than it is sport bike. It's a good bike, but it's heavy and got a soft suspension. The weight I can live with, but the suspension bugs me. I know the bike would handle great if it just had the right parts. One step at a time!

Um.. No. That was Yamaha's premeir 600 only 5 years ago. I don't think the suspension is that bad. Unless it has alot of mileage and it's just worn out, or you weigh alot.

So you say this guy set up your bike... Well what has he done? How much is left in compression and rebound, namely preload? Are they maxed?

 

[ZeroPt99]

Ian said:
Um.. No. That was Yamaha's premeir 600 only 5 years ago. I don't think the suspension is that bad. Unless it has alot of mileage and it's just worn out, or you weigh alot.

I know, but look how much has changed in 5 years It's not got alot of mileage and I don't weigh much. But when I first got the bike, everytime you hit the brakes, the nose felt like you'd set a 50 lb sack of concrete on it. It made me feel funny. You could just be easing along slow and tap the front and the whole bike just seemed to "slosh" forward way too much. So, I started messing with my suspension. I immediately had everything way too stiff, and was damn near rendering myself sterile everytime I hit a bump. So then I softened it back up, and I had the front pretty much right, but the rear would pogo. You'd push on it and it was just super spongy. That was with all the settings set to what some magazine recommended (I didn't know what else to do). That's when he started tweaking it.

I don't remember offhand what he has everything set on (and it's dark and cold outside so I don't wanna go look), but I know he adjusted all 6 settings, and he kept testing it, and tweaking, testing and tweaking. After he got it all done, he took it for a ride, came back, and fiddled with it some more. It feels muuuch more balanced now than it did. I just feel weird about the soft feel that's still left to it.

 

[gerry]

zeropt99 said:
I just feel weird about the soft feel that's still left to it.

Springs might be the key. Most stock setups come with very mushy springs in order to fit a wide range of riders wants/needs.

 

[Scotteq]

To give a direct answer on "What used shock should I Buy/Rebuild."

Get a Penske - They have the largest number of folks who can rebuild them. And one of the best resons for owning a Penske is that they'll reconfigure it when you get a new bike. I put one on my girlfriend's T-cat, and it made a VERY NICE difference. If you're worried about losing some of the sport touring capability of your bike (it it *the* 600 S/T), just take it easy with the springs: Get a bunch of recommendations for your weight and stay on the low side. That'll keep the ride supple and compliant.

As far as the forks: Ideally you would do the whole bike at once. My sweetie's bike has Race Tech internals with the stock spring (happens to be perfect for her weight...), and I can ride the thing pretty damned hard and it's always VERY nicely balanced.


To give an answer on "Should I rebuild at all" - That's a little harder - If the OEM suspension doesn't cause any trouble for you, then there's little reason. But I can gurantee that new boingers will make a HUGE difference.

Scott

 

[Scotteq]

I know, but look how much has changed in 5 years It's not got alot of mileage and I don't weigh much. But when I first got the bike, everytime you hit the brakes, the nose felt like you'd set a 50 lb sack of concrete on it.

Too little compression damping up front and/or too soft springs. What do you weigh?

Scott

 

[Hawker]

You can rail on a stock 600r, but the front is a bit undersprung for the average american male.

After owning one for a year, and doing all kinds of riding (including track days), I reccomend the following:
1) springs up front _along with_ a shock. You need the front and rear to behave in unison.

2) drop the forks 5mm in the tripple clamps, and raise the rear ride-height to about halfway between stock, and the maximum adjustment available on your shock.

2) re-valve the forks. I could never really get a perfect setup, but they really are pretty good.

All of that said, I was never particularly unhappy with the stock suspension. It wallowed a bit, but it was very predictable when pushed. If you're fairly new to riding, fork dive can be a bit unconserding. It will happen with every bike you ride, and much much more so than in a car (especally a preformance car). New springs will help, but you will only be moving up the suspension travel by about 1" under maximum braking. This is super-important for handling under braking, but you might not notice a huge diffrance. Especally if you weigh less than 170lbs.

 

[ZeroPt99]

Scotteq said:
Too little compression damping up front and/or too soft springs. What do you weigh?

Scott

165'ish

 

[Dr.Dover]

I am really surprised by alot of the answers I am seeing here . Suspension is one of the best places to spend money on a bike . I wonder how many of these nay sayers have an exhaust system , chrome rims , double bubble wind screen , or fargin stickers ? I would definitely check out e-bay for a used shock and go to www.racetech.com to get gold valves and springs . Alot of people say that Race Tech's springs are to light . Make sure that he sets your sag up and explains to you what compression and rebound are and how to adjust them .