SV suspension upgrade (Feb. 04)

One of the first modifications I did to the SV was upgrade the suspension. I decided on RaceTech springs and Gold Valve emulators for the forks and an Öhlins rear shock (46HRCL). My friend Alex provided the guidance, shop and specialty tools :)

Here are some pics of the stock fork parts, the Gold Valve emulators and the modified dampening rod (enlarged/additional holes). The red fluid is the stock fork oil. I used some 20W for reassembly.

Here is a comparison of the spacers (new on top) and springs (new on bottom). The aluminum tubing was provided to use for new spacers (you cut it to the desired length). The spacer length ends up shorter since the new springs are longer and we are adding the Gold Valves. The new springs are 34.7x340mm .80kg.

Finished and ready to go! The front definitely feels more stiff, though much more controlled. The front end also does not dive like it did before when applying the front brakes.

 

Time for the rear shock installation. I was thinking this would be an easy job though I should know better by now :) Here are some pics of the new and stock shock and a comparison of the two.

The only real problem that I ran into was that the shock is designed to have the remote canister mount on the right side of the tail, but my high-mount pipe is already there. I could have fit them both in, but I did not want the canister that close to the exhaust heat. What I ended up doing was running the canister on the left side, which required some slight modification to the side grille.

I was talking to Alex about the shock setup (more specifically, the reservoir location) and he said that we could just move the fitting angle without much work. We purged the nitrogen, loosened the fitting just enough to move the angle and then locked it back down. We refilled the nitrogen and that was basically it. What this did was allow me to better position the line, which gave me the room to mount the reservoir nicely on the left side. I need to wash the bike badly, but here are a few pics.