Aftermarket rear Shock Modification

I installed mine and am still in the process of adjusting the settings. At the moment I have the rebound and the compression at maximum. I'll ride for a few days at that setting to see what I think. At the moment it seems to be about the best, but I'll hold my opinion for now. It is set for someone weighing 250 lbs and I'm more than that so perhaps that explains why I'm at maximum. I need to get on the threadmill and see what happens at a lower weight.

When I'm ready to upgrade the electrical on my bike I'm going to send the forks to have the emulators installed. I think that I'll check the valves at that time too.

Let us know how your project goes.

Steven said:

I installed mine and am still in the process of adjusting the settings. At the moment I have the rebound and the compression at maximum. I'll ride for a few days at that setting to see what I think. At the moment it seems to be about the best, but I'll hold my opinion for now. It is set for someone weighing 250 lbs and I'm more than that so perhaps that explains why I'm at maximum. I need to get on the threadmill and see what happens at a lower weight.

When I'm ready to upgrade the electrical on my bike I'm going to send the forks to have the emulators installed. I think that I'll check the valves at that time too.

Let us know how your project goes.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that the spring was sized for someone weighing 250? Starting at max on your damping and compression sounds like a good idea. I started at the middle settings. I definitely need to be more methodical in my tweaking. Maybe this weekend I will devote a whole day. Any tips would be appreciated even though I am basically satisfied where I am.

They didn't have a spring for my weight so I got the strongest one they had which equates to about 250 lbs. I too started in the middle, but I decided to try the extremes to see what would happen. With both settings at minimum it was the worse. At the moment with both at maximum, it seems the best, but I need more ride time to know for sure.

I tried to reason it out thinking in terms of sharp rise rates (on sharp bumps which was my biggest problem) and such, but it wasn't working for me. I suppose that on the surface it would seems that the less compression damping you have the softer the ride, which might be true for smaller smoother bumps, but for sharp rise bumps, it hits hard, hence more damping is needed. The rebound damping was confusing to me. I was thinking that the less of it I had the quicker is would allow the wheel to extend into a rut and and then the compression damping would take over when the tire would come out of the rut. However, it didn't seem to be working very well that way, so yesterday I just went ahead and set both to maximum just to get an idea of the results, a data point if you will. So far it seems to be the way to go. I suppose that if I were lighter, the setting would have to be adjusted to match. I have much to learn about this. Hopefully at some point it will dawn on me just what is happening and I will understand it.

I was hoping for a Cadillac ride but perhaps that is not realistic considering the state of the roads around here. I hit one bump the other day that launched me off of my seat. The front end literally was air born. It wasn't because of the shocks, rather an extreme bump.

The saga continues.

Steve, you are probably light years ahead of me on this subject, but here is a URL that gave me the basics to adjust the rebound and the compression. The only caveat of course is that we have two adjustments on our compression adjuster-one for high speed compression and one for slow speed compression.
http://motorbikewriter.com/set-motorcycle-suspension/

Are you sure we have both hi and low adjustments? As far as I know we have the compression damper at the bottom of the shock and one rebound damper on the separate cartridge. Did I miss something? Thanks

My bad. I have been under the assumption that we had high and low adjustments predicated on my skimming of the "manual"" (not a very good manual, IMO). As I said before, I haven't touched the reservoir yet. Maybe I will today.

Yesterday I took about a 60 mile ride over some rough roads and it did pretty well. If I didn't misunderstand clockwise and counterclockwise... I have the compression at it's lowest setting and the rebound at it's highest. The front end didn't fair as well. Some of the bumps had it reacting very poorly. The smoother bumps were okay, as always, but on some fast bumps the front end would seem like it would lock up and just bounce over the bump, but that is the nature of that kind of suspension. However, there were times when it felt like the front end just didn't seem to know what to do and kind of chattered, if that makes any sense. I didn't like that at all, it felt very unsecure

Keeping in mind that the roads were rough, I felt a good deal of shock movement, but it wasn't jarring. I wouldn't like to ride on roads like that all day long, but at least it didn't beat me to death and I didn't have to slow down. I was really surprised that it did as well as it did. Again, I will hold my final opinion until after further testing, but if it does as well on future rides, I think it's well worth the money.

It also seemed that I was more aware of what the front end was doing which could mean that the rear shock was doing it's job and so I noticed the front end problems more.

The other thing I noticed about the front end was that it would cause the bike to rock back and forth from front to back. I'm hoping the cartridge emulator will fix this, it should.

I remember when I first got this bike. I hadn't set the preload on the oem shock and so I had about an inch of travel. It was a good ride on smooth pavement, but on moderately/slightly rough pavement, I had to really slow down and it still beat me up.

Day two... The shock is still working great at the present settings. Bumps that used to bother me don't any more and the really bad bumps don't hurt like they used to. Like I said in my previous post, I notice the front suspension more than I used to. I can easily tell on some bumps that the front is not handling them as well as the back. Anyway, my thoughts now seem to be more concerned with the front and getting the emulator installed.

Sometimes I think that only the CTX had these problems, but my neighbor who rides a Harley trike says his front end gets harsh on certain roads. He has air suspension in the back. I guess it's a natural thing to do to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

What is this emulator you are talking about? I am not happy with my front end handling would this or something else help? I am interested in the total package so to stay when it comes to improving the handling of the bike. In the rear I just turned the nut thing-e all the way down and that helped on the bottoming out. The front is a big deal for me, when I hit bumps on a turn the bike seems to want to jump off my line of riding. On long straight roads with many bumps my bike goes back and front, rocking, I just hate that. I do not have that much cash on a fix so the cheaper the better. My fix now is to just ride around the bad spots in the road..lol.

Racetech emulators. Check out their website. I will be having it done in a few weeks.

Depending on your weight, a stronger spring might be called for too.

Basically the emulator fits inside your forks and allows the fork to move more freely over bumps. It has two rates, one for smaller bumps and one for sharper bumps. One of the problems with the present forks is that it does well enough over small smooth bumps, but literally locks the forks up when going over sharp bumps. The emulator will correct this behavior. There's more to installing it than just inserting the emulator into your forks, but I was just telling you what it does.

If you research Race Tech Cartridge Emulator you will see that just about everyone loves it. Many people won't own a bike without it.

BTW, if you had to turn your rear shock adjuster all the way down, the front fork is also probably compressed too much too (I only had about an inch of travel left on mine so it would bottom out often). I installed a (I forget what they call it) adjuster to compress the fork springs about an inch more which helped some , but over hard bumps it still locks up or chatters.

I got my shock from Computrack in Boston and they also sell and install the emulator for you (at a price). They also include a spring for your weight.

Quite Honestly the CTX with the shock preload set correctly and the front forks shimmed up a bit, on relatively smooth roads it rode pretty decent, but once the road got a little worse, it would beat you to death and I would have to slow down, sometimes a lot.. Even manhole covers on the road that were sunk down a little would be jarring at times.

Today was the first day I played with my Compression adjustment. I turned it from 6PM (hole to hole) to midnight. The already good ride was greatly enhanced. I found myself actually searching for more extreme bad spots in the road to test the setting.

So, what are we talking about price wise for the Emulators?

Steven, "Quite Honestly the CTX with the shock preload set correctly and the front forks shimmed up a bit, on relatively smooth roads it rode pretty decent, but once the road got a little worse, it would beat you to death and I would have to slow down, sometimes a lot.. Even manhole covers on the road that were sunk down a little would be jarring at times."
I would be interested in the "front forks shimmed up a bit"..How do I go about that? I will try anything to understand or learn how things work and how to make them work better. I have no life. lol.

Merlin III, "So, what are we talking about price wise for the Emulators?", I read on their website, $400 for the kit. I sent them a email for a price on everything I would need, after telling them, what I want to do or how I want to improve the front end. Asking if this is the way to go. They have not replied yet, lets give them a few days, then I will call them.

mjc - You can shim the front forks using washers (4-12mm thickness spacers. Washer widths between 33-35 mm wide) or you can buy (like I did from ebay) Fork preload adjusters (41mm), or you can remove the tube at the top of the fork and use a pvc tube that is longer. You can look these up on Google or ask me. I'm no expert, but I will try to help. I bought the washers but never installed them. I was a little nervous about trying to push them against the spring without cross threading the fork caps. If you do this, you need to get your front tire off the ground to remove any spring compression off of the fork caps. I put my bike on the center stand and used straps across the ceiling joists and handlebars to hold it up.

When I measured the sag on the front forks I had only 1 inch out of 4 inches available. The preload adjuster I bought only had an inch of adjustment so after installation my sag was still to great, but better. The only real solution would be to get a stronger spring, which I plan to do. As it is, I only have about 2 inches of available compression on the front forks and that is one reason they bottom out a little too often. I keep hearing that sag should be set to about 30% of the available travel for the street.

Merlin - Ha Ha that is just what I did.

@steven
interested in learning about the "fork preload adjusters"
do you have a link to the ebay item and a pic of what they look like installed?
looks like I'll be doing that mod

This is the one I bought... It had the most travel, but that little handle for adjusting was about useless (it was too hard to turn with them). I took it off and used a wrench, but I scarred it in the process. I really didn't care because it worked.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRONT-FORK-...ash=item3aae85c16d:g:ZK4AAOSwMmBVrbhB&vxp=mtr



There are other to choose from...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...0&_nkw=ctx700+fork+preload+adjusters&_sacat=0

You can also get them from local retails online, but they are a great deal more expensive. Computrak has some for about $50, but they only adjust 1/2 inch.

If you do get one of these you might want to see about getting a wrench to match.

thanks steven
and they do look cool as heck!

Steven said:

mjc - You can shim the front forks using washers (4-12mm thickness spacers. Washer widths between 33-35 mm wide) or you can buy (like I did from ebay) Fork preload adjusters (41mm), or you can remove the tube at the top of the fork and use a pvc tube that is longer. You can look these up on Google or ask me. I'm no expert, but I will try to help. I bought the washers but never installed them. I was a little nervous about trying to push them against the spring without cross threading the fork caps. If you do this, you need to get your front tire off the ground to remove any spring compression off of the fork caps. I put my bike on the center stand and used straps across the ceiling joists and handlebars to hold it up.

When I measured the sag on the front forks I had only 1 inch out of 4 inches available. The preload adjuster I bought only had an inch of adjustment so after installation my sag was still to great, but better. The only real solution would be to get a stronger spring, which I plan to do. As it is, I only have about 2 inches of available compression on the front forks and that is one reason they bottom out a little too often. I keep hearing that sag should be set to about 30% of the available travel for the street.

Merlin - Ha Ha that is just what I did.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Steven. I ordered these off ebay; http://www.ebay.com/itm/CNC-Cycle-P...ash=item3f61002609:g:4y8AAOSw-RRXCKfk&vxp=mtr

I am going to get the washers and try them 1st, just to see how they work, then try the one off ebay that is adjustable. On the washers, is it ok that they have a hole in them, was thinking it should be. What is the size in inches? not too good with MM..lol.

ofdave, You're welcome.

mjc,

A hole is fine...

Thickness: These you can stack from 0.16 inch to about 0.5 inches. Any more and you will have a hard time getting them in.
4mm = 0.16 inch
12mm = 0.47 inch

Width:
33mm = 1.3 inch
35mm = 1.4 inch

As for the ones you ordered, make sure the thread pitch is the same as stock or you will cross thread them. The washers on the bottom look too small on the ones your ordered. You can always change washers if the thread pitch is okay.

Steven said:

ofdave, You're welcome.

mjc,

A hole is fine...

Thickness: These you can stack from 0.16 inch to about 0.5 inches. Any more and you will have a hard time getting them in.
4mm = 0.16 inch
12mm = 0.47 inch

Width:
33mm = 1.3 inch
35mm = 1.4 inch

As for the ones you ordered, make sure the thread pitch is the same as stock or you will cross thread them. The washers on the bottom look too small on the ones your ordered. You can always change washers if the thread pitch is okay.

Click to expand...

I asked the seller if they would fit the ctx700 and he said "sure". So we will see. I also went back and ordered these,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRONT-FORK-...ash=item3aac4e2d6b:g:tPEAAOSwiCRUeb~s&vxp=mtr
So between the two I am sure something will work....Funny thing is, the 1st ones I ordered said they would fit the ctx700, the 2nd set in the title it says for the ctx700 but in the body of the add it says they will not fit. Both sellers said they will fit....you knows...this is why I do not like overseas sellers...but the price was cheap..lol. Going to get the washers today and try them..