Suspension mod update....

Okay, went on long ride today. I will say I am very satisfied with my mod of front and rear suspension. The rear is perfect and won't be playing with it. I got the 8975 shock with a 1600 spring. It is just a great upgrade to stock.

The front forks.....handled all road conditions very nice. At the current setting, it is little stiff and I feel some bounce going slow, under 35 mph. At higher speeds, 45 to 75, it is less bouncy. It is not extreme, but more then slight. I can live with it and by end of ride I was used to it. I went on some beat up roads at highway speeds and the front forks did their job nicely....ride was good. This is going to sound nuts, but I felt more bounce on newly paved roads!!! Sounds crazy...I don't know, maybe I just lost it.

Now, the emulalators can be adjusted with different springs, fork oil, and drilling addition hole in the emulalators....racetech has a page on how to adjust them. I would need the paid help from my mechanic to do this, so it would cost me more money to adjust them. I think this is something that would take several attempts to get it perfect, if even possible to get perfect. If you have skills to do on own, then that would be fun to play around with the setting. I am happy with the way they are now and will not be changing it. I don't want to put any more money in this project.

Some other observations.... In D model in 6th gear, when using throttle, there a very noticeable bounce/ vibration to the bike. I thought it was the suspension, it was not. I played with it and shifted down to 4th to get acceleration and vibration was gone. Is this the nature of 6th gear?? Overdrive??? 700cc engine??? When I am in D mode and need to accelerate, I usually shift down two gears. I never noticed the vibrantion issue in 6th gear until I started to really pay attention to ride comfort.

Also, D mode needs to be reprogrammed to hold gears just a little longer. It puts me in 6th gear going 35. I am finding it to be less used the more I ride. S mode is excellent. D mode could be much better if it held the gears just a little longer. It needs to be changed, imo.

Thanks for the cool information.

Let me ask: In your opinion, is it necessary to get the emulators in addition to the shock? Or just something you would recommend?

Truthfully, I'm a little hazy on what the emulators do, so any knowledge you could impart would be greatly appreciated.

Woodswoman said:

Thanks for the cool information.

Let me ask: In your opinion, is it necessary to get the emulators in addition to the shock? Or just something you would recommend?

Truthfully, I'm a little hazy on what the emulators do, so any knowledge you could impart would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Those are good questions. Maybe the smart approach is to do rear first and see what you think.

I did lots of research and talked to several suspension people about the emulalators. All said they improve ride and handling. They do for me, imo....because of my weight. It was necessary mod for me.

The front forks are much better now on average and less then perfect roads. Before this mod, it was a rough ride in front. It is much better now. Handling, imo, was greatly improved for me. All this is very subjective, so could be different for you.

Go on YouTube and watch videos there to research. The dude that created them has a very good explanation as to what they do. Racetech website is also good.

It will be interesting to see what the other riders think on this board that did the shock mod and then do the front fork mod.

BigO1987, great information. The vibrations you are feeling in 6th gear is normal, deliberately put into the bike by Honda. Honda twisted the crank to 270° to introduce some "character" (read vibration) for us Americans who want our motorcycles to shake... I kid you not. They put an exclamation point on the shake by mapping the transmissions to get into 6th below 40 MPH making the vibration pronounced in low RPMs under load. Probably to get better MPGs. D mode is essentially the "economy" mode for the CTX. It would be nice to have that "economy" mode an option. When that lugging becomes a problem I go into Manual mode to keep the bike in 4th or 5th.

I don't use "D" mode because of that 6th gear sensation which is like a "lugging" sensation. It is "S" mode all the time for me. "D" mode is not the sensation I want riding a motorcycle. By the way, I have touted the Air Hawk 2 as a suspension-ride enhancer. Well, my 200 dollar Air Hawk split open yesterday for no apparent reason. So, basicaly, I got one years worth of ride for 200 dollars. My next upgrade may be a custom seat.

More...more...more...

randy1149 said:

BigO1987, great information. The vibrations you are feeling in 6th gear is normal, deliberately put into the bike by Honda. Honda twisted the crank to 270° to introduce some "character" (read vibration) for us Americans who want our motorcycles to shake... I kid you not. They put an exclamation point on the shake by mapping the transmissions to get into 6th below 40 MPH making the vibration pronounced in low RPMs under load. Probably to get better MPGs. D mode is essentially the "economy" mode for the CTX. It would be nice to have that "economy" mode an option. When that lugging becomes a problem I go into Manual mode to keep the bike in 4th or 5th.

Click to expand...

So Wow how do you know these things...?
I love this bike just bought it Tuesday got a little over 200 miles on it...CTX700D
Sounds like I could almost break out a laptop and hack my cpu someday....I see where there are already custom chips
available that will totally change the bike's personality...I would love to know where I could find more of this type info
tnx

BigO1987 – That's a great help. I think I'll have my guy set the emulators up to be a little more compliant at slower speed bumps. The oem did well enough in that regard, it was the higher speed bumps that needed improvement. I suppose that in the race world it's the high speed bumps that are more important and preventing nose dive at lower speeds requires a firmer setting, I'm just guessing...

As for the lugging in 6th, when I'm out in the country kicking around it doesn't seem to be an issue and I barely notice it, but in town, I sometimes find myself changing gears. There needs to be a setting between D and S.


Woodswoman – I can answer the second part of your question.

The CTX has a damping rod in the forks. This rod has holes in it that allow the oil to go through it from one chamber to another. The rate of oil going through these holes is what controls how fast the forks move when it encounters a bump. This works fairly well on low speed bumps, but on high speed (sharper) bumps the oil can't get through these holes fast enough (the holes are very small) so the forks just seem to lock up. They're still compressing, but not fast enough to follow the bump. When this happens the front end bounces over the bump.

The emulators have two valves. Over slower/smoother bumps one of the valves controls the damping, but when a sharper bump is encountered, it forces the second valve open which allows more oil to flow between chambers and hence, the forks become more compliant and the front end doesn't bounce.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QYZEQoN_M

burdicda said:

So Wow how do you know these things...?
I love this bike just bought it Tuesday got a little over 200 miles on it...CTX700D
Sounds like I could almost break out a laptop and hack my cpu someday....I see where there are already custom chips
available that will totally change the bike's personality...I would love to know where I could find more of this type info
tnx

Click to expand...

I know it because Honda publishes it on their web site. Link world.honda.com/Global-700cc-engine/index.html

In their words:
"To concretely arrive at a "ride to suit mature tastes," a choice had to be made between even and uneven firing intervals. Uneven-interval firing with a 270º phase crank was chosen over orderly and smooth even-interval firing in order to achieve a throb close to that of a 2-cylinder V-engine, because this would result in an emotional yet comforting means of daily transportation".


In plain English they wanted it to shake like a Harley. Personally I wished they'd left it alone. If I wanted a shake and break HD I'd a bought one. Although glad they didn't go any further.

Steven said:

BigO1987 – That's a great help. I think I'll have my guy set the emulators up to be a little more compliant at slower speed bumps. The oem did well enough in that regard, it was the higher speed bumps that needed improvement. I suppose that in the race world it's the high speed bumps that are more important and preventing nose dive at lower speeds requires a firmer setting, I'm just guessing...

As for the lugging in 6th, when I'm out in the country kicking around it doesn't seem to be an issue and I barely notice it, but in town, I sometimes find myself changing gears. There needs to be a setting between D and S.


Woodswoman – I can answer the second part of your question.

The CTX has a damping rod in the forks. This rod has holes in it that allow the oil to go through it from one chamber to another. The rate of oil going through these holes is what controls how fast the forks move when it encounters a bump. This works fairly well on low speed bumps, but on high speed (sharper) bumps the oil can't get through these holes fast enough (the holes are very small) so the forks just seem to lock up. They're still compressing, but not fast enough to follow the bump. When this happens the front end bounces over the bump.

The emulators have two valves. Over slower/smoother bumps one of the valves controls the damping, but when a sharper bump is encountered, it forces the second valve open which allows more oil to flow between chambers and hence, the forks become more compliant and the front end doesn't bounce.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QYZEQoN_M

Click to expand...

My fork springs were replaced with racetech springs...ideal for my weight. You may want to research progressive springs vs non (racetech). Not sure if it really matters, but just did some reading on it. Something to consider.

It's all very interesting...this 270 degree crank....you'd think it would chug in all modes...."D" and "S"...this begs looking into...if they can
"program" it on and off...then they should be able to program it to get lost....LOL
Maybe a chip change out or reburn...

There is slight vibrations at various speeds if you really concentrate. The laws of physics determine where the "sweet spot" is for maximum vibrations. We feel it most in 6th gear at low speeds. I imagine because we're stuck in the sweet spot and can't get thru it (RPMS) because the engine does not have enough torque to get us thru it as happens going up hill at low speeds in 6th. Downshift to a lower gear shifts us thru the sweet spot into a higher RPM.

I also imagine reprogramming the ECU to raise the shift points can be done if somebody has the knowledge and the wherefore to reprogram or make a new one from scratch. Honda may have fixed this with the latest version 3 of the DCT, from their web page, New for 2016: the NC700X now comes with our third-generation DCT with new settings and three choices in the “S” mode.