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SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> CL Mototech RFY Shock Package /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1593645397 Message started by Jdvt600 on 07/01/20 at 16:16:37 |
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Title: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Jdvt600 on 07/01/20 at 16:16:37 Hey all, I've seen a few of you have upgraded your shocks to the CL Mototech from ChrisLivingood.net. I submitted a contact request to Chris, but while I wait for his response, I wanted to hear the verdict on these shocks, especially the quad spherical bearing upgrade. Is it worth the $100 difference? Has anyone ridden them back to back? As of right now I'm configured to buy them in 320mm with the top out spring replacement. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/02/20 at 04:03:50 I installed my RFY shocks last year and also installed a new set of Michelin Pilot Activ tires at the same time. The Pilot Activ tires were incredibly stiff and hard to mount......I have never mounted a set of tires that were this stiff and hard. Even with nearly all the air out the tire barely deflects under the weight of the bike. My bike handled/rode horribly. It was very squirrely and followed every crack in the pavement and bumps are harsh. I was going about 70 mph down the interstate and I hit a raised pavement joint, and the bike and I went up in the air and when I landed the bike began a "death wobble" and it had never done that before. I only put about 100 miles on the bike last year. Over the winter I started to sort things out, and I discovered my front forks were worn out......the custom made fork brace/fender mount had put some sideways pressure on the forks and caused the slide bushings and fork tubes to wear, and there was no damping and a bit of wiggle in the forks. I installed a replacement set of lower tubes and new bushings......and the bike now steers proper again. Last night went for a 100 mile ride, and now that the forks are straightened out I can focus on the RFY shocks. I have the RFY shocks without the pressure chamber on the side, and Chris rebuilt them for me and I got the spherical joints on top and bottom. The bike seems to ride like a hardtail, and I am not sure how much of that is the incredibly stiff tires and how much might be too much compression damping in the shocks...........currently the bike is painful to ride unless you are on glassy smooth pavement. I am going to remount the Progressive shocks and go for a ride and see if the ride is better. The spherical ball ends are just a hair too large of diameter for the Savage mounts, and a small sheet metal shim is installed to take up the slack. Also when both ends are spherical the shock has nothing to stop it from twisting around on the ball ends and I had to use my lathe to make small spacers and install a large washer on the outside to limit the rotation and keep the shocks in alignment. If you look closely at the attached photo you can see the small black washers I machined on each side of the spherical ball ends, and the big washer on each side that limit the rotation. Once I install my old shocks and see if the ride improves, I will likely contact Chris and tell him what I discovered. He is very easy to work with and may be able to fix my situation. I am not sure I would get spherical ends both top and bottom.......if one end was left alone it would stop the shocks from twisting. Gary_in_NJ is our resident suspension expert and hopefully he has had better luck with the RFY shocks. I have not yet been able to get my suspension sorted out.....currently my bike is not comfy to ride as the roads around here are pretty bumpy! |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Armen on 07/02/20 at 06:46:47 I mounted a set on my project bike. Just sitting (never ridden), the right shock leaked out onto the tire. I contacted Chris, and he said he would change the seal and refill the shock at no cost. He seems like a great guy. Point is, these are cheap Chinese shocks. Don't be horrified if you have grief with them. But, Chris is a very good guy to be dealing with. I knew what I was getting into. I have $1,000 sets of twin shocks on my other bikes. If those had leaked I'd be a lot more upset. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Armen on 07/02/20 at 06:48:27 Dave, IIRC, the Pilot Activ come in both V and H rating. I think the H rated ones are not as harsh, as the V rated ones are rated for higher speed. Do you know which ones you have? I have used Activs a lot, and never had that kind of scary handling. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Gary_in_NJ on 07/02/20 at 07:18:07 So my impression of the ride quality of Chris’ reworked shocks is well documented in my fork/shock thread. In short, I am very pleased with the ride and damping. Settling the sag is a vital part of the setup and should not be overlooked. If don’t think there is a lot of stiction in shocks so I would not get the optional bearings. I would recommend removing the swingarm and greasing the bearing while you have the shocks removed. In order for the suspension to work properly the swingarm must be able to move freely. Also, use grease or never seize on the bushings during installation. Be sure not to get any never seize on the threads. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/02/20 at 09:37:46 Armen: I just looked and my Pilot Active tires are both H rated. I suspect my harsh ride issues are more likely related to my worn forks and current shock issues. The tires may be fine once I get the shocks sorted out.....a typical issue of changing more than one thing at a time and then not knowing which one caused the problem. I am likely not going to get these tires again - they are just too much effort to get squeezed on/off the rim by hand. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by LANCER on 07/02/20 at 09:53:41 I got a set a couple years ago from someone here and have had good service from them. They have the reserve on the Shock but not the ball ends. I’m heavier than you Dave so they are not harsh on me like yours were, although when I first took it out with those installed I wondered if it would be too much but it turned out ok for me. No leaks. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Jdvt600 on 07/02/20 at 10:32:58 I probably should have included in the original post that I weigh 175 and all of my riding time is commuting with the rare jaunt to the lake. Zero twisties and no dragon tail for me. By chance has anyone ridden two different spring sizes back to back? The spring rate estimator on his site appears broken. Based on everyone's feedback, I think I'll forego the spherical bearing upgrade. Thanks for the info everyone. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Gary_in_NJ on 07/02/20 at 13:05:09 Talk to Chris about the spring rate. On my bike I used the 7mm 80-100 lb springs. I too weigh 175 pounds without gear, but my bike is about 75 pounds less than yours. Back when I ordered the spring (late 2016) the two available springs rates were the 7mm 80-100 lb spring and an 8mm 100-130 lb spring. He may have different options now. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Armen on 07/02/20 at 13:56:03 Dave, Have to agree that mounting the Activ tires on tube type wheels is a horror show. Did it 2 or 3 times, and will never do that again. I converted a few of my spoke wheel bikes to tubeless, and use a tire machine, and now no issues at all. Just did a tubeless conversion on my bud's Royal Enfield 650 last week and mounted a Pilot Activ-no prob at all. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Gary_in_NJ on 07/02/20 at 14:05:39 What is this tubeless conversion you speak of? |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Armen on 07/02/20 at 15:37:31 Gary, An outfit called Outex out of Japan. Got the kits on Ebay. They sell model specific kits as well as generic ones. You have to have a safety type rim, which a lot of older bikes don't. I had new wheels built for my bikes, and the other ones I've done are newer bikes that had the correct rims. Basically, you clean up the rims a lot. Grind down the weld seam, scuff up the surface. You put a little vinyl polka dot on the top of each spoke nipple. Then a layer of their special two sided tape. Then a layer of vinyl. Insert a tubeless valve stem, and Voila! About $120 for both wheels. I'll never take a long trip with a tube bike again. I just don't have it in me to do a roadside tube swap. And installing tires with tubes is always an added nightmare. Yes, I know millions have done that (me being one of them), but I'm just too lazy now to deal with crap I don't have to. If I wanted undeserved pain and suffering, I'd have stayed married to my first wife. Doing the rear wheel on my bud's RE 650 tomorrow. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/02/20 at 18:21:02 Today I dug out some RFY shocks that I bought off the local Craigslist. They were lightly used and the price was right - so I could not resist. I took the RFY shocks without the reservoir off my bike, and I compressed them by hand and it was obvious the ones with the reservoir had far less compression damping for the small amount I could compress them by hand. (I had wanted to use the shocks without the reservoir as it looked more "vintage" and I tried to emulate an older bike with my build (the disc front brake is the exception). I removed the spherical ball end from the bottom of the straight shock and installed it on the reservoir shock just for kicks. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/02/20 at 18:26:21 I went for a short ride this evening and the ride is greatly improved. The ride is much more compliant that it was last night, and I was not jostled by each little bump I rode over. The RFY shocks with the reservoir do ride better than the ones without. I will contact Chris and let him know what went on, and see if there is hope for the other shocks. And.....I will go on a much longer ride this weekend and see if they are good enough to leave as they are. (When I was taking the photo I didn't realize Lily got her nose in the photo). |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Armen on 07/02/20 at 20:12:25 What a hot looking bike! |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Jdvt600 on 07/03/20 at 09:26:37 1B28373F345A0 wrote:
Agreed! I'm still waiting for a reply from Chris but I suspect he may be occupied with racing season. He made a blog post about not filling orders this time last year. @Gary_In_NJ Thanks for the info! I'm still trying to figure out which direction style wise to take my bike, but I hope to include weight reduction as a byproduct. Right now I'm looking to functional/performance upgrades while I continue to plan out the aesthetics. @Dave thanks for the update regarding the reservoirs. They look great on your bike! |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/03/20 at 14:38:01 Thanks for the compliments.......I am very happy the way the bike turned out. That monstrous 8" headlight may not be pretty to folks who are used to the tiny 5-1/4" lights they put on Sportsters and other cruisers......but I like it! I just got back from a 135 mile ride on all kinds of back roads south of here......a friend called and said he and 3 others were going for a ride and I tagged along. The RFY reservoir shocks are a huge improvement over the other ones. The bike rode and handled fine.....I believe I will be able to ride on these tires the rest of the year and try a set of Avon AM26 Road Riders for the next year. The RFY reservoir shocks I installed are not modified by Chris.....and they seem to work well - but maybe they could be better? Dunno' - I am not a suspension expert and really can't tell what would improve a ride (However I am pretty good at engines and it runs great!) |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Edub on 07/03/20 at 15:28:19 Dave, do you have a build thread you can link here? I'd like to see the process you went through to build that beautiful bike! |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by ohiomoto on 07/03/20 at 16:38:55 Edub, Look in here: http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1383565946 |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Dave on 07/03/20 at 17:51:50 0A2B3A2D4F0 wrote:
Well yes I "did" have a very extensive build thread - but unfortunately all the photos disappeared when TinyPic bailed out. Someday I will have to try and restore some of the photos - it would be an multi-day task to do it. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Edub on 07/03/20 at 19:54:09 Thanks for the link, Dave. I hope you'll be able to re-load the pictures at some point, I'm sure they'll help those if us who are thinking about planning our own projects. On another note, it would be fantastic if one of the moderators would update the build sticky with a few of the more recent builds. I've seen some pretty good ones that aren't posted there that would be very helpful. |
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Title: Re: CL Mototech RFY Shock Package Post by Edub on 07/03/20 at 20:00:22 6E69686E6C6E756E010 wrote:
Thanks, somehow I didn't realize that's the same bike thread! |
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