Rear Shock Absorber Upgrade - Best to Worst

redhawk4 wrote: I quite like the Gazi's but about $450 is still a lot of money IMO. Something in the $250 range would be nice, if you can get the Chinese ones for $90 a pair, surely it's possible to make something 1/2 decent for around $250. The Chinese ones look great, a little more in materials and fluids and you'd be there.

When you go to the really high priced shocks, while they may be great, I still feel you are going to be paying a premium price for a product, not benefiting from the economies scale, so the gains relative to the extra cost are not proportional, a bit like buying a Ford or Honda as compared to a Bentley, the Bentley isn't 10 times better despite the price and the average person isn't going to reap real world benefits by spending the extra..

Agreed.

I dunno but if I needed to replace my shocks I'd consider ~500 bucks pretty reasonable to keep my ass comfy and moreso to keep it from meeting the asphalt. $1300 is crazy for 70s era KZs unless you are a pinball wizard rider of vintage bikes. $150 shocks, see above about my ass and asphalt.

Try to not condemn the more expensive shocks untill you get a chance to try them. One of the things you get with a more expensive shock is custom valving and proper rate springs for your weight and riding type.
The stock suspension on these older bikes was not very good even when it was brand new. If you were to just replace your worn out OEM shocks with new OEM, you would be spending big. Each shock for a 2002 police bike (as an example) is $458.91 retail. That's $917.82 for a pair of nothing special OEM Kawasaki shocks. So for the same money as stock you can buy shocks that are set up for you and your bike and are also serviceable.
I recommend suspension upgrades before any motor mods. I feel it's money well spent.

For sure, the stock shocks on the KZ650 were barely adequate even when new. I bought my KZ650-C1 new, and the shocks were the weakest part on the bike. Ed

I'm happy with what In have.
Steve

pete greek1 wrote:

seanbarney41 wrote:

redhawk4 wrote: So is the shock I have the stock KZ1000 LTD one ? They seem pretty stiff and the adjusters are reluctant to turn although with just the hole in the collar there isn't much to get hold of.

Attachment shock.jpg not found

Those look like Mullholland brand shocks. They were made by somebody bigger and marketed for motorcycles. (Boge maybe?) I have a pair also for my KZ1000...they are supposed to be decent. I have not yet ridden the bike.

These are the Mulholland's on my 900 LTD

Pete

Damn lookie at that bad boy cal fab arm

redhawk4 wrote: I quite like the Gazi's but about $450 is still a lot of money IMO. Something in the $250 range would be nice, if you can get the Chinese ones for $90 a pair, surely it's possible to make something 1/2 decent for around $250. The Chinese ones look great, a little more in materials and fluids and you'd be there.

When you go to the really high priced shocks, while they may be great, I still feel you are going to be paying a premium price for a product, not benefiting from the economies of scale, so the gains relative to the extra cost are not proportional, a bit like buying a Ford or Honda as compared to a Bentley, the Bentley isn't 10 times better despite the price and the average person isn't going to reap real world benefits by spending the extra..

On the other hand, lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

Kidkawie wrote:

redhawk4 wrote: I quite like the Gazi's but about $450 is still a lot of money IMO. Something in the $250 range would be nice, if you can get the Chinese ones for $90 a pair, surely it's possible to make something 1/2 decent for around $250. The Chinese ones look great, a little more in materials and fluids and you'd be there.

When you go to the really high priced shocks, while they may be great, I still feel you are going to be paying a premium price for a product, not benefiting from the economies of scale, so the gains relative to the extra cost are not proportional, a bit like buying a Ford or Honda as compared to a Bentley, the Bentley isn't 10 times better despite the price and the average person isn't going to reap real world benefits by spending the extra..

On the other hand, lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

That may be true, but I have two issues regarding shock prices, one is it's hard for me to justify paying between 33% and 115% of the purchase price of the bike for 2 suspension units, when the bike came with two functioning shocks already, even if they are less than perfect performance wise, and also in comparison how much I pay for name brand, better than OEM shock absorbers for a 7,500 lb pickup truck, compared to a 500 lb bike. It's not the money that's an issue, rather the perceived value for money.

Kidkawie wrote: On the other hand, lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

What? Based many of the modded bikes I've seen I thought if I put a set of Ohlins on the back and upside down forks on the front of the bike below it would handle like a modern race bike. The front fender has already been removed and I have mounted a solo seat, so I thought I was half-way there. Could I be wrong? :whistle: Ed

A Tote Goat on Steroids

This is a response from Chris Livengood on his website. "If people want a $250 package, they should pay for RFY’s and my rebuild. I can do a basic kit for $200, a fair amount of customization for around $275, and I can really get crazy for around $375. Otherwise, expect to pay a lot more for another manufacturers product. The Chinese are not interested in better quality control or even selling individual parts. I have spoken to the Chinese in regards to the RFY, the name of the game for them is lowest price possible and the biggest volume possible, that means lowest machine costs, cheap materials, and as little labor as possible. As a result, the RFY has to be rebuilt if you expect a quality shock. The design however is decent enough, and is in fact a close copy to a name brand design internally (not snowmobile, that’s complete B.S.). I attempted to have the Chinese manufacture a design of my own. Unless I was going to sell 100,000 of them, they aren’t interested.

My CL CompTech package will cost more than the RFY setup, but it will also be of a much higher quality. And asides from some of the o-rings and seals, it will be manufactured 100% in the USA. I may however outsource my pistons at some point, piston designs can be extremely technical, and 5 axis machining here gets very expensive. My package should (hopefully) be significantly less expensive than the gas separated (reservoir) designs by Gazi, Works, ReceTech. How can I do this? I will not be selling through a middle man, sales will always be direct. I also control the manufacture top to bottom, in fact, I will be the machine operator, the assembly line, and shipping center. The guy who I have contracted my machine time (lathe and mill) from looked at me like I was crazy when he realized what my margins are, but direct to consumer allows me to do this. Moreover, I won’t be doing an emulsion shock. I dislike emulsion shocks, they are “more artful” to tune, generally they don’t work as well, and the cost savings are very little with regards to manufacturing. Emulsion shocks needs to go away as far as I’m concerned. Should you wish to hide the reservoir, making it remote will be an option, though it will add to the price. My CL CompTech package will be built custom for each customer, there will not be a generic model that sits on the shelf. That means custom valving, length, mounting, and spring rate. Finally, I plan to offer service plans. These plans aren’t necessarily geared for reliability purposes as I believe the package will only need serviced maybe every two or three years. Instead it will be geared towards those who want to work on suspension setup. The service plan will be a reduced cost (per rebuild) option for somebody who wants to re-valve multiple times and really fine tune their setup. Additionally, seal kits and shim packages will be available, the shock is fully (and easily) rebuildable. Rebuilds by me will be fairly priced, far less than other many other companies charge.

Feel free to quote the above info on the forum if you wish."

So... getting back to one of my questions.... what is an estimate in cost to have an old set of my Boge-Mulholland shocks rebuilt?