5th Gen CBR929 (Jamie Daugherty) Rear Shock Upgrade

First, a bit of background might be in order. Having sold my beloved 97 VFR750 about 5 years ago, just before my son was born, I had wanted to some day replace the bike when he got older. I knew with a new baby in the house that the poor old girl would spend many a lonely day covered up in the garage unable to see the sun. No way to treat a motorcycle in my opinion. Since one of the guys that I worked with wanted to purchase the bike, I signed the papers and let her go to a new owner. Thankfully I got to see the old bike regularly, and the itch to get a new one was always lurking.

About three years ago, I found a 2000 VFR800 sitting in the showroom of one of the car dealerships I do work for (I do Paintless Dent Repair for a living) and my wife said I should buy the bike. The paint was pitted, the wheels had numerous scratches from a disc lock, the fairings were scratched from a couple of garage mishaps (vertical scratches in the lower cowls which indicated to me that the bike had tipped over on both sides at some point) but the price was too high for the condition of the motorcycle. The general manager of the dealership had seen my 97 VFR and had said that I would regret giving her up (he was a fellow biker) and knowing I would lust after the 2000 VFR he started asking me when I would take it home. Every time I walked in to the dealer he would ask if I wanted the VFR and with a price near $6000 at first the cost was too rich for my blood. Finally, after sitting in the showroom for a little more than a year the manager said, “Bill, make me an offer on the bike, I gotta get her out of here.” Over time the price had dropped to $3950 and not even thinking he would say yes, I looked at the manager and said “All I can afford to give you is $2000.” To my amazement he told me to get her out his showroom and that he was glad the VFR had found a good home. I signed the papers, handed over the cash, donned my helmet and rode the bike two blocks to my shop. Since it was in November and likely to snow any day, the first ride would have to wait. For what seemed like an eternity of cleaning, I spent the winter taking care of the cosmetic issues. I had the wheels stripped and powder coated, painted the lower cowls to get rid of the scratches and spent about 8 hours wet sanding and polishing the rest of the paint to get rid of what was years of neglect. The previous owner had left a copy of all the maintenance receipts for the bike with the dealer and after looking through them all, I found that the bike had been very well maintained and all the suggested services had been completed by various Honda Motorcycle dealers, including the valve adjusts. When the previous owner had traded the bike on a car he had told the dealer that even though he had kept up on the mechanical work, he was not one to clean the bike. He neither had the time or inclination to keep her spotless (he did spray her off once in a while he admitted) and nor did he have the skills. After 61,000 km’s (35,000 miles) of use the bike was showing its age, but it ran like brand new.

When spring finally dawned and the street sweepers had been out I decided to take the old girl (now gleaming like a new motorcycle) for a ride. With some new rubber, some cosmetic work and a lot of blood, sweat and wax, she was ready for the road. At least that is what I thought. To my dismay, I discovered that the back end was sadly in need of some attention. My first season with the 2000 VFR was good but the riding was rare because of family and the new toddler in the house, and the revelation that I was going to be a dad once again. I spent a lot of time the next winter trying to decide what to do about the rear shock. The rear shock on my 97 had been re-built but it never really felt that much better in my opinion and I was not sure if I wanted to go through that process again. After spending about three months unable to ride my 97 while the shock was missing, and then not noticing a huge difference once I got it back, well, not impressed.

A friend told me check out VFR World and I came across the name Jamie Daugherty. After reading several posts and articles about his suspension tuning abilities, I decided that I would again try getting a shock rebuilt. The difference was, this time, Jamie, unlike the last guy I used, was going to build me a donor shock from a CBR929 so that I could ride my bike until the new one showed up. I was so amazed with the difference the shock made to the rideability of the bike that I wanted to do a “HOW TO” write up on the installation. I know a number of people on this site are aware of Jamie Daugherty and probably equally aware of how to take their bikes completely apart and put them back together.

This article is for the average person like me, who has never attempted a project of this kind and therefore I have included a lot of pictures and a lot of, shall we say, instructions. My hope is that it will prove useful to at least one other person. The overall process is not that hard, but it does take some time. I think the whole process for me took about six hours from start to finish, over a span of two days. I am quite used to taking things apart when doing my day job, but that is usually limited to door panels and other parts of car interiors. Having owned about 10 different motorcycles (including an 85 VF1000F, a 97 VFR750F and my current 2000 VFR800) I am also no stranger to regular maintenance like oil and coolant changes. Generally I leave major mechanical work up to the pros, but I decided to tackle this project on my own since, heh, let’s face it, there are only four bolts to undo RIGHT????



WELL YOU HAVE KEPT WITH ME THIS LONG SO HERE WE GO, BACK TO THE TOPIC OF THE CBR929 SHOCK UPGRADE.

First, I have to say thanks to Joey_Dude for his write up on how to do this upgrade, since it was after reading his HOW To that I decided to give this whole project a try. Not wanting to disconnect the fuel injection hoses from the tank, I decided to see if it could be done without removing the tank.

After clearing some space around the bike and putting the bike on the center stand, the first things to come off are the seat, passenger grab handles, and the rear cowl.





Next off is the muffler and the right side foot peg bracket. I chose to remove the muffler and foot peg bracket at one time in order to make it easier to re-assemble later. Loosen the muffler strap connector, undo the bolts on the foot peg bracket and twist the whole assembly out and back to remove. You could probably do it the same way with the stock exhaust but it might be easier to do each separately if you have the stock exhaust.





Now it is time to remove the rear tire and the chain guard. Don't forget the two plastic screw clips on the back side of the chain guard





The top bolt for the rear shock assembly is under the two rubber flaps at the rear of the fuel tank. I removed the two bolts at the front of the tank and the two bolts that secure the tank to the pivot clamp at the rear of the tank. I then placed a couple of 2x4 pieces on edge under the rear of the tank to support it while I removed the pivot clamp. This allows you to move the two rubber flaps. The top one you can push forward and tuck it under the tank edge, and the big lower one that stretches over the battery box area can be removed and set aside.





You should now be able to see the nut that secures the top of the shock bracket to the frame spar, and the bolt that goes through the bracket and the top of the shock assembly.





Since the CBR929 shock has a larger spring and a remote reservoir I thought that removing the fender tray would make the installation of the new shock a lot easier because it gives you a LOT more room to work with and it also allows a better view of the whole swing arm area. Removing the fender tray was certainly a bit of a pain to manoeuvre out of the frame but the ease with which the new rear shock went in certainly made it worth the extra effort. It also gave me the chance to take a closer look at the wiring harness, connectors, fuse blocks, and other areas around the rear suspension that were hard to see before.

To remove the rear fender tray, disconnect and remove the battery. Next, to remove the battery box cover lid there are a couple of fuse blocks attached to the lid. They are easily removed by inserting a flat head screwdriver underneath and gently twisting to release the push clip underneath. With the clip released, slide the fuse blocks up toward the top of the lid. By gently squeezing the sides of the lid you can release the plastic pins that hold the lid in place and you can remove it. Once the lid is removed you can also undo the 5mm allen head screw that secures the rear brake lines to the under side of the fender tray.





Moving to the rear of the fender tray, remove the lid covering the CDI box. This should give you enough room to gently remove the CDI box and manoeuvre it out and then place it on top of the seat frame latch. This is where I left the box until I was finished and it rested there quite securely. Remove the two bolts at the rear of the fender tray that attach it to the seat frame and allow it to drop down a bit. The fender will probably move down about an inch or so but not much. You will also need to remove the bolt that secures the rear brake fluid reservoir to the fender tray as well. The reservoir will just sit there and not move, so not to worry.





The front of the fender tray has a couple of tabs on it that the main fuse block (left side) and another fuse block on the right side slide on. By pulling them up they should both come off.



Once all the bolts and screws are removed, gently push up on the front of the fender under the battery box to release the plastic clips that go around the round metal frame tube.





Now gently squeeze the middle of the fender tray at the bottom and lower it down out of the seat frame. You will have to pivot the back down a bit while pushing the front up to clear the frame spar under the battery box. Having an extra pair of hands to help you manoeuvre wires, connectors, and the fender tray out would be a definite asset. Pay close attention to where and how the wiring harness and connectors are routed around the clips and on the front of the fender tray. It helps to have a camera for this since a picture will help you get everything back together the right way later. Getting the fender over the spar at the front of the battery will require a little bit of bending of tabs and some work to get the harness out but with a little perseverance (and possibly some colourful language) the fender tray will come out.




NOW to remove the old rear shock. Remove the bolt that goes through the top of the shock assembly. You may have to push down a bit on the wiring harness in order to pull the bolt out all the way since it is a pretty tight fit.





Time for the lower shock mount. Remove the bolts from the lower shock arm plates. Note the orientation of the plates when you remove them so that they go back on the same way.





With the shock assembly now completely loose, you should be able to pull the top of the shock back toward the rear of the bike, to the side, and out of the swingarm over the chain.





You can see the difference in the size and shape of the old shock (red) and the CBR929 (blue) upgrade shock from Jamie Daugherty.




This is where removing the fender tray becomes perfectly clear. Drop the CBR929 shock down in to the hole in the swing arm. Rotate the shock assembly clockwise about 90 degrees and push the top of the shock forward, behind and in front of the upper shock mounting bracket. The shock should now be sitting with the reservoir on the front side of the shock toward the front of the bike. Now pull the shock back and in to the upper shock mount bracket and re-insert the bolt through the bracket and the upper shock mounting hole.




Another good reason to remove the fender tray is so that you can see if you have any clearance issues with the new shock assembly. When I went to install the shock in the upper shock bracket I discovered that my wiring harness on the left side of the bike was being pinched by the edge of the reservoir on the new shock. If I had not removed the fender tray I would not have been able to see how badly the harness was being pinched. A friend of mine who works at a local auto body shop looked at the shock for me and suggested that I cut a notch in the lip of the reservoir so that it would not interfere with the wiring harness. I also wrapped a couple extra layers around the harness where it passes the shock reservoir lip, just to be sure.





I was also careful to make sure that the edge of the lip where I cut the notch was filed smooth with no sharp edges. Though this may not be a problem with every bike (my bike is a 2000 VFR by the way), but I thought that the clearance issue I discovered was worth mentioning, just in case someone else runs in to the same problem. My friend at the body shop used to race motorcycles professionally and I wanted to check with him first before we notched the lip on the reservoir and he assured me that the notch would not affect the shock reservoir.

Now just reverse the whole procedure and put the bike back together and go for a ride.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NEW SHOCK

My initial impression of the shock upgrade was that it made a world of difference. I took the bike for about a 50 mile ride after I out the bike back together and could not believe how much better the bike felt. The handling is now much more precise and the bike feels far more stable. Even just sitting on the bike feels better since the bike does not sag as much under my weight.

I would highly recommend this upgrade and certainly recommend Jamie Daugherty’s services to anyone that would like a suspension upgrade for their VFR.

You can get in touch with Jamie on this site by sending him a Private Message or you can email him at

jamie@daughertymotorsports.com

 

Way ahead of you. I just sent Jamie a shock to have him upgrade it! Going to try and do the front end too, but will have him send me the components instead of sending in the forks.

 

Good Job! & Happy Riding!
I live in Indiana so It's a no-brainer to go with Jamie, when it's tyme to replace the shock on my Ole-Girl.
I have yet to read anything but praise in regards to his company's work!

 

I just got my fork and 929 shock from Jamie on Thursday. I just about have the bike back together. I too removed the under tray. What a pain in the butt that is. It is the most difficult part of the upgrade.

One thing I did differently was I installed the shock with the reservoir to the rear of the bike instead of the front. I didn't think to do it any other way.

 

I had thought about that when I was doing the install, but I wasn't sure that there would be enough clearance under the battery box and the fender tray. Glad to hear that it can be installed that way. The only install "HOW TO" I was able to find was the one by Joey_Dude, so I figured that maybe that was the only way it would fit. I have another friend with a 2001 VFR and he is thinking of doing the same thing, so it will be good to know that he has the choice to install it either way.

 

It IS tight. I really had to wrestle with getting the undertail back in. After I got everything installed I noticed that the reservoir pushes up on the end of the undertail. If I had it to do over again (I am not taking that *&%$# underatail back out) I would trim a couple of inches off of it and call it good.

 

I want to add that I really enjoyed the writeup. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything on it. I just got done yesterday shortly before you posted. Ha!

 

One regret to the doing the post is that if I am not online as a registered site member, I can not see the pictures. I'm not sure how you go about changing the post so that the pictures are visible to site visitors as well. In the beginning I spent a bit of time as a guest on the site and it was a bit frustrating not to be able to see the pictures.:biggrin:

I am glad that you enjoyed the post Deadsmiley. Not everyone might have wanted to hear about the background history, but this is the first time that I have ever a write-up of this kind and I may have gotten a bit carried away, but I think it adds to the story.

 

You did a nice job on the write up. I like the background story. Looks like the kids like the Viffer too.

 

Currently my wife is a little jealous as my four year old has seen more seat time on this VFR than she has. My son absolutely loves getting out for a ride with me. We don't generally stray too far from the house when we go for a ride, but he loves the time on the back of the bike because it is just him and me. I'm not sure what will happen when my daughter is big enough to ride as well. Liam (my son) always tells his sister that she can't go for a ride with daddy until she is at least as tall as he is. The motor vehicle regs in BC where I live now require that the passenger must now be able to sit on the passenger portion of the motorcycle seat and that their feet must be able to reach the foot pegs as well. This law takes effect on Jun 1st. I'm glad he touches the pegs for safety reasons, but when I stop or slow down he usually slides forward on the seat and sits right behind me, which means that technically he is no longer on his seat. The fine apparently is going to be an automatic $173 plus they will immediately impound the bike. They have, at the same time, also passed a law in our jurisdiction that makes beanies illegal. There are quite a lot of Harley riders in my town that are hopping mad over that one. Personally, I think that if your helmet is not big enough to scoop your brains into after an accident, then you should not be wearing it. My son and I never leave the house without full riding gear, and full face helmets. The only thing my son does not have is riding pants since his legs are to long and his waist is too small, so he rides in thick jeans.

 

Nice write-up. Another option / mod to put on the list !!

 

Beaut writeup . I want to get that done on my VFR !!! I noticed the new shock is a bit longer. Will that affect the ride height ? And any adjustment in the front to compensate?

 

Hey Nookiaz

The new shock (the CBR929 unit) is actually shorter overall than the stock shock and thus requires a spacer. When Jamie D. builds the CBR929 shock for the fifth gen bike he adds a machined spacer to the upper shock mount to make up for the difference in length so I think that is why it looks longer overall. The difference is ride is amazing, and the overall cost was very inexpensive. As I recall the total cost including shipping was $420. At the time I did the shock the Canadian dollar was just about on par with the US so there was almost no difference in price after factoring in the exchange rate.

 

So I guess I will invest US $420 to upgrade my ride. The roads here in Quebec are sooo bad. Having no tools & limited mechanic skills I have to let the pro install the new shock...Did you make any mod to the front fork (progressive springs)? On a side note, too bad you're all the way in BC. I'd like to meet up with fellow Canucks forum members & shoot the breeze. I always wanted to make a coast to coast ride. I'm from Montreal so it'll be quite a trip & I'm sure the VFR will be up for it, with a Sargent/Corbon saddle of course

 

Hey Nookiaz

I didn't do any upgrades to the front suspension on my bike but the previous owner had apparently upgraded the front end with some stiffer springs (Race Tech I believe, but he was unable to find the paperwork) and to me the front end felt fine as it was. The rear shock felt a bit soft when I was riding two up with a passenger, but felt reasonably fine when I was riding alone.

I had the same feelings when I went to swap the shock as well. Most all the tools you would require to do the install are actually in the tool kit for your bike. Honestly it sounded like a daunting task at first but REALLY it was not all that hard to do. It takes a bit of time and some patience. Another thing to keep in mind is that it only took the weekend to do because my son wanted to give me hand. Having him help was a fantastic father-son bonding adventure but I must freely admit that when you have to explain absolutely everything you are doing and why all the pieces have to come apart it does take a lot more time. If you were to go at the swap yourself, even with limited mechanical skills and tools, I would think you could easily do it in an afternoon. The most time consuming part of the job was removing the inner fender tray (the black piece that goes under the seat) and only because it was a little finicky to move around some of the other parts.

I went for the most expensive upgrade that Jamie D. offers on his site but there are quite a few options that he has available. One such option is to have Jamie rebuild and re-valve your existing shock to accommodate your particular riding style. The CBR929 shock is certainly more adjustable than the stock unit but if you were to have Jamie redo your stock shock all you need to do is remove 4 bolts to remove the stock shock and then swap. If you went this route, I doubt the whole process of removing the shock and replacing it would take less than an hour.

Jamie was extremely helpful and is really easy to deal with, so definitely get in touch with him and discuss what you would like to do and I am sure he can give you an idea as to what he thinks might work best for your style of riding and budget. I only went with the max upgrade because I had a guy at the time who was interested in maybe buying my bike from me (at the time my plan was to fix her up and flip the bike since I got such a good deal when I purchased it) so I went with the full pop upgrade so that any future owner would have maximum adjustability. If I were to look back on the decision I think I would still have gone for the CBR929 shock as I like the extra adjustability (and my riding usually involves riding with a passenger) but I might have gone more toward Jamie's entry level CBR929 upgrade to save a bit of money.

The best thing about getting Jamie to build and supply the shock is that the only time you are out for riding is the time it takes to swap out the shock.

If you do ever get out for that cross-country adventure don't be afraid to look me up. The beer will be cold and I can certainly offer a fellow VFR owner a place to stay.

 

Thanks for the reply, Zoom-Zoom (is it what your kids call you ?) Now that I saw what Jaimie D. has to offer I might just get a CBR929 shock (there seem to be more of them on Ebay) & have Jaimie work on that. I just send an e-mail to Jaimie & and will wait for what he has to say...
As to the cross-country ride, I might just ride over & put the bike on a train for the ride back . And thank you in advance for the welcome.

 

As I recall Jamie normally keeps a supply of CBR929 shocks on hand for the purpose of rebuild (I think I paid an extra $40 for Jamie to supply the donor shock) so I would just ask him to supply the donor shock for you. Even if you get the shock for free off eBay you will likely pay more for shipping than what Jamie charges for the donor shock. Sometimes it sucks being Canadian as the cross border shipping charges can get downright ridiculous.

As for the nick name, my son just calls me duuude, but I have to admit that my last four cages have all been Mazda's. My friends started calling me zoom-zoom as a joke and it just stuck. I keep thinking that one day the local Mazda dealer might call and ask me for the rights to use that email address. Wishful thinking I know........LOL

 

Is it still easy to get to the preload adjuster?

 

The preload adjuster (the cogged wheel on the shock assembly) is just as easy to adjust as the stock unit, as is the rebound adjuster screw at the bottom of the shock. The compression adjustment screw at the top of the shock (when installed as I have detailed here) faces to the right side of the bike behind the exhaust heat shield plate but it is still accessible but can be a bit hard to see. If I want to adjust that part of the shock I use a longer screwdriver and a flashlight pointed in from behind and when I look just over the top of the heat shield I can see the screw with relative ease. I adjusted the screw a few times just after installing the shock but have yet to do any adjustments since. Once I had the shock adjusted the way I wanted I have left it alone and not played with the settings. If I were to go with a long ride with my wife I might add a few clicks on the preload adjuster but other than that, I generally leave it alone.

 

Thanks for the info. Easy pre-load adjust is a must as I do half my riding two up. I think I will do this upgrade this winter.