New shock day!

Who doesn't love a shiny new shock? I ordered this at the end of March and it has arrived from the UK today. Looking forward to skinning my knuckles this evening. Accessibility on the bike looks decent with the tank rear raised and hopefully much, much easier than fitting the shock to my VTEC. Having a centrestand will also pay off I think.

 

I'd have to say the 1200 was one of the easier shock swap jobs that I have done, the only downside being that to get the rear of the fuel tank raised (where the clevis bolt is located) I had to pull the fairing and tank sides off, which would be slow going except I've done it a few hundred times now...With the muffler removed there was great access to the linkage bolts and none were corroded althought the bearing sleeves were a bit rusty outside of the seals. Unlike the 5th and 6th gens, the muffler link pipe passes right under the linkage so with the muffler removed, there is really easy access to the bottom of the shock tunnel. All up the work took about an hour and I didn't take any skin off my knuckles. I took the opportunity to clean parts and regrease the needle bearings, but otherwise it was bolts out, shock out, new shock in and bolts back. I didn't even take the wheel off. I'm looking forward to a test ride this weekend.


The old shock was predictably crusty, surface corrosion from the bike's past life (where it sat unused in a salt-spray location for 3 years) was pretty ugly. The tinkerer in me wonders whether the hydraulic adjuster from the stock shop could be repurposed onto the Nitron? However access to the adjuster on the Nitron is very good and I don't tinker with preload much so no real benefit to be had.

 

Nice!! I love new shocks. Very cool.

I have a Nitron on one of my Hawks and one in a box for my next VFR build. They are pretty tasty.

 

My lovely yellow VFR800 already has a lovely Nitron R3 shock (courtesy of the PO) and my former ST1300 had a similar shock to the one I've just bought, but with the hydraulic preload adjuster. I was pleasantly surprised by the Nitron pricing (USD610 delivered), just a little more than an equivalent YSS.