Happy new bike day.... WTF, what do you mean it's a Yamaha ???

[Dodgy69]

I like the short sport screens. They divert wind to your chest which is much better supported than your head.

[weeksy]

It's not strength or leverage, i can't actually access it.

Looking at this videos, the guy removes the bottom dog bone first, then the top bolt, then the shock slides forward easily to get at the bolt. You need someone else with you I reckon.

So yesterday i was sitting there with a few free hours(along with my abba stand and an improvised fitting kit)... and i needed them, but removing the bottom dogbone was indeed key to the process for me. I won't say that makes it easy as some of these mounts etc are just so inaccessible it's not even funny, especially when you drop the bolt/washer 4000 times and have to fish it out of the top of the engine where it dropped.

I got it to the stage last night where i just needed to tighten a few bolts and i was done.

That is, until about 5am i woke up and thought "I can't tighten that lower shock mount as i've already done up all the others and with the top bolt in, i can't get it to slide... but i can't get it unless the dogbone is off too. So 7am i jumped on it again, whipped everything out, tightened the lower mount and was pleased to find it WAS loose, if i'd taken all that out and worked out i'd already sorted it, i'd have been proper moody.
Then had the battle with the top mount and the dogbones, but eventually (only 35 mins actually)

I tell you now, it's going to have to be REALLY rubbish to persuade me to take it back out and fit the standard shock !!!

2020-06-29_07-49-18 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2020-06-29_07-49-08 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[MingtheMerciless]

That sounds like my mechanic-ing. Is the bike up for sale yet?

[weeksy]

That sounds like my mechanic-ing. Is the bike up for sale yet?

If its shit it may be

[weeksy]

Shock, well i'm not convinced it's night and day better... But I'd say currently it's an improvement. Needs more time on the bike to give a better idea though really.

[weeksy]

So i was sitting on the bike, then thinking, then sitting, then thinking, then a quick test on local lanes and then back.

The sag was measured at about 6mm, which is in the right ballpark for where i was thinking. I then also measured the actual height from a bracket to the floor, there was a logic and a reason for this, on the test ride i noticed it was a fair bit harder to get into some corners, a bit sluggish to respond. The measurement was 803mm. The reason i was questioning this was because when i sat on the bike in the garage i thought "i'm sure the bike was taller when pushing it around the garage"

I then removed the Nitron, refitted the standard shock and that same measured point is closer to 820mm.

With both shocks on the bench, the length of the shock is about 6mm longer, but clearly the fitted length is even more than that.

The bike was then tested again with the standard shock in and you can feel the damping is better in the Nitron as it's softer and nicer over some of the bumps, but from a handling perspective i much much prefer the standard Yam item. Now the Nitron does seem to have some length adjustment, but in honesty, i'm more than happy with the stock item, so the Nitron has been listed on Ebay and will be sold.

It's been an intresting 24 hours and my hands are covered in cuts and bruises from some of the ridiculous angles you need to bend, stretch, push and pull to get nuts and bolts in.

[weeksy]

Sold... listed 8 mins ago... quickest Ebay sale i've ever seen !!!

[weeksy]

Sold... listed 8 mins ago... quickest Ebay sale i've ever seen !!!

Well that was quick, so what bike now

LOL you daft bugger

[Taipan]

Well that was quick, so what bike now

890 of course, but not for about 6 weeks. Once he's ridden trickies the pull of the Orange will be too much to resist...

[KungFooBob]

Well that was quick, so what bike now

890 of course, but not for about 6 weeks. Once he's ridden trickies the pull of the Orange will be too much to resist...

<Darth Vader>He can not resist the power of the Orange side...</>

[weeksy]

LOL trust me here, I can resist.

[Skub]

LOL trust me here, I can resist.

For a few days anyway....

[weeksy]

WEll that was a minor pain in the arse. I was checking something last night and i'd put the top shock mount bolt on the wrong way round, I had the 17mm end on the throttle side and the 14mm on the clutch side. Now, why does that matter you may ask yourselves. The answer is, that on the mounting point on the 17mm side there's a 'ridge' which is what one of the faces of the 17mm head sits on, which means when you tighten it from the 14mm side it uses the ridge to enable you to torque to 42Nm. Now when it's the other way round, the ridge actually gets in the way of you putting the socket on fully so you can't actually torque it up to the correct setting.
So we had the fiddly arsing about of getting it all back out, then in the opposite way round..

I'm now heading to the office for the first time in many many months to install a server and some cables.

[rusty]

WEll that was a minor pain in the arse. I was checking something last night and i'd put the top shock mount bolt on the wrong way round, I had the 17mm end on the throttle side and the 14mm on the clutch side. Now, why does that matter you may ask yourselves. The answer is, that on the mounting point on the 17mm side there's a 'ridge' which is what one of the faces of the 17mm head sits on, which means when you tighten it from the 14mm side it uses the ridge to enable you to torque to 42Nm. Now when it's the other way round, the ridge actually gets in the way of you putting the socket on fully so you can't actually torque it up to the correct setting.
So we had the fiddly arsing about of getting it all back out, then in the opposite way round..

I'm now heading to the office for the first time in many many months to install a server and some cables.

Going to work for a rest by the sounds of it

[MingtheMerciless]

LOL trust me here, I can resist.

Resistance is FUTILE

[weeksy]

WEll that was a minor pain in the arse. I was checking something last night and i'd put the top shock mount bolt on the wrong way round, I had the 17mm end on the throttle side and the 14mm on the clutch side. Now, why does that matter you may ask yourselves. The answer is, that on the mounting point on the 17mm side there's a 'ridge' which is what one of the faces of the 17mm head sits on, which means when you tighten it from the 14mm side it uses the ridge to enable you to torque to 42Nm. Now when it's the other way round, the ridge actually gets in the way of you putting the socket on fully so you can't actually torque it up to the correct setting.
So we had the fiddly arsing about of getting it all back out, then in the opposite way round..

I'm now heading to the office for the first time in many many months to install a server and some cables.

Going to work for a rest by the sounds of it

You're not far off the mark there actually

[Buckaroo]

This Yamaha malarkey has got me thinking about my next bike.

Monster 821 probably 68 plate or newer or an XRS 900.

Nice decision to have but I've had the F800r sport for almost a whole year.

What to do, what to do...........

[weeksy]

This Yamaha malarkey has got me thinking about my next bike.

Monster 821 probably 68 plate or newer or an XRS 900.

Nice decision to have but I've had the F800r sport for almost a whole year.

What to do, what to do...........

As you've gathered, I'm most shocked by it and love the thing, apart from today, I've ridden it every day since buying it. That's only because it was wet today. I'm actually more excited about bikes than I have been in years

[weeksy]

Brembo SA pads on their way today... Silverstone in under 3 weeks and i'd like them as good as possible.

Also a few bits of pointless tat.

[weeksy]

Well you know me by now out in RTTL land and the insanity once again grew and reared it's head in my world.

After a chunk of thinking last night and out on a decent length ride today over to Odiham, Alton, Basingstoke, Newbury and home i was thinking about some of the harshness on the bumps, when you hit a bump it's a bit 'ooft' at times.
What i couldn't understand is that every sod on the road wants to race at the moment. Mercedes AMG A45 (or A35) wanted to play... He was thrashed, then a bit later an Audi S3, who really gave a good showing of himself on fastish sweepers, he was making proper strong overtakes lol. But i gave him a wave and pulled away as he got caught up in traffic.

So i thought, well, we didn't really give that Nitron much of a chance in the grand scheme, once i realised it made the handling not quite right i lobbed it on Ebay. What i actually should have done was a bit more research, then spent 5 minutes setting the shock length to the exact same length as the standard shock instead of it being 6mm shorter. Now 6mm doesn't sound like much, but the rule of 3 comes into play (so i've been told anyway) and 6mm on the shock length is x3 so 18mm in rideheight at the sadlle/back end. Which is pretty much where i found it to be when measuring.

So the standard shock was pulled out again, the Nitron set to the correct length and installed. I'm getting better at the installs now as it was only 30 mins to do it instead of 3 hours !!! hahahahha.

But the Nitron is in and ready to play. It's a bit damp and showery for a test now, but it'll get done in the next day or 2 depending on the weather.

2020-06-29_07-49-18 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr