Things you've bought for your bike that have surprised you!

[Sadlonelygit]

A while back I bought an Adelin 19mm RCS radial master cylinder for pennies off a well known auction site.
I stripped it down, checked for rough edges etc in the bore, slapped a couple of new seals in and bosh, some significantly more powerful/modulated brakes.

[weeksy]

Power commander on an xt660, I've never had a bike so transformed by a tune as a 660 is.

[KungFooBob]

I've said it before, best bang for buck mod I've ever made to a bike was ductile iron front discs on my old Fireblade, The difference was astounding on track.

[Yorick]

Ohlins shock on my 2006 GSXR1000. Awesome. Transformed the handling and exiting corners was so improved, I could get on the gas a bit sooner.
I fitted it to my next 3 GSXRs and sold it for about 2/3 of what I paid for it after 11 years

[Bigyin]

Nitron shock for my 636 Kawasaki. The bike was good but way too firm on the rear end with a complete lack of damping. Once the Nitron was fitted it absolutely transformed the bike from an eyeball rattling pain in the arse over bumpy roads to a superb handling little sports bike

[Rockburner]

Another mention of suspensions improving things beyond expectations. Nitron shocks on the Rockster transformed it.

[asmethurst99]

Decent(s21) tyres on my 28 yr old CBR

[Skub]

I dunno about actually being surprised. Any mods I've done on my bikes have usually performed how I expected.

I'd have to go back to my first bikes,when I made the switch from shitty Jap rubber to Dunlop TT100. The pointy profile and the consequently fast turn in definitely took me by surprise. Oversteer city.

[Sadlonelygit]

I'm surprised so many people are shocked that top notch suspension has made a difference!

[mangocrazy]

'Surprised' is probably the wrong word, but I do remember the transformation in front end feel on the Falco when I went from standard very stiff (1.05 kg/mm) fork springs to Hyperpro progressive springs and from standard (very restrictive) Showa compression valves to Race-Tech gold valves. It really was a night and day difference.

'Exceeded my expectations' would probably be a more accurate way of describing it.

[Count Steer]

I'm surprised so many people are shocked that top notch suspension has made a difference!

Yup. Most of the things I paid good money for to put on a bike did what I expected the stuff to do. Surprised? No. Disappointed? Sometimes, but not often.

[mboy]

Many years ago I bought a "6mm Jack up plate" for the rear shock on my Honda Blackbird, to increase the rear end ride height. I was sceptical of any real performance gains but it was all of about £8 to buy and took minutes to fit...

Absolutely transformed the bikes handling! Suddenly the bike wanted to drop into turns, didn't threaten to bottom out everywhere, and actually had some ground clearance when cornering! I thought there might be a slight improvement, but it was massive just how much it transformed the handling!

Turns out that the Blackbird was so low originally as part of the design brief to make it the worlds fastest production bike... At a cost to the handling!

I'm surprised so many people are shocked that top notch suspension has made a difference!

Likewise, but... I'm surprised so many bikes have such shocking suspension as stock and need a big chunk of money spending on them straight away to get them handling like arguably they should from the factory... The Ducati Streetfighter V2 I had last year being a prime example... The Showa BPF forks were woeful from the factory, no matter how they were set. The rear shock wasn't quite as bad, but certainly wasn't what you'd expect on a £15k+ bike... Replaced both ends with Nitron kit and the bike was absolutely transformed! But at a significant cost...

[Taipan]

Rejet or remap. Game changer…

[Yorick]

To quantify my choice. The standard shock was amazing for the road. But the Ohlins was for the track.

When we moved over here, I brought my 2013 GSXR1000 here and took the Ohlins off as was a bit iffy 2 up here.

[Bustaspoke]

Way back in time when I fitted a set of Micron's to my X7.Kin ell power wheelies!

[dern]

Slipper clutch on my 2007 cbr1000rr. Allowed me to move to the next thing to be scared of.

[Sadlonelygit]

Many years ago I bought a "6mm Jack up plate" for the rear shock on my Honda Blackbird, to increase the rear end ride height. I was sceptical of any real performance gains but it was all of about £8 to buy and took minutes to fit...

Absolutely transformed the bikes handling! Suddenly the bike wanted to drop into turns, didn't threaten to bottom out everywhere, and actually had some ground clearance when cornering! I thought there might be a slight improvement, but it was massive just how much it transformed the handling!

Turns out that the Blackbird was so low originally as part of the design brief to make it the worlds fastest production bike... At a cost to the handling!

I'm surprised so many people are shocked that top notch suspension has made a difference!

Likewise, but... I'm surprised so many bikes have such shocking suspension as stock and need a big chunk of money spending on them straight away to get them handling like arguably they should from the factory... The Ducati Streetfighter V2 I had last year being a prime example... The Showa BPF forks were woeful from the factory, no matter how they were set. The rear shock wasn't quite as bad, but certainly wasn't what you'd expect on a £15k+ bike... Replaced both ends with Nitron kit and the bike was absolutely transformed! But at a significant cost...

The thing with suspension is that the bike manufacturers have no idea who is going to be riding the bike, so set it generically for a 10/12/14st rider, unless you buy a Yamaha, who set the front for a 10st rider and the rear for 2 up!
They build in the cost factor for you to change it, otherwise having a bespoke set up for every owner would push the costs through the roof!

[Hot_Air]

I knew my OE suspension was built to a price point and expected a big improvement from an upgrade. Nonetheless, I was amazed at the incredible improvement from a new Nitron shock. I hadn’t expected a night and day difference.

[Supermofo]

First time I fitted a lower geared sprocket. So much better on most bikes.

[Yorick]

First time I fitted a lower geared sprocket. So much better on most bikes.

I've done that on most bikes I've owned.