Shock Factory.

[milleplod]

My lovely wife has treated me to a rear unit for my ST from Shock Factory - I'm all excited, how sad's that! I actually bought it from Mark at https://www.marksmotorcycleparts.co.uk/, I think someone on here mentioned he's now SF's UK agent. Same price, £350 delivered, set up for my lardy arse and the occasional run out with my daughter and full luggage. I've looked into the job of fitting it, it seems fairly straightforward, although I think some have had problems with the bottom mounting bush being a right barsteward to get out. Just in case, I bought a replacement from Motorworks, plus a new, ready-threadlocked bolt. All I need now is for it to warm up a bit - I hate spannering in the cold!

I'll see how the front feels against the new rear, and may well drop hints as to my birthday in March - £200, she can't grumble at that really, can she!

Pete

[kfrogzx7]

I'll be very interested in what you think of the shock ( shocks ? ) Pete, because I might order some for my ST in the new year. Plans on that front have been slightly postponed because MY lovely wife has treated me to new Nitron R1's ( fr & rear ) for my 11s for this Christmas / B'day period
Yep, I'm preppin her for some trackdays next year.
I don't subscribe to the view that you can have to many new shocks for your motorbikes, but she does, so a brief haitus / cooling down period is going to be required anyway before the ST gets treated to an upgrade.
Look forward to your report on the Shock Factory ST shocks.

[milleplod]

The rear is now fitted!

I'd psyched myself up to expect problems getting the bottom bolt out, and even more problems getting the bottom bush out. I needn't have worried. I wedged a piece of wood under the rear tyre so the swingarm didn't drop. As advised elsewhere, I got some heat into the bolt, to soften the threadlock.....I used my wife's hairdryer - its quite a powerful one! Under the swingarm,there's a slight bulge which is the threaded, blind hole that the bottom bolt screws into. I played the hairdryer over that area for a good 6 or 7 minutes, the bolt came out easily just using a standard ratchet handle, no need for breaker bars or other heavy-duty assistance that I'd read about elsewhere. Next was the bush - again, no problem. I put a wooden dowel onto one side of it, bit of a tap with a hammer, it slid out nice and easily - it comes out on the same side as the bolt does. The top bolt was a piece of cake. No other dismantling needed, just a bit of wiggling to get the unit past the mudguard.

Replacement was just a little bit more complicated than I expected....but only a tiny bit! The top mounting for the unit sits between two frame tubes

rsz_wp_20171215_002.jpg (270.69 KiB) Viewed 8799 times

The welds that I've highlighted can have very slight variations in thickness from bike to bike - mine would appear to be of the fractionally
thicker type! This meant that the top mount on the shock wouldn't fit through the gap! A quick call to Mike Capon (Shock Factory owner) soon had me sorted. He's come across the issue on very, very few bikes (lucky me, eh!), but advised me to remove a tiny amount of metal from either the welds or the top of the shock around the eye for the bolt, using a hand file. I chose the latter, aluminium being easier to file than steel - and you can't see it when its done anyway. Mike assured me that this would have absolutely no effect on the strength of the top mounting, which was good to hear! It didn't even take 2 minutes of filing, such was the tiny amount of metal that had to be removed to give sufficient clearance.

Once that was done, top bolt in, new nut fitted. Bottom bush cleaned up, copaslip applied, new bolt (came with threadlock already applied) went straight in. Everything torqued up (2-stage on the bottom bolt, why do they spec it like that?), job done!

All I need now is a 15-degree increase in ambient temperature and I can try it out!

Pete

[RSBowling]

Pleased you sorted it mate,

Look forward to hearing what the ride is like!

Rich

[Joe Bar]

I put Shock Factory shocks on my Bonneville three years ago after having issues with some Hagons I'd tried, since then I've put them on on my wife's Ducati Scrambler two years ago, and now have one on her R NineT as well. I got them from Winding Roads, they ordered them up to the spec we requested and the shocks have worked straight out of the box.

They are a really good shock for the money, all three have come with the spring preload set bob on for either mine or the wife's weight, and the damping adjuster is easy to use and get the set up you need. The change in ride quality over the standard shocks of all three bikes was instantly noticeable, and a few clicks of the damping adjuster either way produces a noticeable difference in the firmness of the damping, so you can easily dial in the ride you need. Not being an aggressive rider, my wife tends to have hers backed off a little for a softer ride, so if I sneak a ride her bike I tend to firm it up to stop it wallowing through faster corners and to keep it in line. She can usually tell within a mile or so if I've been out and not re-set the damping to where it was. Whereas, quite a few oem shocks you can twiddle with the adjusters all day and wonder if they're actually connected to anything inside the shock there's so little difference.

Back to back with a couple of my other bikes (one with Ohlins, the other Nitron), I'd say the Shock Factory damping quality is on par with Nitron and not far off Ohlins on the road. The Nitron's I have have the same spec as the Shock Factory items, with a combined compression / rebound adjuster, which alters both settings in a pre-defined ratio, whilst the Ohlins have separate compression and rebound settings. Of the three the Ohlins are deinitely set up for faster riding with much firmer damping in the middle of the range, and so generally need backing off for a nice road ride and reasonable speeds. The Nitron's and Shock Factory are quite similar with the Nitron's coming from the factory set slightly firmer.

The finish of the Ohlins and Nitron's is better but there's nothing much wrong with the finish of the Shock Factory items, it's just side by side you can see the differences. But, for a good quality road shock to replace an iffy or worn oem unit, the Shock Factory stuff is really good value I reckon.

[milleplod]

Thanks for that info - nice to know I appear to have picked a highly rated bit of kit. I'm hoping to get the front one within a few weeks too, they'd not quite got it ready when I got the rear, so fingers crossed that production is up and running soon. Mind you, looking at the weather I'll not be going anywhere for a while anyway!

Pete

[marksmotorcycleparts]

Hi Gents,

I've just registered on the forum and am pleased to see the positive comments and to read that "I don't subscribe to the view that you can have to many new shocks for your motorbikes" - good attitude.

I got involved with the Shock Factory after buying one of their socks for my R Nine T Urban G/S -which had a pretty awful shock as standard. The Shock Factory replacement was an immediate improvement with far more compliance over small bumps and increased damping on the big bumps that had the OE shock bottoming out painfully.

If you're not familiar with the Shock Factory range, we do single adjustable and double adjustable rear shocks, and single adjustable fronts. There is also a range of dual shocks for your classic bike. All have a threaded preload collar, and can be built over of under length to give you a fixed change in adjust seat height / steering angle. On some units we can fit a threaded ride height adjuster so you can vary the installed length yourself to tune the steering feel. We also take your details for weight, luggage and pillion use, and build your shock with the ideal spring rate for you.

Prices are £350 for all single adjustable rears, £450 for double adjustable rears, +£50 for a ride height adjuster, fronts are £200. Prices include delivery to your door and 2 year warranty. We don't charge any extra for custom spring rates or length adjustments. Delivery varies between one and two weeks depending on workload at the factory. There is a hydraulic preload adjuster on the way, waiting for parts to be machined and then tested. Should be ready in the summer.

All in all I'd say that you're getting pretty much Ohlins quality for pretty much Hagon prices. Having owned bikes in the past with Ohlins, WP, Sachs, Showa and Hagon shocks I can honestly say that these are punching well above their price range.

There's more information on my website, www.marksmotorcycleparts.co.uk. If anyone has a question please message me through the forum or else email me directly at mark@marksmotorcycleparts.co.uk

Thanks, Mark

PS we have a trade stand at Prescott Bike Festival, 14 & 15 April 2018, and will have a couple of the shocks on the stand. It promises to be a great day out so if you're in the area please come along and say Hi, and see the shocks for yourself.