Wilsons Sandbox

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004, bounder199 wrote:

>My wife and I with our ridding gear and the rest of the stuff we carry in >the rear bags will probably run around 425lbs. The bike handles ok on >the roads we travel on. Mostly street with 20% gravel roads.

Progressive 500/560 over the stock shock. Set the preload to "5" when fully loaded and max out the damping adjuster wheel. RM

In a message dated 2004-07-05 8:35:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time, willis@... writes:

> > I thank everyone who sent me email with suggestions on helping out > my rear suspension. > > I ended up buying a Progressive 420 - an easy install - and that > does the trick. The wife is more than pleased with the ride and the > headlight now hits the road! > > Should I keep the stock shock or sell it - only 1,200 highway miles > on it? > >

Old OEM shocks make good door stops and such, but are good for little else. Pat G'ville, Nv [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

kdxkawboy@... wrote:

>In a message dated 2004-07-05 8:35:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time, >willis@... writes: > > > >>I thank everyone who sent me email with suggestions on helping out >>my rear suspension. >> >>I ended up buying a Progressive 420 - >> >Old OEM shocks make good door stops and such, but are good for little else. > >

No, wait until the 420 goes south. The stock shock starts out lousy but then doesn't get too much worse. The 420 really stops damping when it starts to go. I wore the chrome off the shaft in 8000mi. It's been in at Progressive for 6 weeks for warranty repair. I'm not all that happy with them at the moment. Devon

In a message dated 2004-07-06 6:58:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, bigfatgreenbike@... writes:

> > No, wait until the 420 goes south. The stock shock starts out lousy but > then doesn't get too much worse. The 420 really stops damping when it > starts to go. I wore the chrome off the shaft in 8000mi. > It's been in at Progressive for 6 weeks for warranty repair. > > I'm not all that happy with them at the moment. > > Devon > >

Sounds like a good argument to get a WP Performance Shock to start with. Pat [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

kdxkawboy@... wrote:

>In a message dated 2004-07-06 6:58:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, >bigfatgreenbike@... writes: > > > >>No, wait until the 420 goes south. The stock shock starts out lousy but >>then doesn't get too much worse. The 420 really stops damping when it >>starts to go. I wore the chrome off the shaft in 8000mi. >>It's been in at Progressive for 6 weeks for warranty repair. >> >>I'm not all that happy with them at the moment. >> >>Devon >> >> >> >> > >Sounds like a good argument to get a WP Performance Shock to start with. > >Pat >

That's what I've been shouting from the rooftops. If I add up everything I spent on springs, fluid, spare shocks while I rebuilt old ones or sent them out, and then the 420, then I had enough to buy a Works Performance shock from the start, and have money left over. From someone who's tried five or six different rear suspension configurations, the progressive shock is a MILD improvement over a freshly serviced stock shock fitted with an identical spring. The rave reviews you hear about the 420 are coming from people who replaced a shagged-out stocker with a new 420. Devon

In a message dated 2004-07-06 6:27:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, kd6mpo@... writes:

> > After a weekend of rather "steep and rough" riding, the KLR stopped > idling, in fact it was only running half throttle plus! I drained > what must have seemed cups of gasoline from that little > plugged "oil" drain hose from the air box. Everytime I sat on the > bike and rocked back and forth (with the engine trying to run) I > would see streams of gas come out of the hose (I had removed the > plug). OK you armchair mechanics... what is your guess??? > . >

Sounds like the classic symptoms of a float valve that ain't closing. Pat G'ville, Nv [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]