major flooding...

[bounder199]

Anyone have any suggestions for beefing up the rear shock & spring - without spending a fortune. 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. We have ridden about 700 miles this week and the seat is certainly a bigger issue at the present - but I think the shock spring is getting tired!

[rm@richardmay.net]

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

[bounder199]

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? Thanks again, Bill

[kdxkawboy@aol.com]

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]

[Devon]

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

[kdxkawboy@aol.com]

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]

[bigfatgreenbike]

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

[kdxkawboy@aol.com]

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]