| Author | Message | ||
     Gearheaderiko |
On sale for $377! I would definitely double check the length though. I seem to remember some length changes between years. At $650 I would get a Blast specific shock! Works Performance has most the lengths listed at their website (in case anyone else didnt know). | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Buell Tech # (414)343-8400 | ||
| Naustin |
The V-Star shock is 10.88 vs 10.38 for the stock Blast. So, the v-star is 1/2 inch longer overall, with the same amount of travel, but a lighter spring at only 760lbs vs the stock blast at 900lbs(we think). One went used on ebay for around $75 last week, but I didn't buy it because I thought that 760lbs was way too light if the blast is at 900lbs stock. Also, it has only preload adjustment, not dampening. There are two other possibilities. First, The 92-98 Seca II 600 had a 10.62 inch shock. Only .3 inches longer than the blast shock - it is the best candidate so far in terms of any potential ride height increase. Spring rate is unknown at this point. There is one for sale on Ebay right now. Second, and possibly even better: the `86 VFR700 / VFR750F. Both use the same unit. It is 10.63 inches long - again only .3 inches longer than the stock Blast unit. Spring rate is unknown here as well, but the unit has both preload, and dampening adjustment. There are 2 for sale on ebay right now. One is part of the swingarm package - so the pictures show how it is mounted in the VFR. The problem here is that we are talking about a 20 year old shock and it may be tough to find one in good condition. Its rare as well, so it looks to bring a premium on ebay. One more marginal possibility is the 02-03 Indian Cheif. It has a 10.5 inch monoshock. only .12 inches longer than the Blast's stocker. Spring Rate is unknown, however it is likely to have a fairly heavy spring since the Cheif is so heavy... These are the only bikes with monoshocks of similar length to the blast according to Works: Bike........................Length....Spring Rate 02-03 Indian Cheif.......10.5.....??? 86 VFR 700/750F.........10.63....??? 92-98 Seca II 600.......10.62....??? 98+ V-Star 650..............10.88....760lbs Nick (Message edited by naustin on July 31, 2006) | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
I can find all kinds of springs and sizes for Harleys, but not a listing for anything else. Something will turn up and it certainly looks like there is a few more options coming to the surface. All we need is length and spring rate guide. Somebody's got to be willing to give one up. The goal still being cheap, because we can get a custom shock made up for $400+. Again, nice research Nick. | ||
| Ezblast |
I'd like to take this time to further detail my latest shock conversion, and shed light on it's benefits. First off, the ONLY negative about this shock coversion, is that it's only applicable for heavier riders 210-300+lbs ! The Seca II made by Yamaha, were made from 1992-1998, so there are alot of these shocks out there to pick up- CHEAP ! Just find a nice clean low mileage one- and you'll be good to go. Shock lengths, our stock Blast shock has an eye to eye length of 10.38". The first shock I adapted earlier this year to my Blast, was the Honda 919 shock -which has a eye to eye length of 11.25". But my latest Seca II shock has an eye to eye length of 10.70" , which is PERFECT for a Blast application- where as the Honda shock was really too tall, and raised the rear end quite a bit until I modded the spring for *Zero* preload, but it still had a slight tail up attitude even with my taller front tire and front forks springs shimmed. The other negative about the honda 919 shock, was that the increased length rasied the swingarm so much- that the drive belt was always running a bit on the loose side (but after 4000miles of use- it proved no harm to the belt). Back to the Seca II shock, although it has a slightly longer length than our stock shock, when mounted you really won't notice it, and the drive belt WILL BE at the Proper tension (for those who worried about loose belts etc). The Seca shock has a 7-way preload collar, and I've been experimenting with running it in either postion 1 or 2 (1 being the least preload and 7 the highest). Comparing the bike weights and spring rates. Our stock Blast has a 370-lb dry weight, the Seca was a bike with 401-lb dry weight, while the Honda 919 I believe has a 425-lb dry weight. Compared to our stock Blast Shock, the Honda shock was a bit over sprung (but ok for some applications), and the Seca II shock although using a bit heavier spring rate- really is Perfect for riders in the weight range that I mentioned above- and comes with 7 preload settings for the different (Heavy) weight riders. I wish I could say the Seca II shock was a pure bolt in, but it is not quite. Both the upper and lower eyelets need modded, the lower needing the most as it's waaay too wide, and both ends used a mounting bolt that was a larger diameter(than our blast)- so you need to either re-bush or use a shim sleeve to allow our OEM Bolt size to fit properly. But thats all thats needed to make the shock fit. So if you are a Heavy Blaster, and think you might be overwhelming the rear shock on bumps and dips in the road, well this maybe the perfect low cost conversion for you. LOL- and I'm taking orders now  Yes, if YOU Can't mod your own Seca shock, I'd be glad to do it for you for a Fee ! I'm charging $100 for the complete modded Seca II shock shipped to you, or I'll charge you $65 to do the work to a Seca II shock supplied by YOU. And I just shipped out my first customer shock today. ~Ralph This is not an add - if your interested you'll have to go to the group and talk to Ralph - I know he'd be happy to help - lol - however, the info is information about modifying the Blast suspension, and if nothing else the BADWEB is about do it your selfers - lol - so it definately gets posted for posterity. Personally works recommended for the regular Blast shock - 7.5 oil and 1/4 inch shim on the spring - several places including works will also sell a heavier duty spring - call for pricing, another vendor I mentioned earlier will cut a spring at specific rate - 900 the Works rate being stiffer than stock - for around 200 bucks. I thought I'd put that out there as well - Hagon - if I remember right - 475 to 525 for their 3 way custom shock - I just got the Works 3 way - black spring - silver body - will be mounting it soon enough - You can get them from our fine American Sport Bike sponsor - good folks, get a lot of my replacables there also. GT - JBOTDS! EZ  (Message edited by ezblast on September 11, 2006) | ||
| Ezblast |
Dialing in the Works shock, however, the installation was pretty straight forward - I just did what the guy on the phone suggested for mounting, and I didn't have to cut any bodywork either to get at adjustments either - the resoviour is between the mounting hook loops on the frame with the line secured up by a couple ziptie on a opposite hook loop - the body is silver and the spring is black and the bolts painted with Rustollium black - lol - the one troubling thing to me and Scott was the lower shock bolt - I know it was just a freak thing, however, if I had kept riding on that shock for a longer period - bad things would have happened - the SS grade 8 bolt had somehow acquired enough moisture to rust half through in the threaded section and snap in half on disassembly - replaced - lol - a freak thing - we still haven't figured how it could do that - however the water groove was there, I'm glad I found that now instead of the hard way later. Will be doing the shimming of the other shocks and reinstalling soon and inspecting bolts, Works recommended replacing the shock oil with 7.5 as well for a stock mod for performance - how hard is that I already have the spring compresser? Called them today to get a better baseline setting, will also talk to Terry monday at the ASBN meeting - right now she's way too stiff - lol - will do pics when dialed in - so I could give some kind of base line as well. GT - JBOTDS! EZ | ||
| Ezblast |
After another phone call I was able to make the rock hard shock down to just a bit stiff and really great feal with out unnescessary feedback - I used a drillbit to grind just a tad more clearance for the shock's hose on an otherwise easy installment - a very nice improvement indeed. Here are the pics -     And she still looks stock? - lol  Yeah - stock! HAAHAHAHAHHHHAAA! GT - JBOTDS! EZ | ||
| Mabueller |
What about front shock mods? What have folks been doing to stop the dive on hard braking? | ||
| Buellistic |
2 inch spacers in each fork and SCREAM'N Eagle fork oil ... This is what "i" did !!! In BLASTing LaFayette | ||
| Ezblast |
Works - they sell a front end spring kit - $100.00 - what I have in both bikes - very nice with a weight selection of spacers - the 2" spacers are a bit much - how about 3/4" with about a 1/3" spacer in the rear - will be trying the rear spacer - on both Scott and my red bike with Scott getting the front spacers as well. GT - JBOTDS! EZ | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Concur with EZ! The cheap way is with shims (washers or PVC pipe). Next would be different weight fork oil (engine oil if you really want to stiffen it up). 3rd would be to change to aftermarket fork springs (Progressive, Works,etc.). 4th change the fork valves (Racetech $160). 5th convert to modern 'cartridge' style internals($1100). You can do a lot with just shims and oil, finding a combination that works best for you. Buellistic obviously likes his stiff. EZ and I prefer more of the middle of the road. Stiff springs and lightweight oil or soft springs and heavyweight oil can yield almost identical results on the street. While there is a formula for setting up suspension, unless you're prone to regular high speeds (racing), I'd set it up to whatever is comfortable for you. I personally found that stiffening up the suspension really improved the ride as well as the handling (1" spacers in the front-30w oil, 1/4" shim in the back). | ||
| Mabueller |
Great discussion. Thanks guys. I am waiting for my parts manual to arrive so I see how things go together. So all these options are helpful. But how do you shim the rear shock? | ||
| Ezblast |
Compress spring, tear apart shock apply spacer, put together, uncompress spring - lol - as Erik O showed me - the Parts manual shows how to dis-assemble and assemble - no mention in the Maintenance manual. GT - JBOTDS! EZ | ||
| Mabueller |
Ahh, Another few days and UPS will bring me enlightenment! | ||
| Buellistic |
BLASTers: Some Basics, ie: Suspension Tuning: Front forks: one leg controls Compression and the other controls Rebound ... You can change these by spending BIG $$$.$$ by buying better valves ... "BUT" you can do the same thing by changing the thickness of the Fork Oil in each fork leg to do the same thing !!! "i" put SCREAM'M Eagle fork oil in both fork legs which works for me ... THIN oil moves through the valve quicker and THICK oil does not ... NOW lets talk about Pre-Load ... "i" try to set my Pre-Load for one(1) inch ... The way you check Pre-Load for the Front Forks is: Put a TYE WRAP on one of the fork legs ... With a friends help, stradle the bike without sitting on the seat pull the handlebars up to extend the forks ... Have friend move the TYE WRAP down to the fork slider ... Now gently settle you weight onto the seat ... Now raise you weight off the seat ... Have your friend measure the DISTANCE between the TYE WRAP and the Fork Slider ... You want to attain ONE(1) inch if you can ... "i" put a 2 inch spacer in each fork leg which worked for me("i" weight 250 Lbs.) "OR" you can spend the BIG $$$.$$ and buy Progressive wound fork springs ... REAR SHOCK: With the friend still helping you, stradle the bike ... Pull up on the tail section ... Have friend measure from a point above the rear axle to the ground ... Now gentley lower you weight onto the seat then have friend measure the the distance now ... Like the front forks you are going for one (1) inch difference ... "i" put a one(1) inch spacer in my rear shock("i" weight 250 lbs.) which works for me ... "OR" you can spend the BIG $$$.$$ for a better shock ... IMHO($$$.$$ wise) it is better to "PRODUCT IMPROVE" the OEM Parts ... In BLASTing LaFayette | ||
| Krid80 |
ok.. I am seriously wanting to put spacers in my front and rear shocks, and I've heard pvc piping can be used. Any instructions with exact sizes online? | ||
| Buellistic |
Krid80: PVC can be used ... Did a friend of mines 2 years ago and has had no problems with spacers ... Did mine 3 months ago and no problems ... "i" am in Savannah, GA. and will not be back home until the 24th to give you PVC sizes ... In BLASTing LaFayette | ||
| Krid80 |
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Spacer size? Anyone? | ||
| Ezblast |
sch80 - grey pipe, front looks like 1" - will measure when I get home to make sure - rear is 2 1/2". 4 to 1 ratio - therefore - 1" front would be between 1/4" to 1/3" rear spacer - depending on weight - lol GT - JBOTDS! EZ | ||
| Mabueller |
Thanks Buelistic. So if : "Front forks: one leg controls Compression and the other controls Rebound ... " Which leg is which? Does it make sense to change the oil on the Compression leg but leave the rebound the same? | ||
| Buellistic |
Mabueller: On the more HIGH TECH. Front Forks there are Rebound and Compression adjusments on each fork leg ... On the XB Models one Fork is for Compression with an adjustment and the other Fork is for rebound with an adjustment(unless they have two each adjustments per fork) ... Now since the BLAST Forks have no adjustment you can do it with different weights of oil ... This is something you have to play around with to get it RIGHT to suite you and the way you ride ... "i" put SCREAM'N Eagle Fork Oil in both Fork Legs ... After "i" get to riding it more it is not satisfactory as in to much dive on hard braking, "i' will put a little heavier oil in the compression side ... "i" can not remember which is which, "BUT" "i" did NOTE it in my Service Manual and Parts Book ... "i" am out of town and no one is at home to look at my NOTES ... If you remove your Forks to do this, be sure to drain each fork leg into a seperate container to check how much oil is in each leg ... If your forks have never had the oil changed, this will be the correct amount from the factory ... "i" did and the forks had more oil in each leg than what the Service Manual said to put in ... Service Manuals do have "ERRORS" in them as the PROOF READERS do not catch them all ... In BLASTing LaFayette | ||
| Mabueller |
Thanks Buellistic. I'd appreciate you letting me know what your notes say when you get back home. Enjoy your trip. | ||
| Jprovo |
Just FYI - XB models have rebound and compression damping adjustments on both forks. I don't remember the Blast having seperate rebound and compression damping in each leg (like the M2 did). The Blast has damping rods, and I believe thesame internals on each leg... | ||
| Ezblast |
Concur! | ||
| Buellistic |
On the "TUBE FRAME" Models one side was adjustable for Compression and one side was adjustable for Rebound ... The under engine has Rebound/Compression adjustment plus Pre-load ... The Factory(BMC) did provide fork springs with a bettter Pre-load ... If you wanted to Pre-load them more one had to put a spacer in ... When "i" took the forks off my blast one was easy to compress and one was hard to compress ... IMHO, my conclusion is the one was for that was easy compress was for Rebound and the that was hard to compress was for Compression ... In improving the handling the "safety aspect" is to keep tires in contact with the road/track surface !!! In BLASTing LaFayette (Message edited by gearheaderiko on October 20, 2006) | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
The Blast does not have separate rebound and compression fork legs. Do not try to adjust your forks this way (unless you're Buellistic). They were not designed for this and your Blast will handle poorly at best or "cause serious injury or death" at worst. Each leg has 1 rebound spring and 1 compression spring. All parts are identical per leg (except axle and caliper mounts). IMHO Buellistics fork legs were noticeably different on removal and needed 2" of shims was because the bike was older, worn in and possibly had a fork leg replaced due to an accident. ...and yes the Blast repair manual has many errors in it! (Message edited by gearheaderiko on October 21, 2006) | ||
| Mabueller |
So a good first step in solving the compression "dive" during braking is to use a different fork oil? Suggestions as what to try first? | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Both the shims and fork oil will help with that. A good first step would be to take the measurements as Buellistic described (it can be done alone, but its easier with a helper).If you have a 2" difference in the front then a 1" spacer should bring that down to 1". I'd do the shims also since the fork will be apart to drain the oil. You can gradually move up in fork oil weights or go straight to the 30w and see how you like it! Really, I think 1" and 20w is a good start.Where you go from there will depend on your preference of hard or soft ride (and while the goal is to keep the wheel in contact with the ground without bouncing, you'll ultimately be the judge of how it rides). Points to remember: support the front of the bike with the wheel off the ground, forks fully extended. Be careful not to lose the stop ring-it will fly out and disappear if you're not careful-and its very unlikely to be in stock at the HD/Buell dealer (and even harder to order). 1/4" shim = 1" in the rear. | ||
| Swampy |
Does the spacer go on top or under the stop ring? | ||
| Buellistic |
Gearheaderiko is CORRECT about tuning the suspension ... IF YOU GET IT "WRONG" YOU CAN WIND UP WITH A POOR HANDLING DANGERIOUS MOTORCYCLE !!! In BLASTing LaFayette |
