Can anyone shed a bit of light on how to adjust the mono-shock on a 95 cbr? Special tool required ??

 

Assuming your model is the same as my 99FX, get on your hands and knees and look under the right hand side foot rest andthrough the right hand exhaust shield. You will see the shock and what I can only describe as a piece of metal with a small round hole in it about eye level. Get a nice long screwdriver and aim for the centre of that hole. Ideally shine a torch down there and you will find a Phillips type header. You turn this clockwise to increase the damping force, and anti-clockwise to reduce it. Try and make a note of the current position before you start.

If you need any pics let me know.

Phil

 

Thanks for your help. Im thinking its a guess-and-by-golly thing where you just keep adjusting it until it feels right. I thought there may have been some tighening of a lock or something. I guess its just a nitrogen filled canister and were controlling the oriface inside it. My old bike had a adjuster that you turned and it placed more tension on or off the spring. I suppose most riders like a stiffer suspension than a cusioney feel anyways. Sometimes when I ride into a corner and hit a dip in the road it feels a bit loosy-goosey and I think if it was a bit tighter or harder it would help it out. Too bad there are no adjustments on the front forks. Guess the Honda engineers were a bit rushed to get it to the assembly line...lol

cheers

 

hey gill , on my 96 model i have a 8mm nut i turn ,same place as floggers under the right side under your butt . i experimented with mine all the way on soft for a month, i scrapped over speed bumps and it fel like i was doing the twist around corners ( SWAYING) then i tried all the way on hard and have never gone back, makes the fornt end feel lighter and gave me more confidence. mine has a gauge also that kind of looks like a tire preesure gauge were it tells you what setting your on. my bike came with the original tool pouch that has a crapy 8mm that a screwdriver slides into it but i gace that up and just went with the socket and ratchet. good luck and let us know which you like best.kd

 

Hi kd. Where is this tire pressure looking gauge you mentioned located? I haven't come across anything like that on my '96 when making preload adjustments. The owner's manual doesn't show anything like that either. Thanks.

 

Nice to see you back Roger - where have you been hiding ?

 

hey roger, like flogger said it's a little hole the size of your pinky finger on the right side , if you take off your seat it's the first panel to come off , on the right side , you'll see a long adjustment screw that looks about the size of a pen or pencil, i use a 8mm socket as i told gill because the tool supplied by honda had to be attached to the screwdriver. if you still cant find it by monday i'll try to bring my camera home over the weekend and snap some shots of mine for you. lmk kd.

 

Setting the spring pre-loadis as easy as cranking up on the 8mm hex until the rear suspension sags about 1/8" orjust tops out under its own weight, measured at the axle/wheel centerline, bike standing upright, no rider aboard. (That's referred to as "free sag", BTW.) The static sag will come in acceptable if you're in the 200# range.

"Static sag", rider aboard this time, should fall in the minimum 3/4" to maximum of 1 1/4". Readings out of that range suggest the need for a different spring. Most riders should be able to accomplish those readings if they aren't much more than 250# or less than 150#. The further out of that range, the worse the bike will handle. The only solution is to accept it or change the spring.

Tighter thanjust zero free sagis bad news as the suspension will top out too easily when unloading over a bump. If you are real light, like 150# or less,you might want to add some more "free sag", 1/4" to 3/8", to get the "static sag" up to at least 7/8" or so, but also could use a lighter spring.

A search of some suspension shops will have more detailed info on this relatively generic set of guidelines. Also, what I typed is from my direct experience with this bike and at 200#. I've got about 1/16" free sag and about 7/8" static sag. Decent numbers, especially for a stock bike.

The screw at the bottom is for the shock rebound setting only. Standing beside the bike, bounceitsharply using your foot on a peg and hand placed at the rear of the tank. The bike should compress and rebound at the same rate, front to rear. If the rear comes up quicker than the front, add rebound. If it comes up slower than the front, decrease rebound. Work with that until they're both acting in unison. That should be a real good baseline, if not final, set-up. Also, the reboundadjustment on mine, a 1990, is very sensitive with all of the noticeable change in only about 1/8 or 1/4 turn of that screw, at the tight or clockwise end of that range, even though it is capable of turning about 180 degrees.

BTW, the front springs are a tad soft for a 200# rider and the front static sag was excessive, like 2 1/8". I made a new spacer from PVC pipe that was about 5/8" longer than stock. It raised the front to 1 3/8" static sag, acceptable. 1 1/4" would have been OK, too.

More importantly, I raised the fork oil level dramatically, from the stock suggested 6 7/8" to 4 3/4". That helps tremendously with bottoming out on hard braking yet leaves the normal ride comfort relatively the same. The fork level is critical as it acts as an air spring adding a progressive characteristic to what's already there by reducing the volume of compressible medium, increasing the pressure on a steeper slope as the fork is compressed. I made these changes when the bike had about 27,000 miles on it and rode it that way since, now over 120,000 miles. That includes track riding it quite aggressively, surprisingly so. It was very decent for the tank it is and on stock components. Hope that helps.

 

Thanks kd.I was assuming you were talking aboutan item separatefrom the adjusting screwwhen you said"tire pressure likegauge"...somethingadditional to the adjusting screwwhich wouldeasily show the 1-36 positions of the preload setting. From your response, Ibelieve youmean theadjusting screw,and gauge, are one and the same. In that case, I'm already familiar with the preload adjuster.I was hoping to find something new.[&:] Thanks again.

HiShadow. Hiding?? What's my quota on posts? My stats indicate I've put up a least one per day for the last week. When I'm a heavy hitter like you, r1000, et al, on the tech side(in another life, lol!) I'll try and get my average up. Be well!

 

Thanks Dad for your input. I will definitly adjust the suspension up a notch as I find it a bit saggy right now. Perhaps the fellow who owned the bike before me was a bit heavier.Or it could be the 190/55-17 tire on the back. I think the recommended tire from Honda is a 170. Like I was saying, I find it a bit loosy-goosy on dips around turns. Like a bit of a dumptruck, if you will. There is not alot of kilometers on the bike so I'm assuming the spring and nitro chamber are okay. Could there be alot of handling difference with a bigger tire on the back??

BTW, Rodger, what is the "official" colour name of the yellow/green scheme on your CBR? I'm trying to match up the paint on my bike and I'm finding it difficult to find a match.

Cheers