My '90 f1 has really soft suspension, and I get the feeling it's just an age problem, not something wrong with the bike per se. I'd looked at buying an aftermarket rear shock, but that's like $1000, a lot more than I'm able to invest at present.

My second idea was to swap in the rear shock from a 600 rr (readily available on ebay for under $30) but it looks like the connections are so different as to make it nearly impossible.

Yesterday, my friend suggested that I may need to only replace the spring, and not the entire shock. Does that sound like a good option? if so, where would be a good place to get a replacement spring?

I'm just tired of bottoming out on speed bumps...

 

I know the f4i shock works you just have to mount the resivor and you bike sits up like an inch and a half.

 

Or try finding a parts bike on E-bay , or a local bike salvage yard to get one off of . I'm not positive , But I believe that yr did have a bit of a soft suspension on them ,, I don't think they are adjustable till the f-3 / f-4 , but like dagon said,,it will work ,,,as I've seen them on the f-1's , and you'll have to mount the reservoir on the subframe under the airbox I believe . But be forewarned , it raises up the rear pretty good and may throw your center percentage off balance a bit. Check around on craigslist or e-bay for aftermarket or oem mono's.

 

I'm also just going to get a new spring for my F4. At 200 lbs I'm a bit too heavy for the stock spring and although my sag is set for my weight, the pre-load is set at 5 (out of 7) so I don't have much travel left. Same for the front, which is set to max pre-load. The 'best' option for me ($$ wise) is to just get new springs front and rear. I don't race so getting a full suspension upgrade is a waste of money (well, it will probably quite good but I don't have the money for that ).

So yeah, just look for a shock. It's only a 100 bucks or so (can't give you any websites, I'm not in the US).

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll start poking around for an f4 shock.

If it raises it up, should I look into lowering the bike to counteract it? seeing as my bike is too low I haven't red up on it much yet.

Update: Looks like I should be able to get it for as little as $40 plus shipping easy

Update 2: (maybe I should start a new thread for this question...)
It looks like I can get a whole back swing arm for not much more, which tempts me to try to replace that to put wider rubber on the back... how easy of a mod would that be?

Update 3: I looked into lowering a little, and the concept seems simple enough. Looks like if I throw a lowering link in there the ride hight problems should be nullified. I found a couple f4 shocks on ebay, _with_lowering_links_. Offered $35 for one (down from 40) and with $15 SnH sounds like a good deal to me. When and if I get one, I'll be sure to post up details of the swap!

Thanks again for the suggestions! got really bummed after seeing the RR linkage.

 

I meant to just get a new spring, not a whole shock. Although the F4/f4i shock is pretty decent I think.

Thinking about it.. if it feels soft and spongy, it might not be just the spring... It's the oil/gas that regulates the rate of compression/rebound right?

In that case I would suggest replacing the whole thing instead of just the spring. Makes more sense in your case. I want to change the spring just because of the spring rate.. Is the front spongy too. I just changed my fork oil and it feels more solid (in a good way).

 

heh... well, I've already ordered the shock. We'll see if I can get the whole thing on there, if not, try just changing the spring.

Took it out to see how the front is doing, and the front is definitely soft too. Think just changing the oil is enough? or the springs too