Rajah
Guest
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I have ridden an ST1300 for the past 9 years. Recently, I purchased an NT 700 and just returned from a 1600 mile trip on the NT. The difference between the two bikes besides the obvious was the ride. The NT has a teeth jawing suspension. After reading the Forum, I saw where others had asked about changing the Rear Spring on a Stock Shock.
I am fortunate because I was only 30 minutes from OHLIN'S, USA Distributor. I rode down to Hendersonville, N.C. and spoke to their Representative. Not to my surprise, they did not have any product for the NT, and knew little about the bike. He did offer to rate the Spring if I would take it off and bring it back. That weekend I removed the Shock and returned to Ohlin's on Monday. I met Brad Stokes, a technician in the Motorcycle Division. He quickly removed the Spring from the Shock and put it into a machine that measured the Spring at 10mm increments. He took the results over to Engineering and came back with a graph of the Spring Rate. Honda uses a progressive spring. We tried to compare it with some of the specifications I had found on the Forum, nothing matched. They suggested a Spring to use and unfortunately it was not in their stock. They ordered it on their normal stock order from Sweden. After a week the new Spring arrived and was put on the same machine. Now we have a comparison. In the first 10mm of movement the new Spring is stiffer. At 25 mm it crossed over and was exactly the same. From then on it was lighter. I took the new Spring home and installed it. To R&R the Shock is the same process as changing the Lower Eye. The only difference is you need to remove the lock nut to remove the Spring Retainer and Spring.
Ride Report: The bike rides and performs the same as it did before EXCEPT I now no longer have the teeth jarring from the rear wheel. The front is still stiff which will be a project for another day.
If you choose to do this, contact Ohlin's at (828) 243-5548. The part number of the Spring is 001092-91. They call it #230. I am 6' 200 lbs., if you are lighter I would suggest you try 01092-89, #210. This Spring is lighter from the beginning to the end. I think I could have used the lighter Spring. The cost of the Spring is just under $100.00.
If you call Ohlin's, ask for Brad, he is familiar with my bike, and a nicer guy you will never meet. He is one of the Tech's that support the Super Bikes.
The advice to try the lighter spring if rider weighs under 200 lbs is incorrect. When I talked to Ohlins and told them which bike it was, they called me back and also advised me to get the #210 spring. I installed the Ohlins 001092-89 #210 spring. I weigh 170lbs. With just me on the bike (no riding gear or additional weight) with the preload adjuster at minimum, the static sag is 6.5 cm (2 1/2") So I tried bumping the preload up in increments of 10 turns, and even at maximum preload, the static sag is 3.7 cm (1 1/2"). So even at max preload the sag is too great, by a small margin, but it leaves no room to adjust more preload in for adding luggage or gear. I am going to try the #230 spring. I'm hoping if I can get the #210 spring out and it's not damaged, they will take it back, since it was their suggestion and clearly it is too low a rate, but I may have purchased a pretty, yellow paper weight. I still think the damping is too high for solo riding, so if you have money to spend, the thing to do would be to get a new shock, properly damped and sprung.If you choose to do this, contact Ohlin's at (828) 243-5548. The part number of the Spring is 001092-91. They call it #230. I am 6' 200 lbs., if you are lighter I would suggest you try 01092-89, #210. This Spring is lighter from the beginning to the end. I think I could have used the lighter Spring.