Upgrade front or rear suspension?

[al_roethlisberger]

Sounds good Lex..

 

Suspension is next on my list, but probably won't be doing it for a while pending finances after the engine work

 

But please let us know what you end up having done, how much it ends up costing, and the results... and LE's thoughts on the suspension results after the work was complete.

 

...yes, a complete "report"

 

al

[Mike Stewart]

Lex,

 

I plan to ship my forks and shock to LE as soon as I get my V11S back from the shop. They claim that their revalve will be better or as good than the Ohlins. For the money, LE is the waaay to goooo at a fraction of the price! By the way, I sold my 94 BMW 1100 RSL cause I never rode it after I bought the Guzzi!

[al_roethlisberger]

...good point regarding "value," plus to tell you the truth, I really like my black anodized/ribbed fork legs. I'm not too sure I want gold ones

 

I'll be checking into it myself later in the year(maybe not till next Winter... funds permitting), especially since LE is just down the street from me, it'd be crazy not to!

 

I'll be very interested to hear yours and Lex's feedback after the work is complete, especially since you both have had experience with many other suspensions and bikes to compare it with.

 

 

al

[profWacko]

Ok, Lex.

 

What's the story now that three weeks have gone by?

 

Inquiring minds want to KNOW!

 

Ride well. Ride safe.

-Jack Price

Glendale, CA

02 V11 Le Mans

01 KTM Duke II

83 V50 III

[Lex]

Jack,

 

Pretty much normal, my bike sits. The forks and shocks may be done tomorrow. I've used LE a lot in the past, I'm not surprised at the delay. They seem to make promises figuring they can make a date and then some racer comes in with "I gotta have this fixed by Friday so I can go to the ______ and race" and street stuff gets pushed back. I had a talk with Jim Monday, I hope I whined enough to make the Friday completion date.

 

More when there is something to say,

 

Lex

[al_roethlisberger]

They seem to make promises figuring they can make a date and then some racer comes in with "I gotta have this fixed by Friday so I can go to the ______ and race" and street stuff gets pushed back.

 

 

...that doesn't sound like a "ringing endorsement" of their customer service

 

Can't wait to hear how it turns out, especially since they are right down the street from me.

 

al

[Lex]

OK, the time is here, I can stop having waking nightmares every time I walk in my garage; I just finished putting my Goose it back together. I don’t want to waste space and bandwidth sending another picture but please mentally replace the scary picture of my stripped bike I posted a week ago with a picture of a 2001 Silver V11 Sport and a very happy owner to this post. I’m going out for a ride and will report back with how it works over the road today or tomorrow. In the interim, here is the static info:

 

Cost: $744.65 OTD Of that total the fork was $426, the rest the shock plus $18.05 tax on the springs and shock oil.

 

That is worst case, I needed three springs, the re-valve and a spacer made for the shock spring as the correct weight spring was not available in the length the Moto Guzzi fits to the stock (Sachs, not Boge as said in an earlier post) shock.

 

Time: 22 days. Again, this was worst case. My wife was going to the area and she was kind enough to drop the stuff off at LE. This saved me the cost and fear of damage that goes with sending my very expensive and delicate parts as freight but it also meant my parts set for a while before the work started. I think the turnaround would be a lot less if you made an appointment and didn’t drop off your parts until close to the starting date.

 

Regarding Al’s comment about customer service, I guess it depends on how you look at things. LE runs like an old fashion bike shop, if my stuff is waiting for work and somebody comes in with an urgent problem his bike may well be pushed in front of mine. I can’t say I am thrilled but I have developed enough trust with LE over the years to not get highly stressed over it. On the same note, if anybody is planning to deliver your stuff the LE, be prepared to be totally under whelmed with the shop. The space is in a nondescript light industrial strip mall. The office looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in years, the only hint of what is going on (besides a wooden rack with more suspension parts than the Showa factory) are posters autographed by the people LE has or is working with. OTOH, the back part of the space is very cool, lots of expensive tools and other gear head pornography.

 

What was done: Jim described the fork spring as “Much too soft with too much preload”. He gets the mumbles when you get specific about the damping (he is not dumb enough to give away the knowledge he has worked so hard to gain) but I think he softened the high-speed compression and stiffened the low speed. Pretty much the same changes for the shock but the spring was not as far off, for a normal size person it might be acceptable.

 

If anybody cares, my report that Jim Lindeman broke his collarbone was incorrect, it was “Josh the Shock Guy” who crashed his dirt bike and caused some delay.

 

For more info, http://www.le-suspension.com/index.html#

 

More after I go for a ride,

 

Lex

[docc]

Help me out: the way I read this the '01 sport has Sach's rear shock? (my '00 v11s is WP). I'm reading differant spring rates, usually in kg. What is the stock spring rate? Does anyone know what weight rider the stock springs are set up for?

Looking to optimize my stock Marz/WP, docc

[Mike Stewart]

Docc,

 

The 00 came with either the WP or the Sucks unit, you are blessed with the better unit.

 

The spring rates are most likely different between the two shocks. I know the spring lengths are different by looking at the owners manuel. The Sachs spring rate is way too soft, I needed to crank the preload way up inorder to get the correct sag (yes, I know it is due to my 200 lb. weight)

 

Mike

[Lex]

Docc,

 

You got lucky, I wish my bike had a WP. The Sachs is an oddball, one of the guys at LE commented that they might have trouble getting parts, specifically the main seal, for my shock.

 

Also, the WP is a known quantity, any good suspension shop will be able to set it up with minimum of experimentation.

 

I can't give you a number but I believe the shock spring is appropriate for a light or very light rider. I'd guess not much over 150 LB/ 68 Kg in riding gear. At least that is possible, the fork springs aren't even appropriate for the bike W/O a rider.

 

Lex

 

PS. I forgot to add, the spring on my shock is now nice Italian red and matches the frame. You'd think I planned it that way.

[docc]

So what are you guys going with for 'correct' sag? BTW, Lex, I'd love to see a picture of your V11 with those red legs! docc

[Mike Stewart]

So Lex,

 

Did you get out for a ride yet? I took a ride up Mines road in Livermore today, great day to be out. I thought about my poor suspension the whole ride. I really need to send them in to LE this week.

 

Mike

[Lex]

A report from my riding my V11 with Lindeman modified suspension

 

Caveats:

 

Just to be clear, I have played with suspension more than most but I am not an expert, just a well-informed amateur. Also, I wish I had more time to put miles on the bike before making this report but that isn’t going to happen. What is below is based on a little over thirty miles of four-lane freeway and tight, bumpy two-lane. I was not able to get far enough away from what passes for urban area around here and the resulting concentration of (ahem) local government representatives to do any high speed testing. On the plus side, the almost total lack of maintenance work by the local government means I was in a good environment to test suspension.

 

What I did find is vastly better bump control and ride. On the freeway the bike is nearly “plush”, something you could not say about the stock bike. On the back roads I concentrated on two glaring faults in the stock bike, bottoming while braking in bumps and the rear wheel coming completely off the ground while riding over sharp bumps or powering out of bumpy corners. After a little testing and a few adjustment (I took out two clicks of compression damping in the forks and four from the shock) I feel the fork is just about perfect, an Ohlins might be better but not by a large margin. The rear is not quite as rosy but is still much improved. There is still some harshness in the rear end; I can’t say whether this is from the Sachs shock (i.e. would it be better with an Ohlins or Penske) or if the poor design (short swing arm, heavy final drive, no rising rate shock linkage) is the limiting factor. Based on what I have learned I would say V11 owners, other than those lucky/ rich enough have Ohlins from the factory, have several ways to go.

 

If price is no object, have your forks re-sprung and valved and put a Penske or Ohlins on the back. Cost ~$1100 to $1400

 

If price is an object but you have some cash, have your forks and shock re-sprung and valved by a good suspension tuner. $750 or less

 

If price is a major object but you have a little cash, get some stiffer fork springs and replace your stock 10 Wt. fork oil with 5 or 7.5 Wt ($120) and have your shock re-sprung and valved ($150 to $250). From what Mike said about the WP you might not need a spring; that would save you about $100. I don’t know what fork spring rate would work for most people, all I can suggest is working with someone who knows the bikes and using what they recommend. Cost ~$370 (shock re-valve and spring) or $270 (re-valve shock)

 

Good luck.

 

Lex

[Lex]

Just a quick note. I got a chance to go for a long ride today. I rode one of my favorite test roads, Santa Rosa Creek (AKA SRC in the slick paper US cycle magazines) and put the bike to a more thorough test. I now feel much more confident about what I said in my post. I realized about 2/3 of the way down the road I was not thinking about the chassis, just assuming it would do its job.

 

Cheers,

 

Lex