V7 C-S Suspension Thread

[GTM®]

Anybody had any experience with Wilbers shocks?

I sure have. I used to be a dealer. Prices went so high that I wasn't selling any. So what's a good price you paid? All of my offerings here on this site or as good or better than the Wilbers for a lot less $.

Again per the Notice at the top of the page here; No offsite hyperlinks to competing products. You can talk about them all you want, but www links will be deleted. I work extremely hard in bringing solid affordable products to market here. and spend a great deal of money to host this site as a courtesy for Guzzi owners... the site is largely supported by the online Store linked above.

 

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Sorry about the link Todd. Certainly didn't mean any disrespect at all. A genuine slip. As you know, exchange rates and freight out of the US are extortionate for we antipodeans.

A good price is $AU1,450 supplied and fitted. As I said, these are made specifically for me, my bike and my riding and have pre-load, compression and rebound adjustability.

 

[GTM®]

Offsite links leads potential customers away from here, and is using this site for free advertising for them.
The 630 TS is "Tunable in rebound, infinitely in spring preload" ONLY. Every shock has spring preload so it is rebound adjust only. If you read in my online Store, ALL of my offerings here are custom built to order.
AU1450$ is US1136$ at current exchange rates. That is top $ for single adjust shocks.
Wilbers is a solid product, but I have as good of shocks with more features for a handful less money if you look; https://www.guzzitech.com/?s=V7+rear+shock&post_type=product -- K-Tech has rebound AND length adjust for $795 and Ohlins piggybacks are $995. Both are excellent shocks.
Installation is a nice courtesy, but it takes all of ~15 minutes to install rear shocks.

 

[GTM®]

Setting sag not only is a mystery to many, but it usually requires two people. Thanks to the new technology below it no longer does. I have been using the Slacker tool exclusively, and it’s extremely quick and easy; https://www.guzzitech.com/store/product/slacker-v2-sag-measuring-tool/

 

[TimmyTheHog]

Thanks for the leg work Todd,

well, as I am looking around here and see what kind of rear shock I am thinking to upgrade, I noticed the rear wheel travel distancein the manual is different from what you said there???

my V7 stone manual says I have 100mm of rear wheel travel yet your initial posts said 118mm????

I am oddly confused...am I reading it wrong here?

 

[GTM®]

my V7 stone manual says I have 100mm of rear wheel travel yet your initial posts said 118mm????

Welcome, and I pulled the 118mm from their website. I did not measure it, but you can if you'd like to verify which is correct. In the end, it's the measured distances that the sag tool shows that matters; General rule of thumb is 1/3 travel for total unladen to laden sag.

 

[christopherr]

The Ohlins for the V7ii - are they eye to eye 390mm long?
Have browsed through most of the posts, but still a bit confused about the different ways to measure.


Thank you.
Christopher

 

[GTM®]

The Ohlins for the V7ii - are they eye to eye 390mm long?

Hi Christopher, yes, that is correct. Only the V7 III uses the shorter 342mm shocks. All older models use 390m.

 

[egschade]

I wouldn't mind a little extra leg room for my bum knee. Would it be OK to use the 390mm shock on the V7 III or better to go with lower pegs? Would it change the steering feel all that much if I'm running a 110 front tire?

 

[GTM®]

I wouldn't mind a little extra leg room for my bum knee. Would it be OK to use the 390mm shock on the V7 III or better to go with lower pegs? Would it change the steering feel all that much if I'm running a 110 front tire?

Longer shocks won't change seat to peg. So you'd need lower pegs to do that. Longest you could go on the V7 III shocks would be ~360mm - that is custom build territory though, just FYI.
110 front, yes it sure would, especially if you went radial. It will also lower the front end as well (which also helps).

 

[timax]

I wouldn't mind a little extra leg room for my bum knee. Would it be OK to use the 390mm shock on the V7 III or better to go with lower pegs? Would it change the steering feel all that much if I'm running a 110 front tire?

I have K-Night 50mm lower pegs on mine. Make a huge difference. I also have Todds Razor shocks & really love those also. You could also add a little seat height to help.

 

[Vagrant]

thepropad.com/?campaign=1013822844&content=239013667417&keyword=+pro +pad&gclid=CjwKCAiA_ojVBRAlEiwAOLRxI3lckkLIWRY8WTY6Y3D7uDuW9EWvrjo0C76Sq_8dmdP_EMuT0ZwJPxoCIt4QAvD_BwE
here keep it simple. it will raise you and be much more comfortable.

 

[Bobby]

So I've had Gazi Sport X shocks on my V7 for the past couple years and they've been pretty nice in the handling dept., but rough as hell on my back. Small bumps like center dividers or irregularities in the road send shocks through my spine. There's certain long bumpy parts of the 405 and 110 freeways where I feel like I'm going to be thrown off the bike. Pot holes are like death. I guess at first I was fine with them because they performed well in the curves and maybe I was just younger and maybe now they've worn out my back over the years, not sure. Played with the rebound setting a ton but I gotta say, I can't tell the difference at either extreme. Maybe this is just normal for twin shock bikes?

So I guess I would just like some input on if I spent 1500 bucks on some new shocks like the Matris piggybacks or the RT piggybacks, would there be a significant difference in comfort? Like just super smooth, soaking up bumps while attacking curves, etc?

 

[GTM®]

So I've had Gazi Sport X shocks on my V7 for the past couple years and they've been pretty nice in the handling dept., but rough as hell on my back

Hey Bob. A few years likely means the shocks should be refreshed anyway, but best to step up if you don't like them. You rode my rental, yes? You will never get a twin shock bike to ride like a rising rate monoshock, but we can get you much better than where you are without going piggyback. Feel free to write me direct email.

 

[Bobby]

Ah refresh, didn’t even know that’s a thing That’s what they need cause no way they were this harsh but I thought I was going crazy. Haven’t rode your rental but I’d definitely like to try it out. Thanks Todd!

Hey Bob. A few years likely means the shocks should be refreshed anyway, but best to step up if you don't like them. You rode my rental, yes? You will never get a twin shock bike to ride like a rising rate monoshock, but we can get you much better than where you are without going piggyback. Feel free to write me direct email.

 

[Godfrey]

If it's been running fine since, it was most likely just a transitory computer glitch. Check your battery connections and ground connections, then just keep going. Life's too short to keep worrying about this kinda stuff.

The fork on the V7s is a bit crude, I agree, but seems to be serviceable. It just doesn't have the kind of damping and compliance that the rest of the chassis and the rear suspension deserves. That flat spot or 'tire out of balance' feeling on my bike I felt too, once or twice, and I think it was the traction control system being subtly over-sensitive. The default setting on the TC system was level 2 ... I reset it to level 1 and have since not noticed any such feeling at all since.

I decided to upgrade my Racer end to end on suspension: At the front, a Matris dual adjustable, preload adjustable set of fork cartridges with springs properly matched to my weight. At the rear, a pair of the next range up Öhlins springs (I'm a big guy at about 255 lbs; to get close to the right sag with the stock springs, I've had the preload pushed up to near the two-up maximum preload limit).

Another piece of the suspension puzzle is that the stock wheels and tubed, bias-ply tires challenge the suspension a bit with unspung weight. So I've got a set of the Kineo wheels and a set of Conti RoadAttack3 radial tires coming too. When GT gets everything in, I'll ride down there and we'll install all of it, get it all adjusted properly, and I'll ride home on an almost completely new bike...

This stuff is expensive, but Racer is such a fine, happy little machine it deserves to be pampered. I decided that I'd rather give it the money and development than buy another bike, so my small but growing fund for the nice used Griso or V11 Sport fantasy was repurposed into making Racer even happier.


"Everything to excess, moderation is for monks." – The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

 

[Mayakovski]

At the front, a Matris dual adjustable, preload adjustable set of fork cartridges with springs properly matched to my weight.

Is that the Matris V7 F15K Full Fork Cartridge Kit from Todd's store?

 

[Godfrey]

Yes, the very one.

I thought about having one of the full Öhlins forks done, but that's more expensive than I wanted to muster for this year... I do have other things I like to do as well.

If the Matris kit does what I expect, it will be enough to satisfy my desires.

 

[Dinsdale Piranha]

At the rear, a pair of the next range up Öhlins springs (I'm a big guy at about 255 lbs; to get close to the right sag with the stock springs, I've had the preload pushed up to near the two-up maximum preload limit).

When you say "... the next range up Öhlins springs ..." I assume you mean the rear shocks, but with the standard springs. Upping the pre-load doesn't, in any way, alter the spring rate. You and I are similarly sized, and the standard springs are woefully too light for our ample bulk. You would find yourself very pleasantly surprised with it sprung appropriately. I'm sure you would have ordered appropriate springs with your Matris front fork kit. The rear needs to right springs too to work properly.

 

[Godfrey]

I'm not entirely sure what you meant by saying "I assume you mean the rear shocks, but with the standard springs".

The standard springs on the Racer Öhlins suspension units are designed for up to about a 190 lb rider with approximately a 125 lb passenger maximum. Turning up the pre-load adjusts the ride height and minimizes bottoming (you get the right sag) and it does actually increase the spring rate a little bit since the OEM spring is a progressive wind. The standard adjustment range for correct sag, measuring the length of the spring, is from 179 to 169 mm as the combined rider/passenger weight increases.

To accommodate my size and weight (and monoposto only operation), I have the preload adjusted up to 171 mm, leaving only 2mm adjustment range overhead if I need to carry luggage, etc. Plus the springs are getting close to coil bound on their lower rate end, reducing compliance and wheel/road tracking over small road undulations.

So "the next range up Öhlins springs" means swapping out the OEM springs for the next higher range springs that fit the Öhlins dampers, per the recommendations of Todd and the Öhlins tech support. These will set up with correct sag for me at closer to the default 179 mm setting (I'm expecting about 174mm or so; since the wind is again progressive, it will give me plenty of range to back down as my weight drops), giving more overhead for adjustment and better low-rate range compliance.

For the Matris fork springs, after some discussion we settled on a set targeting a 240 lb rider weight (street clothes) which gives enough spring rate with enough preload adjustment rate to accommodate my current 255 lb weight. Since I'm continuing to lose weight (my target is 215 lbs, and I'm shedding about 1-1.5 lbs per week on average) I'm expecting that I'll likely need the next lower rate range fork springs by the end of summer, if progress continues at the current pace. By that point, I'll have backed off the preload to its minimums on the 240lb target springs and will need the next lower range to net the right sag.

I hope that's clearer.