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Finally here...

Joined
Aug 25, 2017
Messages
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Location
Arlington
First Name
Dave
Last Name
Loggins
Ohhh...its so shiny and cool. You can feel the Italian craftsmanship oozing from the package.

I'm excited to see what my GS can do with proper suspension.

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Is that rebuilt or totally new stuff? Looks sweet.
 
Is that rebuilt or totally new stuff? Looks sweet.
It's new. Mupo is an Italian suspension company. They are making some really good stuff these days. All hand made after you order it. Costs a bit less than Ohlins high end stuff and more than the Ohlins entry level stuff for pretty high end performance.

I went this way because they custom valve and spring it for the rider and bike vs standard valving and just custom spring rates in Ohlins and others.

We'll see if I made a good call or not but honestly, I know it's going to be so much better than what I have, it will be hard to quantify if better than other aftermarket options or not.

But...they do look pretty. :)
 
Maybe do a write up on the install and setup with pics? šŸ˜›
 
Maybe do a write up on the install and setup with pics? [emoji14]
I'll try and remember to take some pics along the way.

I'll do the install, initial setup and set sag but probably ride it to Austin and use Roger at On Road Off Road to help me dial it in a bit. We'll see if I can capture enough for a write up along the way.
 
It'll be interesting to see your thoughts!
 
I got the new parts all installed...finally. Know what I know now, i could probably do it in about 3 hours. As it was, I think I'm about 8 hrs invested.

The shocks came with no installation instructions and I couldn't find any pictures of them installed online so i had to do trial and error.

The front was pretty easy. It can only way and there wasn't a remote preload adjuster and remote reservoir to mount. I did have to rotate the bottom piece 180 degrees as the nitrogen fill port sticks out and was too close to the shock mount for my liking. Even with that, it would have been easy if I didn't drop the top washer into the black hole under the gas tank. That little blunder caused me to pull the tank and added another hour.

The rear was another story and much harder when it really should be . The only "hard" part is that you have to pull the exhaust to get to the lower shock bolt. The exhaust was a bit difficult to remove until I learned how it comes out and then it was easy.

What took forever was figuring out where to mount the remote reservoir and remote preload adjuster. Left side, right side, together, separate? Hoses coming off the front of the shock? Back of the shock?

The remote reservoir came with a mounting bracket, the preload adjuster just came with a piece of metal with a hole in it that presumably you'd attach to some bolt already on the bike. Unfortunately, i never found that bolt.

Anyway....after installing and uninstalling multiple times in multiple orientations and trying different combinations I concluded that I must be missing a bracket so I'd have to adapt what I had or fabricate a new one.

I ended up finding a pretty ingenious solution where I made the mount that came with the reservoir a dual purpose mount by adding a longer bolt and attaching the preload adjuster to it.

Anyway....one I got it all done, I went for a quick test ride. I've only ridden it about 5 miles and not off road at all yet but I can already tell it's much better. The vagueness in the front end is gone and it tracks significantly better. I haven't noticed much change in the rear yet but I'm sure I will when it's loaded up or off road.

Anyway. I'll post more as I ride it more but for now, I'm really happy with the results.
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Even with that, it would have been easy if I didn't drop the top washer into the black hole under the gas tank. That little blunder caused me to pull the tank and added another hour.

:rofl: I sooooooo feel your pain. I have a gift for this sort of "diversion" :doh:

The vagueness in the front end is gone and it tracks significantly better. I haven't noticed much change in the rear yet but I'm sure I will when it's loaded up or off road.

Did yo go through the process of setting the static sag? If not, once you do, and once you fiddle with the compression/rebound damping settings, I bet it will feel even better! :thumb:
 
Did yo go through the process of setting the static sag? If not, once you do, and once you fiddle with the compression/rebound damping settings, I bet it will feel even better! :thumb:
No. I'm going to ride it to Austin and have Roger with On Road Off Road assist me in setting it up. I can get it close myself but I've trusted Roger with a few setups in the past and he's really good at helping me with a baseline and helping me to understand how to adjust it based on how it rides. It's well worth the round trip to Austin to have a suspension expert help me get it dialed in.

Besides....I bought the shocks from him and he said he'd help me set it up for free, so hard to beat expert advice for free.
 
Besides....I bought the shocks from him and he said he'd help me set it up for free, so hard to beat expert advice for free.
Awesome. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
 
No. I'm going to ride it to Austin and have Roger with On Road Off Road assist me in setting it up. I can get it close myself but I've trusted Roger with a few setups in the past and he's really good at helping me with a baseline and helping me to understand how to adjust it based on how it rides. It's well worth the round trip to Austin to have a suspension expert help me get it dialed in.

Besides....I bought the shocks from him and he said he'd help me set it up for free, so hard to beat expert advice for free.
Any updates on how this worked out?
 
Any updates on how this worked out?
Bike rides way better. Roger will be in North texas at Cresson the first of March and I'll have him help me dial it in then. He's been heading to races on weekends and I've been traveling on business so I haven't had a chance to get it to him yet.
 
Wow. What a difference.

I finally got to actually ride my GS in the manner that I bought the suspension to do. It's like night and day. I did a trip down to South Texas 2 weeks ago and really just had the suspension set up like it came from Mupo. They had my weight, riding style and did an initial setup so I didn't change much except adding some rear preload and a couple clicks of rear compression. Once I got the preload right, it was working pretty well but I was fully loaded so I really never got aggressive with it to see what it could do.

Last Monday, I met Roger at the track in Cresson and we dialed it in the rest of the way. We came up with preload / sag settings for loaded and unloaded and what to do with compression / rebound for both.

So...last weekend I went to Arkansas with @MacDaddy , @woodsguy and @Flipit and it was amazing. My last Arkansas trip I was bottoming out and holding back because I was worried about the bike getting beat up. This trip I could ride whatever and it just soaked it up. I could even sit down and ride it like a street bike if I wanted as it made those forest roads feel crazy smooth. I even jumped it a couple of times and it soaked up the landings just like it should.

Honestly....it made it so much smoother that it was easy to forget the terrain wasn't that forgiving. I had to keep reminding myself that I was still on gravel roads and that I needed to keep my head in the game as it was pretty easy to just get lazy and let the bike do all the work.

Anyway.... $1700 or so is a lot to spend but it totally transformed the bike. It was well worth it.
 

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