R6 shock upgrade (pease post your experience)
- Thread starter simpletty
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stevieboy
Member
Shouldn't you have done this first?
Anything is better than the crap that comes stock. I read lots about ohlins and the jri a few people have mentioned the r6 swap. I'm not into paying 1000$ for a shock (almost 1/4 bike price). Made the decision for the r6 shock before hand but want people's experience with them so far. I'm not looking to make the decision, it's been made. Just want some more info as to how they are working so far.
With the OEM shock on my Duke, I used to brace for impact when approaching frost heaves, and curse the shock's lack of compliance and proper damping. And it was extremely difficult to adjust spring preload. I've been running the R6 shock conversion for about 3 months now, and I seldom think about the shock. It just does its job, does not misbehave, is far more compliant, consistent in damping and easy to adjust than the OEM shock. It does not draw attention to itself with bad performance. Damping does not seem to degrade in the least from exhaust cannister heat transfer. The R6 conversion might not be exactly what you want for high-level racing, but it's a tremendous improvement over the OEM shock. Very cost-effective upgrade.
stevieboy
Member
I like and have owned three Yamaha FZR400's. I am negotiating for my fourth. The popular shock upgrade is the '06-'07 R6 shock. Cheap and easy and I did it on my last one. If it is as easy on the RC I say go for it. Nice to have so much adjustment.
reenmachine
Member
I got mine from Matt at Formula 390 not long ago and have a track day on it. It made a huge difference in the bike's feel and especially its stability over imperfections in the track at high speed. Even better was that now the sag and damping can be adjusted, which I had done at the track by a suspension tuner. It's a much nicer bike to ride on the track now.
I also re-sprung the fork with springs from Matt and went to 7.5W fork oil at the same time.
I also re-sprung the fork with springs from Matt and went to 7.5W fork oil at the same time.
DeathFromAbove
New Member
What do you guys think of rebuilt vs just throwing one on with the right spring rate?
reenmachine
Member
I didn't opt for the rebuild, as I wanted to keep costs down for now and figured if I need better in the future I'll go all the way with Ohlins or JRi. The R6 shock I received from Matt looks brand new.
I did not go for a rebuild either. So far, so good - no leaks, shock performs well. I will probably have it rebuilt at some future date, but for now it seems fine. I think it's a bit of the luck of the draw - Some shocks bought on eBay are fine and work perfectly despite their age; others do need rebuilds. It's very hard to tell from a photo which group your shock will fall into.
Thetonious
New Member
I went with the rebuild and I am quite happy with the performance. I too race mini's (NSR50r) and so i'm used to crap suspension and didn't even mind the poor performance on my RC but now that I've made the change...the difference is night and day. I'm in SoCal and had Ed at Lindermann Engineering do all the work on the shock and revalve and respring my forks as well.
ToraTora
Member
Finding good used shocks is difficult. I am VERY selective of which ones I buy, and I still only get about 60% of them being what I would consider usable for running without a rebuild. My inventory of shocks that I consider to be high enough quality that they wouldn't need rebuilding is getting low, and my latest searches resulted in my finding the same shocks I've passed on time and time again before. I don't know if I've depleted the supply of used shocks that don't need rebuilding... but I'm searching... and not finding any at this time. I've put out my feelers to try and source more.
From a visual inspection, it's pretty much near impossible to tell. There are a few things I ask the seller to check for me, but I'm finding that most sellers are either ill equipped, or unwilling, to actually check their inventory to see if it's actually worth selling or just scrap metal. Short of testing the shock out on a suspension dyno there's really no way at all of knowing what's going on inside of the shock other than pulling the spring and doing a close visual inspection of the primary seal, compressing the shock after moving the adjusters through their full range of adjustment, listening closely to the shock as it moves, etc etc etc there's little that can be done to KNOW how a shock is going to do. There's a few great used parts shops I deal with... but I've depleted their inventory, and I'm guessing they are going to start telling me "I'LL LET YOU KNOW when a good core comes in!" rather than have me continue to email or call them asking about inventory.
Rcdan
New Member
Just wanted to chime in on this topic. I bought a 2016 rc 390 just about two weeks ago. And have put over 500 miles on it. Pretty easy miles so far but some aggressive cornering. I swapped for a low mileage r6 Shock this weekend off a bike with only 1,900 miles. I did not change out the spring as I am 165 lbs and do not plan on any serious track days. My logic was that the ohlins Shock is 105 n/mm and the r6 is about 96 n/mm so not TOO far off. I set the preload and dampening at recommended settings for the r6 that I found on the net. I cannot believe what a dramatic difference it made in every aspect of handling and ride. I rode today on a fairly curvy and hilly road that I am familiar with and had ridden on with the bike earlier. The difference in turn in and stability and just overall confidence was night and day.
This should be the first mod anyone does if they like to ride even a little aggressively. And I did not feel the spring was at all on the soft side but it was maybe a 7/10 pace. I took several corners at a faster speed than I had previously and the bike was easier to ride than before at the slower pace I was doing before the swap.
This should be the first mod anyone does if they like to ride even a little aggressively. And I did not feel the spring was at all on the soft side but it was maybe a 7/10 pace. I took several corners at a faster speed than I had previously and the bike was easier to ride than before at the slower pace I was doing before the swap.
Is that 165 your "fresh out of the shower and nude" scale weight, or your weight in full riding gear? I suspect the former. The stock spring is going to be too light for you... eventually... but for now if you are just doing the 7/10 on the street, and you turn up your damping, you should be OK-ish. It's still going to be WORLDS better than the stock lump KTM calls a shock, and you can dial it into the "under sprung / over damped" setup most of us big guys deal with for stock bike suspensions. I'd say going from the 9.8kg rated spring to a 10.7kg spring is going to be in your future... but for now, just on the street.... ride it!
You -=ARE=- going to want to put some better springs in that front end. I'd recommend doing something in the range of 0.95kg rated springs. Especially once you start wicking up the speed a little. Those stock front springs and 4w oil are complete garbage. I'm happy to help you with both of those suspension changes when you're ready, or have a local suspension shop set you up with the parts. In both cases you should be able to swap the springs. It's a little tricky if you don't have a real spring compressor to get that rear spring off, and you'll need an file, angle grinder, or belt sander, to get the fit for some of the parts fit... but it's totally doable by an owner with a basic set of tools and 2-3 special ones you would want to own anyway (at least the pin wrench).
I love hearing the R6 swap success stories tho. Makes all that time and effort put into finding a swap candidate all the more worth while.
Rcdan
New Member
Thanks for the feed back Matt. And thanks for doing all the work figuring out this swap in the first place. I am sure you are probably right about the spring rate. It is just such a dramatic improvement as it is that it's hard not to be happy about it. You are right of course about the front. It becomes more obvious once the rear is mostly sorted. I like this little bike more aevery day.
spoolnaround
New Member
I am in the middle of this and am finding the cat is in the way of the r6 reservoir. So you guys with 15-16 bikes do you all have aftermarket exhaust or does it fit your bike with the stock exhaust?
reenmachine
Member
I didn't have any clearance issues at all on my '15 with stock exhaust. I just put the Yosh undertail setup on and the shock reservoir is really close to the (capped) additional O2 sensor bung, but it clears.
With 15-16 bikes, it fits with the stock exhaust. Then KTM revised the exhaust and did throw a curve at being able to just drop a 99-02 R6, or a 97-98 R1, shock in. Basically you have few options if you want to run the shock:
1) Ditch the Cat all together. Basically, pull the cat out, set yourself up a quick jig for where the entry and exit points are, get yourself some mild steel pipe of the correct diameter (or have a muffler shop do it all for you) and weld up a sectional pipe for between the header and the exhaust can.
2) Modify the Cat. Cut the top off of it, decat the works (as much as you want), and weld in a plate to fill the area you removed to get clearance for the reservoir.
3) Jump over to a completely different exhaust that doesn't have that massive bulk and run something like the Tyga Undertail Dual Exit, Yoshimura undertail Dual Exit, Arrow and Akrapovic side exit with no cat.
Wish I had better news for you.
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