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May 2, 2024 20:02
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- builds character
- Jan 16, 2008
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Keep at it.
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First thoughts from the new shock:
Well, I've only had the chance to put about 10 miles on it, late at night in the cold, but it's fantastic. The stock spring weighed in at about 105nm, and they bumped me up to a 120, rather than the 130 sent by Tractive. I think Tractive wanted to make sure I'd be happy with the 2 up performance and chose a slightly stiffer spring for that purpose, but I'd rather lean towards solo performance, especially knowing what i know now. I also learned that these shocks don't use the elastomer setup that some of the touring bikes run, and just have a normal preload adjuster, which makes the stock performance of the bike 2 up that much more impressive.
Previously I was running rider + luggage mode just to get the shock in the right ballpark rear ride height wise, which added ~10mm of preload to the shock. Moving to the 120nm spring means I'm now running in rider only mode with my topbox on, and as a result the front suspension is running a bit softer as well, which I'm assuming is what has led to the bike feeling much more composed / pulled a good chunk of the stiff behavior out of the front as well. I'm also assuming that the additional rear spring has moved some weight forward, increasing compliance on the front.
As to the behavior of the shock, when I hit sharp, square edged bumps, I can still feel them but rather than having the rear suspension kick as it hits the bump, I still feel the bump, but the shock clearly soaks it up rather than feeling like it followed the top of the bump. I'd imagine this behavior will become a bit more compliant when the shock isn't bone cold and has the chance to wear in a bit, as it's still ever so slightly stiffer than I would say is absolutely ideal. Smaller road imperfections just disappear entirely, and getting aggressive on the throttle on the freeway onramp rewarded me with a predictable and smooth small slide that was much more composed than with the OEM shock. It also transfers weight a little more smoothly and less harshly, like well tuned aftermarket suspension should.
In dynamic mode, it's definitely a significantly stiffer setting, but still more composed over big bumps than the stock setup in road mode while returning a more sporty feel. I'll do some longer testing between the modes tomorrow, but I'm actually thinking dynamic may end up being used on smooth/very fast roads only, as from my brief ride, I'd tag it as a true performance set up (ie, track suspension, or very close to it).
I'll also point out it's a little hard to compare here, as I'm not going like -> like on these settings, as before I was running Rider + Luggage mode, and now I'm just in Rider mode, so it's possible that the real benefit here is that I can run Rider mode setup in the front with the proper spring rate on the back so it ends up much more compliant on the front and the rear, and that's why I'm seeing such a dramatic change.
If I were to try and translate my feelings into changes on more traditional clickers, I'd say it feels like the shock was tuned for a bit more low speed compression damping, a bit more rebound damping, and a good amount less high speed compression damping, with the additional benefit of having that compliance that you get out of very high end aftermarket suspension (Ohlins, GP, K-Tech, etc). Swapping it to Dynamic from road mode adds significantly more low speed damping, and takes high speed damping up a ways, with rebound also changing somewhat to maintain a balanced feel against the stiffer suspension.
More thoughts/miles tomorrow, but at this point, I feel like I absolutely made the right choice going to a Tractive shock. I have a feeling road mode is ideal on any road from goaty to smooth at any reasonable pace, and I'll almost never swap it into dynamic mode unless I'm taking the bike to the track or riding faster than common sense would allow.
Is servicing different on the tractive shock? I assume you'd just have to send it in.
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Dec 31, 2016 18:29
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May 2, 2024 20:02
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Sep 29, 2015 12:42
BMW 
