In order to recharge a shock that does not come with an air valve I add one. On some bikes you will need to cut a notch or drill a hole to make space for the air valve. This is a BMW R1150RT with a hole drilled to make space for the valve.

Be sure to trim off any burs and paint it. Also see post “Air Valve” 1/27/13.

New 3-Way WP shock for a ‘99 to ‘06 CBR600F4 $600

This just in from MG:

Ed: Although I know you think the hanging-off riding style is way overrated, you’ve gotta admit, the photos look spectacular. I wanted to say thanks for the adjusting you did to the suspension of my 2002 Yamaha YZF-R1 at Auto Club Speedway on Thanksgiving weekend. You took an 11-year-old literbike with completely stock suspension and, with your touch on the clickers, made it something I could do this on – with Dunlop Q2 street-legal tires, no less! Nice work on your end. I’ll work on the riding posture – NOT! Be well – M

This is the first TZ 250 shock that Penske built. I ordered it from Jim at Lindemann Engineering in ‘99 for my ‘93 TZ 250 that I was racing in AMA 250 GP. In 2000 I moved it to my ‘00 TZ 250 that I raced till the end of ‘03. Later I sold the bike to Don who raced it at Miller Motorsports Park till he sold it to Mike in Oct of ‘2013.

This is the first time this shock has ever been taken apart. The beaker on the left contains most of the 5 weight Silkolene shock oil as it came out of the shock. The beaker on the right contains new 5 weight Silkolene shock oil for comparison.

The shock shaft had a few marks that I cleaned off with 800 grit sand paper. The shaft and piston bushings show no wear. The shock was not leaking but I replace the shaft O-Ring anyway. The shaft wiper seal shows no wear. I replaced the old clear internal bumper with the new red bumper and replaced the bumper that goes outside on the shaft. There is no wear inside the shock body or reservoir, nor on the reservoir piston.

While 14 years is longer than is wise to wait between servicing your shock, it is nice to know just how well Penske shocks are made.

I’m also impressed by the Silkolene oil. You can see the change in color, it’s a little darker, that’s all. It’s clean, slippery and still 5 weight.

This is why I sell Penske shocks. This is why I use Silkolene products.

Added a WERA Regional #1 plate to my collection.

The upper fairing is from my 1990 TZ250 that Tony Serra use to win the WSMC Novice 250 GP class champinship in 2011. The number plate is from this year when Tony is 74 years young.  Tony won the Moto West GP Lindemann Engineering 250 Expert Cup!  Tony is the World’s Oldest Roadracing Class Champion!

Thom loaned me his 250 Ninja so I’d have a bike to race Eric on the Iceman Ninja this past weekend with WERA at Vegas. We had a blast!

Remember Fischer MRX #1, aka “Particle“? This is “Wave” and work on her has started. Stay tuned to see what I do differently based on what we learned the first time around.

Bracket racing is based on your best lap time.  If you go faster than the time you pick you get DQ out of your race and moved into the next bracket.  This means you will have people to battle with because you are all doing nearly the same lap times.  I’m the red/white/black 250 Ninja #112.  I passed the SV650 in front of me.  The big dirt bike behind me is a 500 cc or so.  I think the old bike at the back is a 1000 twin.  Two of them out ran me to the finish line and we all had a blast.