All I did for Lex was to rebuild his Penske shock. Most of the improvement he is talking about is because he should have had the shock serviced sooner. I’m posting his e mail because he is demonstrating good science, he even points out that he also changed tires when the shock was with me. The suspension adjustments he is planning to try will be min and max compression and rebound. Enjoy your shock Lex and may the learning never end.
Hi Ed:
Sorry it took so long, but my job seems to be getting in the way of my riding time. Didn’t even get a chance to install the shock until a couple weeks ago, and first ride was yesterday. Had an awesome day and rode about 260 miles from Charlotte to the NC mountains and back. This included some interstate, country back roads and mountain twisty’s – so a little of everything. Ride and handling was very nice. Hard to judge the level of improvement since it had been over four months since I last rode the bike, but everything seemed to work better. Interstate was smoother and less harsh over highway joints. Bike felt planted and stable going pretty fast on back roads. And most importantly, handling on curves in the mountains was excellent. I will need more time to dial things in, but for a starting point, the suspension and ride were very good, and accommodated a broad range of road conditions and riding at the initial settings. The one curve where I had noted some wallowing (a long, downhill sweeper with a couple dips in the middle of the curve), was completely different – the suspension just absorbed the slight dips and stayed firmly planted and stable. Transitions from one turn to another seemed more responsive. Of course some of this may be attributable to also having new tires on the bike. I had been running Metzeler Sportec M5’s, but just switched to Dunlop Q3’s, and they seem to be a lot stickier in the curves, and generally more capable. Overall a very satisfying experience, and a really fun day. I look forward to trying some suspension adjustments to see what I can learn. Many thanks for your help and excellent work.
Best regards,
Lex