| Author | Message | ||
     Gentleman_jon |
 I saw this shock at the NY Motorcycle show. It is a Wilbers shock and mount that consists off a first class Wilbers shock, and a new linkage. The point of this is to reverse the way the shock works, so that the shock compresses on the compression stroke, instead of on the rebound stroke. This is supposed to improve shock performance. Please excuse me if everyone already knows about this shock. I am an XB owner, but I thought this might be an interesting item for the Old School crowd. It is very expensive, however, at $1680 | ||
| Leftcoastal |
I'd love to have one of those units on my RS. I am not sure it would fit my bike though - the rear brace (the one that goes in front of the sprocket) is a slightly different length on my bike than other later year tube frame bikes. They are going to have a hard time selling many of these units, as the price for them is almost half the sale value of most of the bikes that the shocks are design to fit! AL | ||
| Mikeyp |
Looks trick, but for $1700 i'd have half a down payment on a used Buell. I'm more than happy with my Penske. Works excellent, and looks awesome. Picked it up on Ebay for $400...a privateer's race spare.  | ||
| Spiderman |
that is sooooo 1999...  | ||
| Xldevil |
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/197732.html?1150958681 | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
looks to me that it adds weight with no real benefit other than being able to use a standard shock... Also, our stock style shocks and springs compress when the suspension is compressed. I'd rather have the Penske.... (Message edited by scott_in_nh on January 22, 2007) | ||
| Djkaplan |
The linkage gives the shock a rising rate as the rear wheel travels through its range of motion. The leverage ratio stays the same or actually may fall slightly with the stock shock mounting. That's the concept anyway. This shock linkage has been around for some time. It used to be called 'Hyperpro' 7 or 8 years ago. | ||
| Xldevil |
looks to me that it adds weight with no real benefit other than being able to use a standard shock... Also, our stock style shocks and springs compress when the suspension is compressed} Seems like you really don't know much about your suspension and how it works.Maybe this link will help. http://lightning.prohosting.com/~buells2t/shock.ht m Beside that,I can see and feel a lot of benefits from the Wilbers. Ralph | ||
| Djkaplan |
I didn't think the link was very good, and the explanation about why a 'push' damper is better than a 'pull' damper wasn't valid. | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
}Seems like you really don't know much about your suspension and how it works.Maybe this link will help. I hadn't considered the advantage of a rising rate as djkaplan nicely pointed out. I read the link, nothing there was news... Thanks for posting it though. | ||
| Al_lighton |
The point that the link made is valid in principle but the effect is exaggerated to the point of silliness. With the 2:1 leverage ratio (approximate) of the stock shock configuration, the overall piston travel is less than 3". With the location of the piston in the body and location of the shaft seals/bushings, the point of contention that the stock shock gets weaker as the rear swingarm rises over a large bump is just not an issue. If there was a problem with the fundamental configuration, Penske's and Works would have the same leakage problem that Showas have had, and they don't, at least not in my experience. In fact, I'd contend that the reaction distance between piston and shaft seal on the underslung shock is further apart at full wheel travel with the stock shock than it is with the Hyperpro/Wilbers, just due to the fact that the Wilbers shock is a LOT shorter to begin with. Nothing wrong with the Wilbers/hyperpro, I'm sure it's a nice shock. But it's a tough sell at that price point. And I'm not sure that adding more pivot points/linkages is all that great an idea to begin with, it give more places for friction and slop to impact performance. The Hyperpro has been on our website since I bought American Sport Bike in 2004. I've yet to get a serious inquiry about it. I don't know if I can even get it any more, but I've known about the Wilbers, so I figured I'd go solve that problem if/when I needed to. I haven't needed to yet. Al | ||
| Xldevil |
Hi. All I can say:for me the Wilbers is a vast improvement to the OEM shock. It raised my cornering speed-no more wobbling-and makes it much more comfortable to ride-no more hoping "bull riding" To me,it is worth every Euro Ralph (Message edited by Xldevil on January 22, 2007) | ||
| M1a65 |
If I had $1700 to drop on a shock I wouldn't be riding a tuber... | ||
| Aldaytona |
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| Djkaplan |
I'm sure the Wilbers damper performs very nicely, but the price was just too high to consider when there are domestic shock absorbers that work well and are considerably more inexpensive. The Wilbers unit does look like a very high quality item, though, and you can't discount the 'trick' factor of the linkage. I hope the company does well in the US. I'd love to try one... |
