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Categories: all
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Tue, 27 Jun 2006
Shocking!
Ah, sometimes I even crack myself up. (Yes, I should probably be
shot for punning.)
I called up the US
distributor for Hagon shocks this morning, and asked him about a
shock for the Ninja 250. I know I'm going to get one, it's just a
matter of sorting out which one at this point.
So far, I have the following choices:
- Works
Performance Steel Tracker: this shock is the oldest tech of any of
my choices, using a system called a ball check-valve to achieve
damping. According to one of the people on the Ninja 250 board, these
shocks are to be avoided at all costs, possibly even being a step
backward from the stock shock. Everyone else seems fine with them.
Models to fit the 250 are $350 for the preload-only model, $430 for the
rebound and preload model, and $500 for the fully-adjustable model. I
was inclining toward either the $350 or $500 version, depending on how
cheap I was feeling.
- Penske 8900
series: These are reputed to be excellent shocks, but they carry a
price tag to match: $800 and up. Nice thing about them is that if you
buy one, you can take it with you from bike to bike with relatively
minor investments since the whole thing is modular. I'm not sure how
much I buy that, particularly going from the 250 to some other bike,
since they're likely to require significantly different specs. This is
on my radar, but really too expensive to be considered seriously.
Unless I win the lottery or something.
- Ohlins: I don't
even know what model would fit, because these things start at $1100 and
go up from there. No way I'm spending that kind of money on a shock
for a $3000 bike.
- Hagon:
These shocks have a decent reputation. They use shim-stack damping, so
they're more current-tech than the Works, but they're still emulsion
shocks rather than the fancier pressurized reservoir system. Of
course, Ohlins will sell you an emulsion shock for $1100 too, so it's
not as if emulsion is a terrible thing. For $435 max, it's hard to see
what's wrong with these.
- Bitubo
XZE: I haven't actually talked to anyone about this shock yet, but
Bitubo lists the GPZ 500, which is the same thing as the EX500, which
uses either a similar or identical shock to the Ninja 250. Whew! In
any case, it means Bitubo at least makes a shock which will physically
fit in the space available. Their description suggests it's not an
emulsion shock, which is good. It lacks compression adjustment, but
that's not terrible. I spoke to the US distributor a minute ago, and
while they gave me an impression of extreme cluelessnesss, they also
gave me a current price: $571 for an XZE01, which is apparently the
right thing.
So I've got a few choices. Right now, Hagon sounds like the best
choice, although Bitubo is a close runner-up. I think the Hagon is
likely to be a better deal, in part because the distributor sounds like
he knows his business (which the Bitubo distro doesn't), and in part
because the Hagon is cheaper and probably offers similar performance.
"Probably" and "similar" are, of course, complete weasel-words.
Unfortunately, finding reviews of shocks is very difficult, and very
few people have actually tried multiple shocks in their bikes then
written about it.
Posted at 10:31
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Categories: all
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Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please
mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.
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