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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Thu, 02 Sep 2010The pre-08 Ninja 250 comes with some of the weakest suspension springs I've ever encountered. It feels like a goofy toy bike when I sit on it. I decided that, although it's "against the rules" of the Cheapskate Cup (which I'm never going to win anyway, so no one really cares), I would change out my suspension a bit. I've done it with every other Ninja 250 I've owned, and it was impossible to imagine taking this thing to the track without doing it. The first thing I did was look through the Ninja250.org FAQ section on rear suspension. This is definitely where to start. I liked the look of the 08 rear shock upgrade, so I poked around on Ebay. Within minutes, I'd won a 2008 rear shock for a grand total of $26 shipped to me. Deal. Gotta love all the racers upgrading their new shiny Ninjas. Of course, all was not beer and skittles -- I immediately got an email from the seller, saying they were going to be on vacation for the next week, a fact which was not called out in the auction anywhere. Not pleased about that. However, they did ship it promptly the next week, and despite the shock's best efforts to escape, it was still in the box. (Seriously, people, it's a heavy, linear spike. Don't just throw it in a box with some loosely crumpled newspaper. Every used shock I've bought has arrived with several holes in the box where the shock tried to escape during shipping.) But it did arrive, and in perfectly functional condition. The installation (I'd forgotten) is almost desperately simple: remove two bolts, pull the old shock, put the new one in with the two bolts, done. Takes 10-15 minutes. I set it on the heaviest preload, knowing that it was going to go head to head with a seriously stiff front end. It felt ridiculously firm with the old front springs, but it was clearly a huge improvement, even for me. I started in on the front forks, but discovered after I'd pulled them apart that I didn't have any (so I thought) 20 weight fork oil. Of course, by the time it was time to give up for the night and go to bed, I discovered that I did have some 20 weight fork oil. Ah well, the next day would work. Today being the next day, I got everything reinstalled. I am using .95 kg/mm springs from Sonic, which seems pretty hefty to me (my street bike only has .75 kg/mm springs, but this was what their calculator said I should use for racing). It all went back together pretty easily, and the first time I sat on the bike, it was clear I'd made a huge difference. Someone guessed at one point that the stock front springs in a Ninja 250 are .44 kg/mm. I more than doubled the spring rate, if that's true. It's clear I made a dramatic change. The front springs are slightly but noticeably stronger than the rear spring now. It's not bad, and shouldn't cause any real problems, but I'd like to get them closer together for next year. I'll probably look into either replacing this shock's spring (if that's possible, which is unlikely) or upgrading to a better shock. I strongly suspect that with the resurgence caused by the remodel in 08 (which takes the same specs, shock-wise), there's a wide variety of rear shocks available to choose from now. (Interesting side-note: when I went to look for rear shock information just now, it was amusing to see that most rear-shock knowledge available online is traceable directly back to an article I wrote in 2006.) Anyway, I'm definitely happy with the mods, and I'll probably be all excited about getting a better rear shock in there after I go ride it, mostly for the better spring rate. Posted at 22:54 permanent link category: /motorcycle Out of curiosity, I decided to check out a different kind of glasses frame. The glasses I've been wearing for the last few years are cool, and I like them, but they're comparatively spendy now that my insurance has basically punted on paying anything for frames (side note: VSP is an awful provider, and my preferred optometrist had to drop them after too many gross experiences, and their compensation fell too low; I don't have any other choice through my employer, though, and prefer to have insurance for emergency coverage). So, my old glasses cross the line at $150 just for the frames. I found something that's close, but, as you can see below, a bit more... cartoony: the Titmus 70F prescription safety glass frame. Aw yeah.
I'm not committed to using them, but they're $27, vs the $150 for my old frames (which are dying and need to be replaced soon). Plus, as you can plainly see, the new ones are ANSI rated as safety glasses, a bonus for working in the shop, or riding a bicycle. I can even get side-shields for them, if I want to go all-out safety nerd. I'm actually kind of disappointed they didn't come with side-shields (the copy on the website was ambiguous). I'm not convinced I like the look, but it's different, and a hell of a lot cheaper... Posted at 13:49 permanent link category: /misc Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
