[Ogre]

Ken on left (of SB Suspension) smiling after I came back from my test ride smiling bigtime.

Just a short test ride but WOW, quite an improvement. This is how it should be. More testing tomorrow...back on the road again.

Front and rear are adjustable for preload/compression/rebound.
The front & rear work together in unison...push down on front or back and the whole bike moves together.

Of course I could feel it smoothing out the bumps but the throttle was also instantly easier to modulate, as well.

 

[greer]

Thanks for the hard work, Ken. Ogre, bet that'll make for a much nicer ride on the way home. Best ketchup and mustard ever.

Sarah

 

[Ogre]

I will get some better pictu=es soon but the spring is a dark blue and now I have something to match the color...,

More later.

 

[stavely]

So Ogre is that a single rate spring and what is your weight and the spring rate?
Did it feel good on the way home...

 

[ELVISTO]

Great result Ogre

 

[Ogre]

So Ogre is that a single rate spring and what is your weight and the spring rate?
Did it feel good on the way home...

I will be happy to provide info based on 'rider impressions'.

If you want technical information, contact Ken @ SB SUSPENSIONS.

My weight, nude, the last time I got on a scale, was 165 lbs.

It is my understanding, that this is a single rate spring (non-progressive). The spring rate? I have no idea...whatever Ken selected for me, he's the expert.

FYI...I am not heading 'home' for prob'ly a week. I was supposed to me fastwoman in VA on Sunday for a 6 day Appalacian twisties tour. But she cancelled because she is afraid of the weather.

So now I am heading south solo, towards the Tail of the Dragon.

I had the suspension work done on Thursday and had an appointment for an Aztech seat mod on Friday at noon. It was about 250 miles from my Thursday motel and I thought that I left myself plenty of time to get there...

But I had forgotten that I would be going from Central Time to Eastern Time and loose an hour via time zones.

No worries, still had time to get there and not be tardy.

Then Murphy's Law started to strike...1st it started raining...

I stopped for (what I hoped would be my only stop) fuel. The only gas at that exit was having problems with their pumps (all of them). I spent several minutes pumping and still had gained less than 1/2 gallon.

Screw this, I thought and headed back to the highway.

At the next exit, there were 2 stations. One close to the exit and one a little up the road.

I go to the close one. All pumps being used but one. I go there. That one doesn't take credit cards, must go in and pre-pay.

I go down the road to the next station. I had already taken my gloves off to get credit card so to save time I just stuff them in my half unsipped jacket.

I get to the next station and top off. Then I go in to pee.

Urinal is occupied so into the stall I go...unzip jacket to get access to pants and gloves land in (thankfully a clean looking) toilet.

Grab gloves ASAP & pee, then head to sink to wash hands and gloves.

Luckily, they had a hot air hand dryer...
Unluckily, it auto-shut off after just a few seconds.

I did make my appointment but only 2 minutes early.

Today I am trying to skirt around the slow moving remnants of ex-tropical storm, "Mr. Bill". He is in my desired path but I am NOT riding through him.

Headed west...more later.

 

[Ogre]

Today's ride was the part from the arrow to the blue dot. Got around the trailing edge of the storm. The LONG way around but stayed dry and saw sunshine!

I checked radar and picked a spot that looked like the storm had cleared, or will have cleared by the time I got there. Then at the next fuel stop, I repeated this process. This worked well with the GPS...it would route me on country lanes at first and work its way towards an interstate. By that time, I'd stop a top off tank and re-route.

I saw a lot of flooding. At times I almost caught up with the storm and the roads were still partly wet.

 

[ELVISTO]

Sounds like you're having a great time out there Ogre despite the bad weather, Good that you have the necessary info to be able to skirt around the storm,
Great pics , keep us posted when you get to the Tail of the Dragon please, I'd like to go back there next year ,God willing ,

 

[Ogre]

Sounds like you're having a great time out there Ogre despite the bad weather, Good that you have the necessary info to be able to skirt around the storm,
Great pics , keep us posted when you get to the Tail of the Dragon please, I'd like to go back there next year ,God willing ,

Bypassed the Dragon today...don't wanna be there on a weekend. Since I am soon putting street tires on, I figured I'd get in a little more off-pavement stuff on the dual-sport Pirellis.

I met up with my buddy with a S10 and we did some forest roads in and near Smokie Mt Park. We akso did some paved twisties. Got some GoPro vids but no way to post them till I get home. The new suspension got quite a workout on the dirt...it handled it great.

Anything special that you want from the Dragon? I'll be looking for some yellow Dragon stickers to adorn my Dart. BTW...Got word from home that it finally arrived yesterday. It was shipped on the 1st of June.

 

[ELVISTO]

Great Ogre Cant think of anything I need ,thanks, think I bought all the "T" shirts i'll ever need

Think they only did the red dragon stickers, Didn't see any yellow ones

Very pleased you like the new suspension, I'll get my fronts done shortly

 

[Ogre]

Great Ogre Cant think of anything I need ,thanks, think I bought all the "T" shirts i'll ever need

Think they only did the red dragon stickers, Didn't see any yellow ones

Very pleased you like the new suspension, I'll get my fronts done shortly

After instalation, Ken measured and set the preload based on the sag and my riding position. He is very meticulous and has a lot of experience that makes set-up very intuitive, for him.

WARNING: Ken told me that the one most time consuming things, when installing the Andreanni forks is taking apart things that are not designed to come apart. I forget exactly how he described it, maybe removing retaining pin, of some sort. But he was afraid DYIers might damage something and need to buy a lot of expensive replacement parts.

 

[ELVISTO]

Yes Ogre, That's good advice from SB Ken,

I knew what I was doing and what to expect, There's a grub screw holding the left leg to the bottom casting I didn't notice it was star peened over (why I don't Know) Should have put my reading glasses on anyway I ended up drilling it out, I was a little brassed off, so reassembled , and will go back to it in a better frame of mind,

 

[Ogre]

I gave the Dragon-S a bath. Her belly pan had lost a bolt and was hanging loosely by the 2 remaining ones. Couldn't find one locally that was long enough in the correct thread (5mm x .80 thread). I found some shorter ones @ an auto parts store, so I had to remove the rubber stop & its insert then temporarily cobbled it back on with a rubber washer and a fender washer. Put some thread lock on all the bolts, including the ones holding the clamps. (dealer installed it and never used thread lock)

I also found the Termi heat sheild bolts a bit loose and added some threadlock to those bolts as well.

Just over 3800 miles on the bike now. The rear tire is quite flattened in the center but still has a little thread depth left.

After fastwoman cancelled out of the Appalacian Scramble rendezvous, I changed my routing. I had planned to have more miles on it by this time and no dirt was planned.

But I spent a lot of time on dirt the last 2 days. So mileage is down but I had so much fun that I am having 2nd thoughts on switching to the street tires...still planning on the PR3s in a day or two.

I was coming down a steep dirt road off a mountain as 2 ADV bikes were headed up.
Even through their helmets, I could see them starring in wonder @ "what was that little yellow bike doing on 'this' road".

:confused2:

 

[Ogre]

Oh yeah...having my Dart shipped from home, to my friend's house, where I'm staying.

That should be here by end of day tomorrow.

:chuncky:

 

[Ogre]

Great Ogre Cant think of anything I need ,thanks, think I bought all the "T" shirts i'll ever need

Think they only did the red dragon stickers, Didn't see any yellow ones

Very pleased you like the new suspension, I'll get my fronts done shortly

They have 2 sizes and many colors.

I put 2 small on the Dart and a large on each side...

 

[Ogre]

Yesterday, I spent a little time on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was a section with some road repair that was a bit rough.

Up til then I hadn't messed with the suspension adjustments. When I first got the suspension installled, the difference from stock was huge. But now I have adapted to it as a "new normal".

So while riding, I reached down and started counting clicks and the rear's compression adjuster. The ride quality went VERY PLUSH!
Almost like riding on a cushiion of air.

I left things there for the time being. I rode the "Snake" & the "Back of the Dragon" after & there was no lack of control...

I am pretty sure that I have yet to discover the full potential of my SB Suspension mods.

Thanks again Ken!