Nitron Rear Shock and Suspension Improvements

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So I decided that I either needed a newer bike or do some upgrades to the trusty FJ that I have had for 8 years now.
The FJ won the arguments for many reasons so how do I make it handle and feel like a new bike?
Obviously everyone has an opinion both on this forum and the net in general. I did some research spoke to some suppliers and people that had already been down the suspension upgrade path with their own FJ,s
I also realised that little old New Zealand where I live has its own unique road conditions  that maybe a European or American supplier may not have experience of.
I have lots of motorcycling buddies but all riding mostly more modern machinery. Quite a lot of them had upgraded their suspension from stock on all sorts from Honda ST,s to Busa,s and everything in between.
One name kept cropping up and that was a guy called Robert Taylor of Kiwi Suspension Solutions

http://www.kss.net.nz/kiwi-suspension-solutions/catalogue/
.
I gave Robert a call and we spent a good deal of time talking about the FJ and different options we could look at to improve her. He had a lot of experience with FJ,s when they were mainstream bikes but as he said a lot of classic bikes are now a large part of his business.
He was totally professional and not a hard sell man whatsoever which was very reassuring
We discussed option for a rear suspension unit and we decided to have a Nitron unit built for me

http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_item.php?catID=12774&prodID=74509

We ordered the Nitron shock and delivery was going to be just after xmas.
Robert sent me the shock so I could fit it and we were then going to take the bike to his workshop to give the front forks the KSS treatment.
Nitron had built the shock for my weight etc so it said on the box just fit it and don't adjust anything initially. I followed the instructions fitted the new shock and then couldn't wait to get out for a ride. Took it out with some mates the following day and wow what a difference from the stock 130000 km shock. The bike behaved so much better on corners and bumpy roads I was suitably impressed. The following week I had a pre planned bike rally booked and was not going to have time to do the forks so went away for about a 2500km long weekend. I really loved this rear shock and by the end of the rally I knew I had made a great choice.

A couple of weeks later I got booked in to get my forks done with Robert. This meant a 4.30 am early morning start to get to his workshop by 8.30.  We had a good old chat and a cuppa then I whipped the front legs off in his workshop using his tools.
He set to work on the forks stripping cleaning checking them for trueness and wear in general . We replaced all the bushings and seals as well.
He recommended Racetech valves and linear springs. The valves racetech recommend in his mind were not a very good fit in the damper tube so he decided to try the next size up which was slightly too big. He did no more that put the valves in the lathe and turned them down for a perfect fit. As he said wouldn't make any difference in the real world he just likes things to be right.
They set the racetech valves to what was recommended and using their own experience and assemble the forks. The tubes that you fit from racetech are cut down from a plastic piece of tube they supply but KSS make new one from steel again just because they are happier with a steel part. The oil was added and set then I put the forks back on the FJ.
We got it down on the ground and went about setting up the sag. To get the front where they wanted it we had to wind the preload adjuster down to the 3rd indent.
The rear shock preload was wound up and Robert went for a ride to see how she performed.
He then gave me about a 25 km route to follow that had a good mixture of road conditions to try out. Wow Wow did I have a smile on my face , the rattling from the front dash etc. that I have always been trying to get rid of had just about gone and the lack of brake dive was quiet astonishing. I got back to the workshop and Robert wanted some feedback which of course was all good. He then told me that if I was happy that's fine but he thought that the low speed damping wasn't quite right and maybe we need to go up one on the spring rate and make slightly longer spring preload tubes. The only downside would be that I would have to drop the forks off again.
To me it was a no brainer he is the suspension expert and that's why I am here.
So we had it back apart and stripped in no time. They drilled smaller holes in the racetch valve than before changed the springs and we put it all back together again.
Set the sag and notched up the rear damping slightly . Robert gave it another quick ride and then sent me off again on the same circuit as earlier. Wow Wow Wow I didn't think a 20+ year old bike would be able to ride like this but it does. The ride and handling has gone up another notch my initial thought was maybe slightly harsh but once over about 60kph it comes into its own and goes round corners exactly where I point it , in fact I looked for the bumps and lumps in corners to see if they would upset things but it took everything in its stride.
I then had a 3.5 hour ride back home the same way as I had come and found myself taking corners at least 30-40 k,s faster than on my trip up.
The other amazing thing to me is these changes have all been done on well-worn BT45,s I have a new set of Avon Radials to go on but wanted to know what was suspension improvements and what was tyre improvement.
I have put another 2000km since suspension sorted and to say I am happy is an understatement riding gives me the big grin every time now 

So my conclusion is that whatever you do to your suspension as far as type make etc will make a great improvement but getting your bike set-up by someone who knows suspension is the real icing on the cake.

I have already been through 3 stages with my suspension the 4th will be fitting the radials, I would have been happy at stage one ( just rear shock ) but I am so glad I went the whole hog as each stage has seen improvements greater than my expectations 

Cheers Phil