FJR1300 Mono shock question

[joebloggs]

I read somewhere on this forum that an owner lengthened his shock by extending the clevis, I believe he did this after a swingarm swap. His shock was very close to the rear of the tunnel at the bottom and by extending it the mount point was more inline to the centre, this would be ideal for me as atm the spring is almost touching the arm and I'm not able to raise the tail any further (with the stock dogbones in the swingarm is almost parallel to the ground and 87mm is as short as they go before the spring comes into contact)

If it fits, at 325mm, the FJR shock maybe the answer, it would rotate the shock and relay arm forward allowing me to raise the back of the bike further and keep the shock from hitting the arm, the stock spring is lighter than the FJ item but the bike is at least 100lbs lighter and will always be solo, so I could get away with that.

Now I know there are adjustable shocks on the market but at a price, I've seen a few aftermarket shocks on ebay for half the price of a YSS (not adjustable for length) so I could end up with a reasonable shock without breaking the bank.

After all that I guess the question is, has anyone fitted one or know someone who did.

[Pat Conlon]

I don't know of any FJR shocks on a FJ....Like the FJ oem shock, the FJR oem shock is weak.
I have been told that it's one of the first mods the FJR owners do, to remove the oem FJR shock.

[Millietant]

I don't know of any FJR shocks on a FJ....Like the FJ oem shock, the FJR oem shock is weak.
I have been told that it's one of the first mods the FJR owners do, to remove the oem FJR shock.

I've fitted YSS shocks to 3 customer FJR's in the last 10 months - one replaced the electronically adjustable O/E system.

The overall conclusion is they're built down to a price.

[joebloggs]

Thanks for the replies
Yes, I've yet to read anything good about the FJR shock and have concluded that if I need to respring it I'd probably still be in the same position of having clearance issues.

Will stay with the Hagon and short dogones for now and see how it rides before changing anything else.

The urge to mod is tough to suppress

[Millietant]

It seems like most OE shocks from the last 50 years were built to last only long enough to get past the end of the bike's warranty. The the FJR ones I've replaced were all because the OE items puked all their hydraulic oil out. No one complained when they were working properly, but I'd always ask "Why put someone else's cast-off shock from another model of bike onto your litre plus bike when a new, better quality, aftermarket shock can be had for £350/$500US." OE FJR shocks, if you can find them, are upwards OF £1200-£1500, and a lot more for the electronically adjustable ones.

I have put a R6 shock onto my Fazer 1000/FZ1, but it was a brand new shock properly modified (not by me) to suit the Fazer and it is a much better quality and more adjustable unit than Yamaha fitted originally.

My FJ has had a Hagon shock for the last 16 years, which was refurbished at their factory back in 2018, for £100. Off they still service them when it eventually goes again, I'll be taking it back to them.

[Pat Conlon]

Re: Shock Service
Good point Dean, aftermarket shocks need to be serviced, but at what intervals?
I didn't know until I was recently informed that the Penske shocks on my bikes should be serviced every year, disassembly, seal inspection, fresh oil and nitrogen.
That yearly interval seems excessive to me.
I haven't had one fail yet, although I recall our long time FJ forum carb guru, David Raforth, reported many years ago that he had his Penske fail on his bike.

Of course the good news, unlike the oem shocks, the aftermarket Penske/Hagon/Ohlin/YSS/RPM are rebuildable.

Randy/Robert, what is the suggested service interval for your RPM shock?

[RPM - Robert]

We settled at 25,000 miles.

I think Mike tried to push his to 30,000 twice and the seal started seeping.

[Millietant]

Re: Shock Service
Good point Dean, aftermarket shocks need to be serviced, but at what intervals?
I didn't know until I was recently informed that the Penske shocks on my bikes should be serviced every year, disassembly, seal inspection, fresh oil and nitrogen.
That yearly interval seems excessive to me.
I haven't had one fail yet, although I recall our long time FJ forum carb guru, David Raforth, reported many years ago that he had his Penske fail on his bike.

Of course the good news, unlike the oem shocks, the aftermarket Penske/Hagon/Ohlin/YSS/RPM are rebuildable.

Randy/Robert, what is the suggested service interval for your RPM shock?

Purely from personal experience, big bike shocks back in the 70's/early 80's used to be toast after about 10,000 miles.

These days they seem to tire in with the 25,000 mile figure too - or about 10 years for an "average" owner.

Given the type of use mine gets these days, I think anywhere between 15,000 - 25,000 miles is about right for my Hagon. One thing they mentioned when they did my last rebuild was that bikes that don't get used very often see much lower mileage failures, with dried seals leaking prematurely.

[ribbert]

We settled at 25,000 miles.

I think Mike tried to push his to 30,000 twice and the seal started seeping.

That's interesting. The RPM shocker was expensive in Australia and I wanted to do the best thing by it. Fitting the cover didn't seem right to me so I did a bit of research and decided to leave it off. As some of you know my bike sees a lot of unsealed and secondary roads loaded with gear and generally earns it's keep.

The shocker has now done 120,000+ Km's and has never been serviced (there's no way of doing so here) and it remains dry. Every year when I head to the Outback on it I half expect it to be it's last trip, it's a week of mud, dirt, course gravel, sand traps, water crossings, world famous pot holes and tooth loosening corrugations but every year it hangs in there. The robustness of it has impressed me.

The shocker has been subjected to these conditions (and my avatar) many times.







The magnificent Flinders Ranges.


Noel

[Millietant]

We settled at 25,000 miles.

I think Mike tried to push his to 30,000 twice and the seal started seeping.

That's interesting. The RPM shocker was expensive in Australia and I wanted to do the best thing by it. Fitting the cover didn't seem right to me so I did a bit of research and decided to leave it off. As some of you know my bike sees a lot of unsealed and secondary roads loaded with gear and generally earns it's keep.

The shocker has now done 120,000+ Km's and has never been serviced (there's no way of doing so here) and it remains dry. Every year when I head to the Outback on it I half expect it to be it's last trip, it's a week of mud, dirt, course gravel, sand traps, water crossings, world famous pot holes and tooth loosening corrugations but every year it hangs in there. The robustness of it has impressed me.

The shocker has been subjected to these conditions (and my avatar) many times.







The magnificent Flinders Ranges.


Noel

From the look of it Noel, that shock has been worth it's weight in gold 

[RPM - Robert]

Glad it is still working well for you Noel.

In finally getting ahold of Mike, we actually settled at 35,000 miles. They went to 42,000 miles, at that point the shaft on Mike's shock had started to show some signs of wear.