it's shocking what an imagination can do

[warby221]

Well you tight wad's what’s the most common question you get on here
Except for whys my engine rattling that is????
The old what rear shock off another bike will fit mine
And the answer none right well not strictly true

Here comes warby to give you a little insight into ways around it

Please remember that it’s a while since I owned a firestorm. And that this is not a step by step on doing a firestorm shock in fact I’m doing a shock for my Viffer and the principles carry over and I have an old storm shock that I’ll try things out with
what I’m doing is building a hybrid of the two shocks and was wondering if you would like to follow it as I will cover the storm setup with pic but the finished article will be for my viffer

to start off with I'm using a cbr954rr shock got of ebay for £28 p.s its in a lot better condition than it looks in the photos what your looking at is dirt


and if you have a look at
http://www.600rr.net/vb/showthread.php?t=130526

it will give you a good idea of what I'm up to
and all credit to the guys that posted the above information

[agentpineapple]

this thread will be interesting, keep up the good work buddy...

[Tweety]

Well you tight wad's what’s the most common question you get on here
Except for whys my engine rattling that is????
The old what rear shock off another bike will fit mine
And the answer none right well not strictly true

Here comes warby to give you a little insight into ways around it

Please remember that it’s a while since I owned a firestorm. And that this is not a step by step on doing a firestorm shock in fact I’m doing a shock for my Viffer and the principles carry over and I have an old storm shock that I’ll try things out with
what I’m doing is building a hybrid of the two shocks and was wondering if you would like to follow it as I will cover the storm setup with pic but the finished article will be for my viffer

to start off with I'm using a cbr954rr shock got of ebay for £28 p.s its in a lot better condition than it looks in the photos what your looking at is dirt


and if you have a look at
http://www.600rr.net/vb/showthread.php?t=130526

it will give you a good idea of what I'm up to
and all credit to the guys that posted the above information

Well... It might not be stricktly true... But it's not false either...

The numbers below compare the various specs... What's not in there, is that for the VTR, the fixed reservoars of the CBR929/954's will end up sitting where the battery box is... Dunno how it works in the viffer...

Code: Select all

.               VTR          F4i          929          954          RC51         VFR
Lenght          345 mm       305mm        284 mm       280 mm       324 mm       325 mm
Stroke          60 mm        55 mm        57 mm        57 mm           ?         58 mm
Spring          16.4 kg/mm   14.2 kg/mm   15.3 kg/mm   14.6 kg/mm   9.8 kg/mm    15.3 kg/mm

So, you're starting with a 954 shock... What are you planning to do with it? You said hybrid, so parts of the VTR shock and parts of the 954 shock? That would be interesting...

[VTRDark]

fixed reservoars of the CBR929/954's will end up sitting where the battery box is...

That was my first thought. I have already looked into this and came to conclusion that I would have to move the battery. Eye to eye lengths can be modified to fit but the placement of the reservoirs is the big problem.

Still...it will be an interesting read and to see how you go about things.

(:-})

[warby221]

Ok here we go
If you do decide to build your own it’s on you I take no responsibility if you crash, bin it or otherwise wipe out!!!. And you use the information at your own risk ok
After stripping down 3 different shocks this is what we have

Please remember that the CBR shock is for a completely different project and was just the starting point

I also had a R6 shock hanging around that I have used on a storm some time ago so I’ve used that as I know it will fit just to show the idea of what’s going on and my thinking on the mods “by the way the R6 shock was way too soft and under damped for the job”
All the shock bodies are 40mm and are put together pretty much the same and a lot of the parts are interchangeable. So I’ve used the R6 shock body and the storms damper rod assembly complete with piston, shim stack and bottom linkage eyelet along with the rebound damping adjuster all there my thinking is the damping rate needs to match the spring and the shim stack is already set to the standard spring rate so will be in the ball park.



Damping rate can then be changed with either heavier or lighter oil weight and gas charge.

Follow the links in the above post above for striping down the shock; the R6 shock is slightly different in how to degas it. The bladder has a valve similar to that used in a football and is let down using a needle. I just used the needle from an ink refill kit so I’m not sure if I did any damage to it not bothered either as I’m not using it myself

The storm on the other hand needs a bit of caveman treatment to degas it I had to drill a small hole at the top of the shock to let the gas out (remember the gas is at high pressure so wear safety specs and have the hole pointing away from you and the shock upright)


Using the R6 shock body and the storms damper rod assembly gives and overall length of 305mm from eyelet to eyelet so it would need a top mount spacer making to make up the short fall in length and the stroke works out at 50mm but like I said I did use this shock with its stock spring and it only bottomed out 2 up so with a suitable spring it would probably be ok


If you want to be a smart ass how’s about a hydraulic preload of a rc24 VFR


But the best bet out of the shocks I have would be using an SP1 shock done the same way this would give you a total eyelet to eyelet length of around 330mm and would probably just need the top mount shimming


Biggest problem I can see is that you will need a new spring and that the spring needs compressing a bit before its fitted so I would suggest measuring the spring before you remove it and then its free length after its been removed and adding the difference to the measurement to the dimension between the moded shocks spring seats
Just some more pics

[sirch345]

Interesting Warby

Chris.

[warby221]

just found the pic with the R6 shock fitted to the storm

[VTRDark]

Mmmm Your almost inspiring me to buy a cheap Storm shock to strip down and start playing with. I have never stripped a rear shock down so it would be interesting to break one down just for fun. I like taking things apart and figuring out how they work..

(:-})

[Tweety]

Well, that smart ass thing got me thinking... Hmmm... That's a dangerous thing...

[warby221]

Mmmm Your almost inspiring me to buy a cheap Storm shock to strip down and start playing with. I have never stripped a rear shock down so it would be interesting to break one down just for fun. I like taking things apart and figuring out how they work..

(:-})

if your going to get one to strip go for the one you'd use for the body after you see how little there is inside you'd be amazed
the shock body is just a tube with a reservoir attached by either a tube in the case of a remote reservoir or a channel in the case of a piggyback and a adjustable valve in between
all the works done by the damper piston and shim set that are on the damper rod

Well, that smart ass thing got me thinking... Hmmm... That's a dangerous thing...

lol just put it on for show but you could use one but would need a collar to keep it central as the shock body is smaller than the inside of the hydraulic pre-loader but seeing as it takes no strain plastic pipe would probably do