New suspension?! So many options!

Ok the time has come for all new suspension! Fork springs,shocks etc. But with so many ways to go I cannot make my mind up. But with winter knockin at the door I decided it was time to take the plunge, so I pulled my 80 cb750c into my living room (yes my living room) and started the project. Now I love the curves, and I dont want a low riding hipster towny bike that just wants a look or two, I cant keep from scraping the pavement now. Im an every day rider,rain or shine. I cant afford $1000.00 shocks but dont want the cheap chinese garbage either. So what are you guys running? Any experience with the progressive springs from DCC? Im a turkey, baste me!

We do a ton of the YSS Shocks for the CB's. They start at $295 for the basic adjustable ones and go up from there. Within the next month or so we will be replacing our YSS line with GAZI shocks too.

On the front end you want proper cartridges and at a minimum cartridge emulators.

On the rear don't settle for anything that doesn't have a gas separated piston or bladder. Also, anything with a step style preload adjuster is pretty much junk by modern standards.

Ok thanks for replying first off. So those cartridge emulators are just slide-in addon under the spring with your stock fork tubes correct?

Yes, that is correct. Commonly available my RaceTech in North American but there are many other reputable brands as well.

Sav0r said:

On the front end you want proper cartridges and at a minimum cartridge emulators.

On the rear don't settle for anything that doesn't have a gas separated piston or bladder. Also, anything with a step style preload adjuster is pretty much junk by modern standards.

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there are lots of good emulsion shocks out there :
and what is the problem with a cam type spring adjuster please explain

xb33bsa said:

there are lots of good emulsion shocks out there :
and what is the problem with a cam type spring adjuster please explain

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Emulsion damper work. No doubt about it. But for his price range he could get better than an emulsion damper. The general rule of thumb is that 20 minutes of use will degrade/change the characteristic of of a gas emulsion damper significantly from it's initial characteristic. Gas separated however change very little in comparison. So if you are serious about not just setting up your bike, but tuning it also, the gas separated unit always wins.

The cam type or step type adjusters work, but are inferior to threaded body as they are too granular in adjustment. Proper suspension setup is a matter of fine adjustment which you simply can't get with the cam adjusters.

The Y.S.S units that were posted are great low level shocks. They have a proper spring perch adjuster, but are emulsion. It's a nice budget friendly package that offers some upscale features. Granted, most riders aren't ever going to even be able to tell the difference between their suspension at the beginning or the end of the ride anyways. But OP said he wanted the good stuff, so I told him what the good stuff is.

the good stuff would be works performance ,they makes top of the line shocks that are gas emulsion,and you can actually have them built and tuned by works i would say they are the best on the market for an emulsion shock,they also have decarbon style,more vintage racers in off-road and road racing use works than any other
the vintage fox shocks work extremely good as well
there is no degradation in damping over time except maybe in harsh off road conditions
koni's and IKON's are top shelf and will not fade in street use
boge mulhollands dito
one advantage they all have is the ability to have good amount of shock travel in a single tube damper
no amount of spring screw adjusting is going to do the job without the correct spring rate
the cam adjusters are usually 1/4" or less at a time while not ideal for small inkervals it is much more simple to jack up the preload when adding luggage or a passenger
cheap china-grade junk will always be just that

Yes, Werks Performance makes nice stuff. You can get your shocks tuned by them and lots of other people. I can tune them too. There's nothing magic in there.

A couple of things I think you are missing. Firstly, vintage racing, where emulsion shocks remain in use, are often dictated so by the rules. In WERA here, if you are to run a vintage class, in all but the most open rule sets you are required to run "period" shocks. If emulsion shocks were indeed the hot setup, there would be no need for that rule set. Additionally, the travel issue is completely alleviated by the external reservoir. Finally, emulsion shocks have terrible heat retention properties, they retain heat too well. Frothy oil doesn't make for great heat transfer. Keeping the oil in a nice airless state means that the heat generated is efficiently transferred to the damper body and more easily mitigated. This is especially important on twin shock motorycles where motion ratios are nearly 1 to 1. This motion ratio means that piston velocity is high, which generates lots of friction/heat for a given wheel movement versus setups with different ratios. As a result, reservoir style shocks are the best option in a performance environment.

The threaded body style adjuster has more benefits than simply being able to screw it endlessly. It also accommodates different length springs if so desired. Also, as vintage motorcycles are always less than perfect, it is ideal to normalize rear preloads. You do this by allowing the sag of each shocks to be ever so slightly different but by applying equal amount of preload on both sides. This means that both sides of your swingarm see the same load and are required to act less in torsion (another problem fixed with the mono shock). With cam adjusters this is not possible as they dictate that each shock will be at the same preload. You are right though, if you are tossing your mom on the back, the cams are great for that quick preload adjustment.

The thing about dampers is that as long as they do something they are usually good enough for most people. You can spend money until you are blue in face too, but unless you or somebody you know is clued in on how to operate them there you will never see a return on your investment. I have worked on $30,000 shocks and i've seen this first hand.

Cheap China-grade junk will always be just that, cheap american-grade junk will always be just that, cheap Brazilian-grade junk will always be just that, and cheap Ukranian-grade junk will always be just that. I'm not sure what your getting at.

If the OP is Racing, then all good advice. However, he was looking for good shocks at a reasonable price. Racing Parts are only reasonably priced if you are racing.

I would be willing to bet the OP will get along fine on Hagons or better.

Those YSS look delicious though.

Well I decided to go with cartridge emulators. They are awsome! The ride is way better! Granted I only rode a little ways, it was 15 degrees out. lol Now for the rear shocks, with all the wealth of info you guys have given me, Im probly just going to go with Hagons or the YSS shocks. I just hope they complement the emulators.

At the Barber Vintage Fest, I asked Race Tech's Matt Wiley about shocks (Race Tech only sells $1000+ shocks). He recommended YSS. I have Progressive on my XS1100 and I really don't like them. YSS is on my short list. Hagon may be an option. Traxxion Dynamics offers Bitubo shocks.

With your emulators, did you install straight rate springs?

WORKS blue and white suspension system is awesome looking. Here is a pic of them on a guys bike I know. Rad looking color! They cost around $500 which is not bad for the quality, look, and bragging right.

I bought a set of aluminum body Works shocks for a little over $700 shipped a couple years ago. I then changed the geometry on my project and had to get new shocks to even things out. I would go for the Race Tech G3S custom shock as they are the same price. They are a helluva lot nicer shock for the money. I haven't ridden either shock, so I cannot comment on ride quality, but the Race Tech shock has a superior build quality by far. Everything is quite a bit beefier including the shock rod, and despite being 2.5" longer and a bit wider than the Works shocks they are 6 oz. lighter a piece. I also sprung for the adjustable rebound and ride height. for an extra $150. Heres a side by side.

Man theres a big difference in those shocks. I like em. Still havnt decided what to go with yet tho. I actually went with progressive springs and the emulators.