Ride Thursday 11/17/16 & Friday 11/18/16

[Brick]

Thursday Lee and I rode over to Fletcher, NC to Cogent Dynamics on some back roads from Morganton. The goal was that Rick at Cogent Dynamics had built a shock for a customer's FZ-09 and I had been talking with him about the suspension on my FJ-09 and he wanted to see if it would fit. So they took my shock off and after some measurements and discussion of my weight and such they put it on my bike. The FJ had a 550lb spring and they put a 600 lb spring on their shock. The internals had been built for someone of similar weight and in trying to build a good shock to a dollar point this shock has preload and rebound damping adjustments only. His goal on the FZ build was to make a shock and fork internals to sell for $1,000. Which is a great price, I think, for custom suspension. This of course does not include shipping and fork fluid or installation.
Rick had ridden my bike with stock shock, Lee's bike with other aftermarket suspension and then my bike with his shock. When he came back he said that he had pre setup the shock with 14 of 30 clicks of rebound damping but stopped on the ride and added two more clicks and liked it.
So off for home we went nothing done to the forks which are what I thought needed help. I was skeptical that this was going to fix my complaints. Whoa, I couldn't have been more wrong! It's a major transformation. I really love it now. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

So with even better weather Friday my goal was to "test" the shock again. A ride up to the Snake is just what I needed. Lee, Bob and I hit the roads. The Snake was a mess covered with dirt and crap so not so fun. But the roads up were great 181, Hickorynut Gap, 194, George's Gap were fantastic. Very little traffic and not much gravel and crap.

My results from two days is that I had a blast and corrected the stock FJ-09 suspension for me and some fantastic riding with some other Carolina Old Farts. No I didn't take any photos but Bob took on on Friday perhaps he will post it here.

Sorry the rest of you couldn't join us.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[007]

I should know better than to make major changes to a motorcycle before a ride. Didn't Ben Ealy just remind us of this logistical conundrum? Even worse, I didn't test ride it when he brought it back or the next day to decide whether it was functional. This was complicated by switching out the CB500X for its 16K mile service, so I didn't have a back-up bike (and thus violating another rule when planning to ride). The REAL reason I didn't come was Ken and Broz bailed out and there is no way I can keep up with Brick on his new svelte abomination of backroad terror with my floppy front end, but I will stick to my story.

[Bob]

Great ride despite a little smoke. Morganton was real smoky when I got back there around 3:30 but I decided to take Old 18 back home and it was LESS smoky than Morganton, even though it took me only a couple miles east of the South Mountains fire. Go figure. We need a good rain to put an end to these fires!

Shady Valley

[LeeDavis]

Thursday was a suspension geek delight over at Cogent. I rode Rick's DR650 and he rode Brick's bike and my bike, then Rick's wife Joyce rode my bike and all the time Rick went on in fine detail with all my suspension questions...great stuff! On the way back we tried to get through the Lake Lure area to see what's up with the fire and it's a big deal. The police had roadblocks everywhere and there was a major staging of police, firefighters and equipment at the Bat Cave fire station on ALT-74.

Friday was a good ol' daydride on some of our favorites up to the snake and other than tasty Shady Dogs for lunch the snake is hardly worth the trip. The road surface is patched and many of the curves covered in dirt. Most any of the other fun roads we ride are better.

[007]

I "ordered" some clean roads last time I stopped at the Country Store, but they must be on back order with my 421 knee pucks.