I bought a set of these from "mfactory" on eBay. The quality appears pretty good, claims to be 6061-T6 billet aluminum. The overall presentation is nice. $34 delivered to the USA. It took ~ 2 weeks for them to arrive from Hong Kong:
O rings were in place upon arrival contrary to statement in ad:
Dialed all the way in and then backed out 2 revs:
Some arm-wrestling was required to get them installed. I was fortunate my son was available to lend a hand. He lifted up on the handlebars as I attempted to force these into place. I don't think I could have done this solo.
We rode for about an hour yesterday. I had the adjusters initially set to max less two turns out. I think it might be too stiff. The bike has a very odd sensation when cornering at low speeds. It was windy yesterday and the bike seemed to be moving around a lot more at highway speeds with the initial adjustment - - not a desirable attribute. More fiddling is in order. I have very little seat time on this bike as it's relatively new to me. I've got the rear shock dialed up to "6". I weigh ~220 lbs. I backed off the fork setting by another 1/2 revolution when we got home. Will check it again next weekend, weather permitting.
A 27mm socket was needed to tighten down the adjusters. Adjust to the preload is made with a 14mm socket. I did chip up the black finish very slightly.
are you adjusting preload by feel? you really should adjust prelaod to set the sag. there are a few threads on here explaining the procedure. i weigh about 225 pounds and had to crank the rear to 9 to be within acceptable sag measurements. i also have adjustable fork caps and they are cranked all yhe way in as well.
for street, you want to set sag around 30mm-35mm front and rear; for track, you should set sag around 25mm-30mm. i was able to get my sag to 34mm front and 35mm rear @ my weight w/ gear (~240 lbs. total) by cranking my front adjuster caps all the way in then back a quarter turn, and cranking the rear preload all the way up to 9/9. to get to <30mm, i would need to change to stiffer springs.
On those pre load adjusters. I normally just start off with them all the way out. Then I adjust them to get most, not all of the front dive out while braking moderately.
That will often get you in the ball park.
As others have posted, you can do that sag adjustment thing. I never set bikes up by sag, all by feel.
You get them down too tight and it will turn the front end into a pogo stick, be careful not to do that, because that can really get you into some very bad handling situations.
You always start off with them all the way off, then ride the bike and turn them down one line at a time. Check the brake dive and the feel of the front end, you don't want a stiff ride, you will lose traction on wet or gravel surfaces "like right now" with those things set too stiff.
Once you get them set to the place you like, you'll never touch them again.
Rule of thumb...I always leave some brake dive in the front end with those adjusters.
That sag adjustment thing never worked for me. I've always just gone off the feedback from my suspension.
I've been at this thing a long time, but this something I learned early on with motorcycles.
I'm going to have to get these. Do you have a link? Would like to have gold ones to match my blingy gold levers.
Also going to get the gear indicator at the same time.
I'm no suspension expert though I've read a bunch of books. Which helps a great deal.
But from my experience, if you felt that the front end felt 'nervous' on the highway at speed then you need to back the preload off.
I had that happen to me on another bike where I had the suspension modified and the rebuilder adjusted the suspension settings for racing when he sent them back to me. I just installed them and rode. Big mistake, the handlebars threatened a tankslapper every time I hit rough road. I backed off the preload and all was well.
I di however learn what the term 'nervous' meant as applied to suspension. It's bad.
Pre loaders in the right hands can be a good tool. They can turn a piss poor suspension into something tolerable. In the wrong hands they can send you into the worse tank slapper you ever imagined.
You never ever just crank those things down. You always start off with them all the way off and then turn down slowly in small increments and get the feel for what they are doing, and they do way more then people think they do.
I can feel the change with a quarter turn either way with my pre loaders on all my bikes.
To stay safe always make sure you still have some brake dive under moderate braking. If you have no brake dive at all. You back off or you have no business with your hands on them things.
Yes, you reminded me. Not only a tankslapper but with no front end dive I had zero front brakes. They just skidded on even a slight application at 30 mph and above.
I was lucky to not have gone down.
To tight on those pre loaders and you don't have much traction with that tire. Especially under initial braking it just skids.
The front end will wash out on sand, gravel, or in the wet
I'm really surprised they don't send those things out with some literature on how to use them.
I purchased a pair for my Bonneville from China and no set up information at all came with them.
Fortunately I've used them before and knew how to set them up.
There not the fix all, but they do improve things a little bit. They work best with straight weight springs, not so well with progressive springs. Progressive springs, they nullify the lighter part of the spring somewhat. That's been an issue for me using a pair on the Bonneville with progressive springs. I'm probably going to go back to a straight weight spring to get the full benefit out of the pre loaders. Right now I only have a tiny bit of turn to take out a little bit of brake dive, but not so much to take up the lighter part of that progressive spring.
On the 2016 F model I probably need to go down a bit more. Noticed yesterday after reading this the factory setting a little light for me. I knew that, just been too lazy to screw with them.
Which reminds me..I sent my ZRX suspension out to be resprung and revalved a couple of years ago and was happy with what Doherty Motorsports adjusted the settings at but I have yet to fine tune it. Lazy.
It takes me a month to get it right. I take my suspension book out with me and tools.
I try to sense a problem and have to do it on a day when I feel like really pushing the bike, but not being a suspension expert it's hard to tell if I need to tweak the compression or rebound.
I work on only one setting at a time.
Right now my front and rear sag is good. I have to do comp/rebound front and rear.
I find doing the front is easy because you can see it if it's popping up too quickly or slowly or pushing wide.
With the ZRX anyways, the rear settings make the most difference.
With me weighing 200 lbs & sometimes carrying 70lbs of camping gear on trips lve felt 0 bad effects traveling at speeds up to 75mph on my 2014 500F. The rear shock is set at factory settings. I was thinking that I should stiffen the rear a few settings. But everything seems fine like they are. HUM!
Pretty much bad suspension shows it's ugly head only when pushed to the max.
With these bikes the oil filter is easy. There was that thread about the effects of using automobile filters so I'm just going with the OEM filter for now.
However, there is a company that makes a spin on filter adapter for the ZRX (which uses an internal cartridge filter). They specifie, I think, three filters to use with it taking into account the lower oil pressures available in bikes.
Been on other MC boards. Oh the poor guy who mentions he uses a Fram filter. LOL.
All that FRAM stuff to me appears overblown. For one, if FRAM had issues with the filters they would have fixed it by now. IF you take filters apart they are all about the same type construction. Too make a supposedly better filter then what FRAM make, would not cost much more or even that much investment on their part.
Some of this stuff sort of like FAKE NEWS.
It's the way the internet works, lot of spin going on with some of this stuff. Then we all get caught up in it.
The oil threads are ridiculous. I almost don't believe anything I read about oil anymore.
I just buy what is on sale and pour it in.
Go visit a junk yard and ask the proprietor how many cars show up because they used a FRAM filter, or better yet, the store brand oil. LOL
I use a mixture of Rotellas to get the proper weight for whatever the bike calls for.
On the CB I am going with 10-30 though. It's weird to have the viscosity so low but I don't think Honda would have spec'd it if there wasn't a reason.
One of the things different is that they did something on the skirts of the pistons, some type of serrated feature on the sides that reduce friction. came from automotive designs and something I don't think incorporated into the 600 or 1000 engines, so it's a more advanced design in the case of the piston wall design. Not sure if that feature require lighter grade of oil, but that the only thing I found that could possibly be the reason for lighter oil. Just a guess on my part.
The pistons are the same as the 600 except for that added feature on the piston walls.
So yes, something in the design of this engine different then anything Honda ever built before and they are using this engine as a test bed for future engine designs.
Makes sense to introduce new engineering feature with a low production motor. So this engine essentially really is different in that it's using a few known features to reduce friction borrowed from the automotive industry.
Most of the automotive engines with these pistons are using 5-30 oil or even 0-20 oils.
Another thing I read is that they reduced the valve stem diameter in this engine to create a better flow through the chambers, and then matched the intake and exhaust flows. It mention in that data that they spent a great deal of resources developing the chambers and a balance with the flow so as not to put added pressure on the valve stems.
This makes me wonder about intake or exhaust changes throwing off that balance they achieved in the fuel air flow designs. Apparently the balance of that flow critical to the valve stem designs.
Sounds like any change to that flow could compromise those valve stems. They are very narrow valve stems.
Honda is not recommending any changes to the intake or exhaust on this bike.
The thinner stems mean less reciprocal mass as well.
I saw used cbr 500 Pistons on eBay and I didn't see any vertical grooves but the skirt section looked pretty narrow compared to others.
I found out they make a 400cc version of this bike in Thailand.
The first time I saw the use of 10w-30 used in a car was my 1984 Monte Carlo V8. The prior year spec'd 10w-40.
Chevy dropped the viscosity rating simply to raise the MPG without making any changes to the motor.
Funny, you design an engine to run on 10-40 then change it overnight to 10-30 to save gas.
I had it for 140,000 miles and it never gave any problems or burned oil.
Probably our bikes could run 10-40 without any issues.
Honda have developed quite the nice little engine.
Perhaps the horizontal grooves to hold more oil to reduce friction.
Or, perhaps it's the same as with tires, the more groves you have the less grip/friction.
Guys, I haven't found the suspension on the Honda to be deficient in any way. OTOH, I'm always up for trying out minor tweaks. I bought the wrench for the rear shock and, for $34 for the fork adjusters, what's to lose?
We're just puttering along on our beautiful back roads on nice days - - no racing going on here.
I'm 178 and left the rear shock at the factory setting, same for my front shocks. Have not made any adjustments as of yet.
I was thinking about turning down the front adjusters a bit, but decided to leave it all alone. Don't want to start chasing demons.
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