The other day, I saw a Bandit 1200 rear shock completely pop out, and it made me a bit nervous recently.
I’ve seen rear shocks leak oil a little,
but I’d never seen one completely pop out before.
I always thought something like that couldn’t possibly happen, but apparently it can in reality.
My Zephyr 550’s stock shock is also leaking a bit, so I started feeling a little worried.
There aren’t many rear shocks in the world that separate performance from aesthetics,
and while I was thinking about it, inspiration struck.
Oh yeah!
I remembered that I had a FOX rear shock lying around from when I was thinking about building a Z a long time ago, so I dug it out.
So I’ve been installing it in a rush job starting this evening.
First, I’ll remove the stock shock and check the mounting dimensions.
First, I’ll remove the stock rear shock and check the dimensions.
Since this could be a deal-breaker, I was measuring while praying.
I’ll check the shock mounting width at the top and bottom, and the inner diameter/rear shock free length.
Miraculously, the length was +5mm.
And the overall width matched the included spacer, so I found that I could install it by just adjusting the inner diameter.
Let me check the stock rear shock spring rate
There’s a C-ring inside the chrome tube, and you have to compress the spring quite a bit to see it.
You need to proceed carefully and safely with this kind of work, or you’ll have a really bad time.
It looks like the upper spring seat can’t be removed without taking off the lower end.
Since it’s not relevant, I didn’t remove it.
I was surprised the spring rate was lower than I expected.
The lower the rate, the more subtle the measurement becomes, so take this as a rough reference.
I bought a universal FOX REAR SUSPENSION
I ordered it from America a long time ago.
It was sold in a pretty rough way—you could just tell them the length and width and buy it, very American style?
Well, it’s been leaking oil from the start and has various issues,
so I’m aware it’s not something I could sell as-is.
In my case, I prioritize looks first,
so I’m planning to work hard from here on to adjust the spring and damping to make it work.
I really like the mix of casting and machining.
It has more character than the modern aggressively machined, super mechanical look.
Let me also check the FOX spring rate.
It’s marked on the spring, but it’s good to double-check for peace of mind.
Sometimes the markings are rounded off and have nice round numbers, so it’s worth checking.
And miraculously, it turned out to have almost the same spring rate.
If you check the spring’s inner diameter, outer diameter, and length, it’ll be easier to look up when you need to change the rate.
I’ll skip ahead to the finished product since it’s tedious.
The tail cowl and muffler interfered a bit, so I had to do some quick adjustments to make it work.
At least I got it installed, so that’s a relief.
Now I want to take it out for lots of test rides and make various adjustments.
The reservoir tank is positioned too high and looks a bit odd…
I’ve already got some old-school stickers to apply.
But the reservoir tank is small, so it’s a bit tricky.
The bodywork is pretty beat up, so I thought it might be fun to do some sticker customization on a summer day like this.
There have been so many earthquakes lately—I hate it.
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