Happy Holidays, All!

A little backgound to start my story. I am an amatuer road racer, and have been involved in motorcycle road racing for the better part of 30 years. In that time, I have often yearned to have a sport touring bike to explore the world on. But, alas, every year I manage to get myself buried in racing, and another season goes by with no sport touring. I decided that this had to change. Do it now, or it may never happen, right?

So, I bought an '09 C-14 late last Spring with 3k miles on it. The original tires were already shagged, and got a LOT worse in the first weeks I rode it. Keep in mind that I avoid the freeway at all costs. Backroads and corners for me, please!

I turned to local suspension guru, Barry Wressel of GP Suspension/KFG Racing, for help in transferring this beast into something that handled as well as it accelerated and looked. Barry has done the suspension on  a couple of my favorite race bikes, and I knew if anyone could tame the C-14, Barry was the man for the job.

The first order of business was to replace the dead Bridgestones. After much research, I decided to try a set of Michelin Pilot Road 3's. The handling was improved 110%. While still not what I was hoping for, the C-14 was now a much more potent backroad weapon. Barry adjusted what he could on the stock suspension, and off I went.

I proceeded to pile on 6k miles in 2 months. Less than 1,000 of those miles came on the freeway. The majority came on the Pacific Coast Highway and the backroads of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. While the handling was a lot better, it seemed I was needing to run what I considered fairly high tire pressures to maintain the front feel I was looking for (41-42 psi cold). Anything less and the C-14 felt like it wanted to flop over on turn in, and took a fair amount of counter steering to maintain a line in a corner. This feeling got worse as the Michelins wore. By the end of 6k miles, the handling was back to where it was when I bought the bike.

I was/am also working on a budget. Racing, house remodeling and life in general means I do not have the funds for an all out mega dollar suspension. But, I also can't afford to replace tires every 5-6k miles either! I need something that will handle well and not kill tires as quickly as the stock C-14.

And so it was decided to see what we could do with the suspension without breaking the bank. GP Suspensions is well known for creating "cartridge kits" that transform the marginal stock internals of Japanese sportbikes into full race caliber suspensions. After consulting with Barry, it was decided that GP Suspensions would engineer a kit for the C-14, and then we would investigate affordable, quality options for the rear shock.

I pulled the forks and delivered them to GP last week. I just got a call late yesterday that the forks are ready to go. Now we need to order a shock. I am leaning towards the least expensive Penske, as the best handling racebikes I have ever been on used Penske.

I hope to have everything ready for some winter testing in a few weeks. I will post the results here if anyone else is interested in options for getting their Super Sleds to handle!

Thanks, and have a Great Holiday Season!

Tim

it seemed I was needing to run what I considered fairly high tire pressures to maintain the front feel I was looking for (41-42 psi cold). Anything less and the C-14 felt like it wanted to flop over on turn in, and took a fair amount of counter steering to maintain a line in a corner.

42 cold is the factory recommended pressure for both front and rear, so that is not "fairly high"    The 1.4 liter Concours is a big, heavy bike!

Don't forget a 55 profile tire on the rear.

^^^yes^^^

 

I have fiddles with mine until my fingers are sore and am not happy with it either. Let us know how it goes and rough cost if you would please. Welcome to the madness. 

I guess I worded that rather poorly. What I meant to say was that in order to get anything close to the front "feel" I was looking for, I needed to run the pressure at the recommended 42 psi cold. If the pressure dropped by as little as a single psi during the course of a long, multi-day ride, the handling degraded significantly. And, as the tires began to wear, acceptable handling (in my opinion) went away, rather quickly. Too quickly, for me. The wear pattern in the tires was odd as well. The center stayed fairly tall and wore smoothly, but the shoulders went away very quickly, and had heavy deflection wear in the tread, likely due to excessive weight load. But, Barry also felt that better control of the suspension on both ends could significantly reduce both of these issues.

And, yes, that rear shock does suck!

I am going to pick up the forks and order a shock tomorrow morning, so I should be able to post an idea of the cost ASAP. The results of the works will take a while to thoroughly test, though.

Tim

This is the best stock suspension I have ever been on, so glad I don't feel the need to drop big bucks on improving it.

Some of us are spoiled and once you know what a really good suspension feels like specially  during aggressive riding then it does suck to now have to go spend even  more money to get the bike to where you like it. Right now I don't like it .

I have heard many people say the stock C10 suspension was fantastic. NOT!! and my new KLR, wow, it was so bad  people laughed really  hard at me because I would stop hard  and the bike continued to rock back and forth like a child's hobby horse. Both my C10 and my KLR now  have much better suspension and handling because  I completely overhauled those suspensions.The KLR feels nothing like the stock bike it was thanks to the Super Moab Shock.

I like the C14, it is pretty quick and comfortable but it pogos like crazy even on good roads here in Florida.  I cant wait to get this thing fixed.

So exactly what rear shock should I buy?  a Penske dual? from Traxxion i assume.  I would buy an Ohlins but man they are pricey.

Has anyone have experience with Traxxion Dynamics and the C14? I used the Traxxion on my 03 Goldwing and it was truly amazing...so I'm considering it for my C14.

Dave

Big bucks, but in the world of shocks, I know you get what you pay for.

Get the Ohlins, trust me you won't be disappointed.     
 
http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=10019.150
 

Has anyone have experience with Traxxion Dynamics and the C14? I used the Traxxion on my 03 Goldwing and it was truly amazing...so I'm considering it for my C14.

Dave

I have the traxion ak20 cartridges and springs. I told them I wanted compliant but controlled,they hit it on the nose.I set it up the way they suggested and it works great,especially with the ohlins rear shock.