Rear suspension...

So I've got the Yamaha fork upgrade lined up, some of the parts are here, others are in process. That left me with the rear, which would be absurdly low once I stick those long front legs on there.

I considered a stock Dakar shock, but honestly, that's not all that much better (beyond length) than the stocker on there now. That's when I saw the special buy on Ohlins shock absorbers from Dan over at Kyle Racing.

So I ordered a brand spankin' new Ohlins BM750, an 'S46HR1C1S' model. What do the numbers mean? Glad you asked!


S - single tube
46 - diameter in mm
H - Gas pressurized with a Hose-mounted reservoir
R1 - Damping adjustment knob
C1 - Compression adjustment knob
S - Hose mounted Spring preload adjuster

That's a lot of knobs. Particularly as I'm used to having only the preload adjustment available.

Battery stuff

This is a delayed update... Well, I gave up on that sealed battery from BMW of Santa Cruz. After weeks of back-order (and my bike sitting idle) I got word that the batteries they finally got have the terminals reversed.

A man can only take so much, and there was a fortuitously timed post over at ADVRider.com that mentioned another place with sealed batteries for my bike. I ordered Saturday, and rode to work on Friday. Done. The new battery (A 'Scorpion' branded product) was an easy drop-in replacement, and no more fiddling with the overflow tube.