Cb77 Rear Shocks?

[rbaselt]

Phil,
No, I tried but failed. And the early rebuildable ones are very difficult to find now. But I've had pretty good luck with used sets from California. --Randall

[Snakeoil]

I'm just getting into some shock resto work for my CL77. PO painted the chrome portions so I'm going to strip and see what I find. There is a hole worn thru the left lower chrome spring housing from the brake cable rubbing. Anyone have a spare they want to sell?

I've seen repro shocks offered by the vendors in Thailand. Need to check the US based aftermarket guys.

My shock bodies are both in good mechanical shape. No leaks and dampen as expected. So I might try the stainless fabrication suggested here for the lowers and just repaint my uppers, which are actually in great original shape.

Has anyone tried a set of those repro shocks from Thailand? Can't be functionally any worse than the OEM shocks. Afterall, we are not talking road racing quality here.

Jensen, Ohlins on a Superhawk?? Really?? You have way too much money, my friend :-)

regards,
Rob

[jensen]

Hi,

It depends how you look at it and where your priority's are. A couple of NOS mufflers will set you back at least 650 USD, I see a lot of pictured bikes on the forum with a set of perfect mufflers. My mufflers are in great shape, but absolutely not NOS or new.

I see and use my bikes as riders (CB400f, CB450 K0 and the CB72), and I invest in the best tires, brake pads and shocks money can buy, because these parts are dictating the behavior of the bike on the road.

Jensen

[Hotshoe]

I'm looking for after market replacement shocks to upgrade the rear suspension of my CL.
YSS has a less expensive product than the Hagons and they seem to be a performance oriented company.
I called them and spoke to their tech Claus (nice guy very German, said he owns a CA), he said they don't sell the Bravo anymore and the Pro can't be fully shrouded because of their spring width, link below.

http://www.yssusa.com/products_yss.html

Personally, I'd be willing to give away the pure stock look if I can get better performance for a reasonable price without having to cut/drill/bend to make them fit so I can reinst the stockers when the time comes.
One of the issues I'm dealing with are the 8mm mounting bolts on the CL.... haven't gotten my arms around that yet but I'm leaning towards fitting CB 22mm OD swing arm inserts that have the 10mm ID sleeve.

[Snakeoil]

Thanks for that link, hotshoe. A spring is a spring, so the quality of the shock is the internals of the damping system. I wonder if you could put your springs and shrouds on the YSS body? Or, could you make a set of shrouds as Jensen suggesting and make the YSS look correct? Could be a clearance problem, but I would think that Claus would give you the OD of their springs.

I took a look at their site. I'm not all that hung up on original look since my bike is not pristine. The chrome Pro's would not look out of place on the bike. What I noticed was those very reasonably priced covers at $23/pair.

So I called them. The woman on the phone said that the Pro is no longer available, yet the Bravo is.
The covers unfortunately are 69mm diameter which is way too big to use as replacements on our OEM shocks. Too bad. That would have been a deal!

regards,
Rob

[Hotshoe]

Spring rate and progressive winding considered, a spring is a spring.
When I checked the Pro shock dimensions on my CL with Claus on the phone, their spring OD was very close to the OD of my stock lower shock shrouds which is kissing my chain guard so I ordered a pair of 310mm all chrome Pros with 100mm upper shrouds (don't know if they're chrome or polished) based on my good first impression of Claus more than anything else.
Then the 8mm stock vs 10mm Pro lower mounting bolt issue came up so I put the order on hold until I can work that out.
I'm with you on the "pristine" concept and I'm not concerned about full coverage shrouds on aftermarket shocks, I prefer the half shroud look anyway.
My bike's a rider and I like it like that so my only concern with AM parts is that I be able to revert to stock when the time comes.
Let us know how it goes when you talk to Claus.

Thanks for that link, hotshoe. A spring is a spring, so the quality of the shock is the internals of the damping system. I wonder if you could put your springs and shrouds on the YSS body? Or, could you make a set of shrouds as Jensen suggesting and make the YSS look correct? Could be a clearance problem, but I would think that Claus would give you the OD of their springs.

I took a look at their site. I'm not all that hung up on original look since my bike is not pristine. The chrome Pro's would not look out of place on the bike.

Did you notice that they sell the chrome shrouds for $23/pair and they come in 100mm? My OEM shocks only need about 3-1/2 min length shrouds and 100 is just under 4 inches. They are a steal if they are the right size. I need to call Claus.

Thanks again for this link.

regards,
Rob

[Snakeoil]

That's interesting. I never got passed the lady from New Joisey. She said the Pro's were no longer available. Could be she does not know much about the products. I asked her about the diameter of the covers and she had no idea what I was asking. She had to get help, but never let me talk to anyone else.

The fix for the top bolt is a simple sleeve solution. 10mm OD, 8mm ID. But I'm sure you've thought of that already.

Bottom bolt is either simple or challenging, depending on how the lower shock fork (clevis) is configured.

If it is thru-drilled and uses a nut and bolt, then you just need to bush each end down to 8mm. Simple.

If one end of the clevis is treaded for the 10mm bolt, I would think there is enough meat in a 10mm bolt to drill and tap one to 8mm. Make a treaded bushing the correct thickness from that and install in in the threaded leg of the clevis with red Loctite or stake it in place. Then make a simple 10mm to 8mm bushing for the other leg and use an 8mm bolt. I'd blue Loctite the bolt because you might not be able to tigten it without disturbing the threaded bushing.

If the clevis is too wide for the mating part on the frame, you could make a flanged threaded insert which could be installed from the inside and tightened. Then use a plain flanged bushing on the other side so the shock is centered on the mount.

First thing to check is if there is enough meat left after you drill and tap a 10mm bolt to 8mm. It's basically a homemade thread repair insert.

You should double check with Claus about the OD of the covers. They are chrome, by the way. Here's a link to that page. Have Claus confirm the 69mm OD dimension that the lady gave to me. That's bigger than the upper cover on the OEM shocks if she gave me the correct size.
regards,
Rob