On the last Sunday of March, three of us managed to get out for a spin down a few of our favourite roads. The last Sunday in March? Yes that's how bloody long it's taken for us to get a fine Sunday when I can get my bike out. I hate the Winter!!

Effectively my Blade and I have not ridden together properly for about 5 months, but it was a reunion made in heaven and after about 5 minutes it was like we hadn't been parted at all over the winter. Everything she did last year, she did just as well if not better this year. The gearing and chain mods I carried out through the closed season seem to suit her well and she now just manages to pull those last few revs in top to show an indicated 177MPH! I think she'll be good for an indicated 180 on the right road in sunny France somewhere, but more on that later in the year.

Anyway, speed is not the important thing; anyone can go fast in a straight line, even me!! If I wanted more speed from a sports bike, I could go and buy a ZX10R, CBR100RR, R1 or a Gixer thou. These days we're spoilt for choice, but I don't want any of those, not yet anyway. As I said, speed is not the important thing, but it seems improved handling is.

Now the Blade is not a bad handling bike by any means, it has fantastic steering and will hold a line or change a line anywhere in a corner better than any bike I can say I have ever ridden, but the thing that does let the Blade down is the suspension. I find I have to have it set up pretty firm to get good feel from the forks and to get any sort of damping from the rear shock is no easy task. The rear shock seems to be the biggest problem. It doesn't have enough adjustment or enough of a damping range to cater for the type of riding I do most of the time, which means I'm getting thrown out of the saddle an awful lot. You kind of get used to it, but it doesn't have to be this way!

I'll get back to where I was. Three of us were out for a ride and I was offered a go on Keith's R1. Christ, I hadn't ridden an R1 since Isle of man TT in '99, this should be interesting I thought. And so it was. In fact it was very impressive. Not the bike itself, (engine and gearbox excellent though), but the suspension. On this particular R1, the forks have been re-valved with Ohlins kit and the rear is taken care of with a WP unit and the set up works fantastically. At the time of riding the R1 we were on one of our more bumpy B roads, so it was the perfect place to test it. All the time I was riding it, I was thinking, "If my Blade had suspension this good, it would be out of this world, particularly with the combination of the quick steering as well" So, the seed had been sown.

Now, it's easy enough to go and get after market suspension, it's everywhere, but it's getting it from a good source that counts, with people who know what they are talking about and willing to give you good after sales service and pass on their knowledge. I refer back to when Mark had his 2002 Blade, he shelled out about £700 quid on an Ohlins shock that really wasn't much better than the standard one and poor old Kev has been to loads of so called 'suspension experts' to get his TLR race bike set up to his liking, but it is only recently he has struck gold. These pearls of wisdom were passed to Keith when his OE shock finally retired and now they have been passed to me. The Suspension guru is Darren Wnukoski of Motorcycle Technics, Suffolk on tel# 01449 775775.

So, Monday of this week I called Darren, had a chat with him specifying my requirements and 3 days later took delivery of a brand New WP 4618 rear shock for the Blade, all at the princely sum of £594.95 (inclusive of P&P). It had better be good!!

I must admit I had to take more off the bike than I expected, including tank, steering damper and exhaust, purely to get the old shock out, but it is out and the new one is now in. Darren has put a spring on it to suit my weight and adjusted it the best he can to the type of riding I had specified. It has a ride height adjuster, high and low speed compression damping and of course preload and rebound damping too. The interesting thing is that the spring itself is much shorter than the OE one and naturally the body of the WP shock much more beefy, which will allow for far superior damping with less travel of the actual damper rod itself.

The Easter weather in the South East of the UK stayed fine for once and that allowed us to go for a spin on Sunday and Easter Monday, more importantly though, allowing me to test my 'new' WP rear shock.

The first ride up the road filled me with dread as it felt the shock was far too firm and no different to the original, but after a few miles and a few of my favourite corners, I decided I couldn't be further from the truth. The rear wheel seemed to be pinned to the tarmac and obviously something back there in the rear suspension dept. was doing exactly what it said on the tin. This was a test on relatively smooth 'A' roads and was actually on Saturday night. Sunday morning on B roads proved a little different at first.

Darren, (the chap at Motorcycle Technics) had set the shock up to suit my weight and for the roads I ride, as best he could. So when I started scamping up the B roads to our meet point, I was still thinking the shock was too firm, but as my speeds increased, so too did the performance of the shock which surprised me, in a pleasant sort of way.

I decided to back off the high speed compression damping totally to see where I was with it. After several miles and far too many full compressions of the rear shock I wound it back in half a turn, rode a bit more and then turned it back in approximately another 3/8 of a turn, so now it was within 1/8 of a turn from where Darren had set it and it felt great. I also took one click off (from 16 clicks to 17), the slow speed compression damping and it was amazing how such a small adjustment could actually make. This is something you just do not get with OE suspension!!

So, all in all, the shock is within a gnat's cock of the adjustment that Darren had set it at, which is pretty damn accurate in my book. I also left the pre-set ride height alone and also felt no need to adjust the preload or the rebound damping at all.

The changes the shock has made to the bike are mainly centred around confidence and feel. The most delightful thing about it is due to having so much more feel from the rear end, allowing you to wind it on much earlier when coming out of a corner, this gave me great delight when showing my front wheel to Wayne when things were getting a bit hot coming out of bends, where before I wouldn't have even got close. Another plus is the confidence you get with corner entry speed, as the bike is so much more settled, it can be thrown in with more confidence and will change direction in a flip flop/side to side sort of manner without any fuss at all. Again, something the old shock struggled with, purely because it could not recover quickly enough.

All in all, hand on heart this was the best 600 quid I've ever spent on bike improvements. I recommend WP and Darren to anyone wanting to sort their handling. Top shocks from a top bloke!!!

Just one more thing to add. When John rode my Blade today, the first thing he said was that he was going to buy a new WP rear shock for his brand new 2004 R1!! Which is not a bad handling bike by any means, but it just goes to show how a ride on a bike with decent suspension, (and this is from a man who rode a '02 Blade with Ohlins front and rear and was not impressed), can make you realise how much of a difference you get for the equivalent of a years full subscription to Sky TV!!

Think about it!