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!! These days we're spoilt for choice of quick bikes, but I don't want a new one, 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.

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.

Impressions

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!

As with all bikes the suspension they come with is a compromise by the factory. Standard suspension has to cater for the lightest rider to the heaviest rider and also take into consideration pillion passengers. Therefore, regardless of what a manufacturer states or claims in the PR blurb, the suspension they fit to their bikes is built to a budget and mass produced, so this naturally compromises the quality and therefore range of accurate and worthwhile adjustment. It keeps the overall cost of the bike down too, very important that. Examples of this are seen with the many bikes, take the Yamaha R1 or the new Duke 1098, if you want one with PUKKA suspension you have to buy the R1 SP or the 1098S, therefore another 2-3 grand on the cost of the bike, it makes sense and I wish I could afford it, but if you only want to change suspension, the cost can be much less than that.

It is true, that adjustable suspension is exactly that, it's adjustable, so you can play around with it and it is worth doing to find out if little changes/adjustments, make little differences, big differences or no difference at all. The new Gixer 750 K6 even has low and high speed compression damping as standard, so Suzuki are helping, but again, it's gonna be a cheaper and nastier version than after market, be it off the shelf or custom built components.

Suspension set up is a bit of a 'Black Art', but I have enjoyed adjusting my suspension from time to time and on my current bike have it just about how I like it, but again, the bike still feels vague when cranked right over, (from reading write ups on new bike launches, this is a trait of all sports bikes it seems), I just can't get the feel that I want from the front end. This is even with good grippy tyre choice being Metzeler Racetecs, having tyres like this still allows you to take the piss a bit, but it would be nice to be able to feel exactly what the front tyre is doing. I have replaced rear shocks on a number of my bikes over the years, but I have never got around to changing the fork set up, I have always settled for that compromise, but have been relatively happy.

However, fork internals conversions are something that a number of our group have done to their sports bikes and it's always for the same reasons, to get rid of the vague feeling at full lean and to have an improved spectrum of adjustments. It also means that the smallest of adjustments to quality suspension do make noticeable differences to road or track riding. Note - only make one adjustment at a time though and try it, before making more.

With the Winter coming I thought it was time to strip the forks out and get them re-valved, re-sprung and whatever else is included. So that's exactly what has been done to them, they have been sent off to MC Techics, (link on links page) to Darren and he has kindly changed everything for me. This now means that I will have K-Tech compression stacks, WP fork springs and revalved rebound damping.

Including an oil change, this all costs a total 395 quid, but add to that postage and packing. There are cheaper options, but I wanted the best I could get for around that price and this covers all I require.

If you want to go ahead with this improvement for your bike, the info you need to give to MCT is;

i/ Most commonly used road type, for me this is mainly back roads and bumpy roads (I live in Belgium remember), with little track use other than the Ring of course.
ii/ Your overall weight, when wearing boots, leathers, gloves and lid. Be honest and as accurate as you can be, it makes a difference for the spring weight used.
iii/ Pillion or not, but if you do, you could be wasting your time and money, so probably best to call first and see what options there are open to you.

Why did I use MCT? Well, it comes back to KRJ's racing days, he had all sorts of problems getting a proper race set up for his TLR back in his Sound of Thunder days, but he was eventually advised to talk to Darren, he did and he started to win races. Further to that, Keith got a rear shock for his R1 from MCT and I also bought a WP rear shock for my RR3 Blade from them and the after sales service I received regarding set up etc. was second to none, and when suspension is a 'Black Art', this is worth it's weight in gold.

One other thing Darren has changed for me too is the compression adjustment screws, (I didn't ask him to), it appears that Honda have fitted a rather unsatisfactory compression adjusting screw to the RR4 and RR5 Blades (can't comment on previous models), the problem is that it has a flat end to what should be the pointy end and according to Darren this can cause 'choking' of the oil, therefore affecting the compression damping on bumpy roads.

As Darren refers to bumpy roads, this suggests the high speed damping quality is impaired. The CBR1000RR6 is not the same, it has a much more tapered adjustment screw, but again, it backs up the point of what I have written above, low budget and mass produced, equals low quality.

There will also be a WP rear shock coming some time in the near future, but I wanted to experience the full effect of the forks conversion first.

First road test

Sunday, and the forks go back on the bike - well, there isn't much else to do this time of year. As my tyres are a bit past it and I have ordered new ones, plus I am considering some new front discs, I decided I would leave the front wheel out and complete the job in a couple of weeks when I'd brought the tyres back from the UK and then do the test ride.

But the sun was shining, the roads looked to be fairly dry and I just had to know whether my investment in the front forks was worthwhile, or at least get an idea. So the front wheel went in and I was out heading south towards some decent roads to give the forks a quick test.

Now, I had been advised not to expect too much in the way of first impressions, as upgrading fork internals is a more subtle change than one might expect, but, all I can say is I noticed a vast difference almost immediately. There was none of the familiar patter over small consistent bumps in the road that I used to transmit it way up through the bars, the front end seemed to soak them up easily enough, leaving a nice plush, progressive but firm enough feel from the high speed compression damping, so I was pleased about that. The low speed compression damping when braking hard felt fine too and also very controlled on the rebound with out feeling too much travel, I could probably take a turn out of the rebound, but I won't yet, I need a longer test ride for that, so presently all settings are as Darren left them:

Compression: 2 turns out.
Rebound: 2 turns out.
Pre-load: 10 turns in, leaving 30mm of static sag.
Oil: 5 wt Motul, level 100mm.

When tipping into a bend I didn't notice too much of a difference, but I think much of that may be down to a front tyre that is way past it's best, and probably myself erring on the side of caution because of cold roads and being a bit damp in places, but on the whole, I am well chuffed with the results.