dog bone / suspension

[trisaki 2,029]

hi all , after complaining about my choppy suspension on my 2013 nc700x  finally got round to stripping out the rear suspension linkage , guess what ? NO GREASE WHAT SO EVER , bike has only done 5000 miles , waiting for a reasonable day to take for a spin to see if any improvement  - does anyone know the torque settings for the dog bone - linkage

ALSO  checked static sag , got 50 mm roughly front and rear ideally needs something like 20/25mm front and 10/15mm rear , rear should be adjustment on rear preload (if I can get in there ) but front !  add more oil ? wg

hat do you guys reckon ,I was going to ply around with different grades of oil while I was at it someone recommended silkolene 7.5 grade

 

[DB1965 224]

hiya Mark 44 n for the dogbones 

[trisaki 2,029]

44nm , many thanx

[Guest machinman]

My steering head bearings were also dry and brown with rust when checked at 8000. Frustrating!!!

[Guest Neil700]

Did my dog bone 3 weeks ago. Huge improvement in ride quality. Steering head and swing arm are next

[Tex 36,817]

Damn! My dealer makes a big deal out of the fact that the NC range is 'built in Japan' (rather than Thailand or elsewhere) with the inference being superior build quality. Sad to hear that the assembly workers there are no better than anywhere else..

[embee 7,288]

I was surprised to find quite reasonable greasing of both the steering head bearings and the suspension linkage on my 2012 Integra. I still greased them to my satisfaction though! You'll read that bearings should not be fully packed with grease, well yes that's very true for continuously rotating bearings like wheels etc where the grease will become overheated due to the churning, but for steering and suspension where they just oscillate through small angles all the time, it's absolutely fine to pack them pretty much full.

 

Steering head bearings are almost always loose in my experience, the Integra locknuts weren't even finger tight, once the tab washer was bent back there was about 1/8 turn slack between them. I had similar things on my Deauville (built in Spain at that time) and my SV650.

 

The old saying that the big 4 share one pot of grease between them and get a fresh one every year whether they need it or not seems to be alive and well.

[michael 324]

good to know. I spent some time doing this on my 12 year old VFR. Although not a glamorous job, it did let me sleep better at night!

[trisaki 2,029]

with ref to my post about no grease in rear suspension linkage , well the update is all good , now rides an awfull lot smoother now there is grease in the bearings , next I need to adjust the shock for static sag which from the factory is roughly 50mmshould ideally be somewhere in the region of 10 - 15mm , then fork oil change

[djsb 491]

Looks like I'll have to have a look at the linkages on mine as well. Can the linkage be removed without supporting the rear wheel off the ground. I have a centre stand fitted and this means the rear wheel is hanging freely without the suspension being loaded. Do I have to put anything under the wheel to stop it dropping any further? Thanks.

Edited January 30, 2015 by djsb

[TheEnglishman 401]

You don't change fork preload by adding oil.  You change preload by adding/removing spacers.

 

Changing the oil viscosity will change the rebound characteristics and the level will change compression.

 

Personally I think the stock suspension is absolutely horrible.  Others disagree.  A decent shop will charge a couple of hundred pounds to change the springs, add decent emulators and oil and set it all up.  A rear shock would be a few hundred more.

 

You're worth it! 

[embee 7,288]

Looks like I'll have to have a look at the linkages on mine as well. Can the linkage be removed without supporting the rear wheel off the ground. I have a centre stand fitted and this means the rear wheel is hanging freely without the suspension being loaded. Do I have to put anything under the wheel to stop it dropping any further? Thanks.

It's a good idea to support the wheel, at least to begin with. Just slip a block of wood or something under it. You'll find it's surprisingly heavy once the linkage is removed!

 

An interesting exercise is to lift the wheel while the linkage is off and check the chain slack as you do it. If I remember correctly the minimum slack is around 60mm of wheel lift (suspension compression) from fully extended. I adjusted the chain to give just slight slack at the tightest point, then assessed the slack once it was back in the fully extended position so I can now be sure how much slack to set it to when on the centre stand. (around 30mm is the optimum I found)