Rear shocks ? (2018)

Having just seen that Fast Eddie has sold his Falcon shocks, I was wondering what they were going to be replaced by?
I'm seriously considering a pair and retiring the current Hagons, but I'm having a bit of difficulty in convincing myself that it's going to make a great difference.

By way of background, I use the bike mostly for fast(ish) road work plus the occasional track day. I have a set of Landsdowne dampers on the front, and I really like them.

I know that Maxton etc are really good but the buggers are really expensive as well, so its a matter of getting the most (least?) bounce for one's shilling (or 10p if we really have to be modern).

I have Maxton shocks and I like them, but I seriously doubt that they are that much better than Falcon for road use.

Replaced by these Steve.

I know, I’ve heard it all before “flash b*stard” etc. But I’d sooner spend my dosh on suspension and brakes than owt else. If they’re not right, it’s on your mind CONSTANTLY.

I had Falcons and they’re good, I’d recommend them. I just had too soft springs on them. I didn’t know this until I saw a mid corner photo of myself and saw the shocks virtually bottomed out. That has to have a big effect on the overall handling by screwing up the geometry.

But my bigger issue was the Lansdownes losing their damping. I hasten to point out this only ever happened on the track.

So I just decided to bite the bullet and get Maxton front and rear. Then I can worry about the next problem instead!

What can I say? I have Maxton Front and Rear. The front is a set of their Ceriani replica with catridge inserts. I have adjusted the suspension once, two clicks, since starting to race the bike in 2015!

Their Cerani replicas are fabulous!

Can you recall which cartridges you went for?

The Maxtons are excellent, I put some on my 900SS, after noticing my knees level with the seat waiting at the traffic lights. The shocks were 35 years old! Call me tight. Anyway I have plans for the Commando as I recognise that the old original (ish) shocks are not putting out, I have a set of Falcons (second hand) just not plug and play so need to find the time, weather too good to be off the road so just going to live with the slightly suspect handling for the moment. Though that is much improved now that full trigonic functionality restored on the rear. Just the front is a little asymmetric due to roundabout euforia, being in the UK more trigonic wear on the right.

I put a set of Koni shocks on my Norton over 37 years ago and were only rebuilt for the first time 4 years ago when one main oil seal blew Ikon had rhe rebuild kit for $40 and was a easy job to do, I also brought a new set of Ikon shocks for my Dommie project at the same time they are the same as my old Koni shocks but shorter, my old Koni's are working the same as when I first brought them, if you want shocks to last a life time buy shocks that can be rebuilt.

Ashley

I have got Konis on mine ... they came off a crashed bike when I was working down at the breakers. they must be over 30years old...

Ikons for me. Their performance over the last 40,000 miles has been exemplary. With the Lansdowne conversion on the front, no issues at all. But, of course, I don't race the thing.

My Konis date back to the 1970s. I had a previous pair on my Triton. When I first got them, I didn't know how much damping to use with them. The rear wheel of my Seeley spins and loses traction as I drive out of corners. The bike has never tried to step out, and the rate of line tightening in corners as the rear squats is good, so the damping must be somewhere near right. There is a mob near us called 'Suspensions R Us' - they might know what they are doing, but many don't. My friends and I have all been around racing bikes for more than 60 years. It is only very recently that any of us came to realise that suspension affects the steering. We were probably all to fixated on what the rear tyre contact patch was doing.

I should have gone Koni way back, I saw some S&W's in the shop in the early 80's, so that is what I got, not rebuildable as it turned out. The original Marzocchi's were useless, if I still had them they would be worth way more than they actually are worth.

Steves said:

I should have gone Koni way back, I saw some S&W's in the shop in the early 80's, so that is what I got, not rebuildable as it turned out. The original Marzocchi's were useless, if I still had them they would be worth way more than they actually are worth.

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I had Marzocchis with the piggy back and rebuilt them when good very good indeed

Fast Eddie said:

Their Cerani replicas are fabulous!

Can you recall which cartridges you went for?

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Built to my weight data, but there was a choice of compression/rebound adjustment, or just compression. The double adjustment comes at a significant increase on a less than 'cheap' price.

Maxton's own advice was that unless you are some kind of suspension guru yourself, they will get the rebound close enough based on spring and weights info, rather than you messing with settings fr months and getting confused, so I saved the money and have never regretted it.

As it is the cost of the legs was less than providing them with Roadholder base components and them inserting bushes and cartridges and suggesting that they still could not guarantee equal performance. Since my bike had long unavailable 38mm Betors originally and had never Roadholders fitted it was an easy choice. The 35mm versions have thicker wall tubing and are more rigid than most larger diameter fork legs.

Yves Norton has an alternative Ceriani replica fork set, which I believe has compression and rebound adjustment.

oldmikew said:

I had Marzocchis with the piggy back and rebuilt them when good very good indeed

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I had the straight shocks prior those. On a 250/350 they would have been superb, thinking about it even further back I had a 3.5 Morini, that was probably the best handling bike I ever rode, same Marzocchi's

Steves said:

........I had a 3.5 Morini, that was probably the best handling bike I ever rode......

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Having seen one of those turn faster laps than all of the more powerful bikes I saw it race against....it probably was!

A lot of guys don't realise that when you have a problem with the rear shocks, it usually feels as though the problem is in the front. It pays if you are racing, to have a friend watch you go by to see what is bouncing. If you lack confidence or in the extreme have anxiety while racing, there is usually a valid reason which must be found before you find yourself in deep shit.

A couple years ago one of my Hagons broke off on the first outing of a track weekend on my Slimline 850, box section swingarm, Manx forks. I went round the paddock to find a solution and a Nortonista friend lent me a pair of Fournales oleo-pneumatic shocks. It was an instant revelation, the handling was transformed while the Curve exit traction got significantly better!

Fournales shocks are extremely light units at about 900g or 2lbs. each, which lowers the unsprung weight significantly as a bonus. (As well as the bike's net weight of course).

Needless to say, I immediatly contacted the factory in Toulouse, France and ordered a pair. I must emphasize the responsiveness and professionalism of that company (they build shocks for a lot of applications, mainly aeronautics and racing cars and bikes, they build the units according to your bike specs and your weight. The units are beautifully finished with a classic look and have performed flawlessly for the last 3 years/20000km. The price is very competitive considering the quality and service.

More than highly recommended.

Well, I’ve put a few road miles on the Trident Hunter now with the new Maxton shocks fitted and I can say, with utter confidence, that they are superb!

Expensive? No way, worth twice the price if ‘£ per effect’ is something we could measure.

Even at normal road speed, they inspire far more confidence. The shocks are very compliant, I’ve been deliberately aiming for some of Oxfordshire’s finest pot holes just in the interest of science, and I’m really impressed.

It made me realise just how much we ‘ride around’ issues sometimes without realising it. And unless we break out of that ‘bubble’ and try something different, we may never realise it. I’m no suspension guru, far from it in fact, I’m quite ‘insensative’ to such things generally, so if I can feel such a difference, it is most definitely there!

The forks are coming out tomorrow and being posted off to Maxton. Hopefully in Sept I’ll be back from my travels, and the forks will be too, and I can nail it back together again and report back.

So, the summary from me is simple, these Maxton’s are great. If you’re happy with your Hagons people then fine, keep them and stay happy. But if your suffering, like I was, with suspension issues / worries / paranoia, and aren’t quite sure if the spend is worth it etc, all I can say is go for it and I’d be astonished if you regretted it.

Sorry for waxing lyrical and waffling on here gents... I’ve just come back from a brisk canter and am stilll a bit high !

The trouble is that when we 'ride around' issues, our riding style can adjust to something which is inherently wrong, so when we correct the problem - we end up going faster and safer. The main problem is that most of us do not know what 'wrong' might be. When I first got Konis, I was riding my Triton at Calder Raceway near Melbourne and even in a straight line the handling felt horrible. I was blaming the front forks, but my mate watched me race, then told me the rear wheel was out of control. So we took the caps and bump robbers off the Konis and upped the damping. The bike was much better after that. But I still did not know that replacing 19 inch wheels with 18 inch wheels on a Manx frame stuffed the steering geometry. And because of the cost of reversing my work, I lived with that problem. With the Seeley, I started from a much better standpoint. The frame came with decent Konis of the correct length and with the right springs and damping, when I bought it.

FWIW re Maxton shocks for potential US or Canadian customers: I was curious about their shocks and contacted them today. Richard at Maxton advised they do not currently ship to or sell in the US due to liability issues. Allthough they hope to resolve this in the future, they cannot currently obtain product liability insurance for the US or Canada.