I ordered a custom YSS short shock through JAX Garage Melbourne on the 02/09 and received confirmation of the order the same day. On the 03/09 received an Email shock is being built in the Netherlands. On the 04/09 I received an Email that the shock was being dispatched. On the 08/09 I received my new shock which will be fitted tomorrow and road tested. I was initially disappointed when I found out it was being built in the Netherlands expecting to have to wait weeks if not months. Now I'm totally bowled over whoa to go in six days excellent service and informed every step of the process. Even got a bonus of two stickers.
Regards Martin.

Pictures or it never happened

I was going to post piccies of it fitted tomorrow, but to appease Dai's cynicism here are the piccies.
Regards Martin.

It's nice that you don't have to wait for postal and customs employees to decide whether or not they want to steal your shipment.  Sometimes it takes a couple weeks for them to decide they can't really use the item being shipped to you.

Missed this one... Will have to wait for another one to order to steal the shock

Arlina, don't tell me you work for U.S. Customs!

Nah, I'm unemployed  
Haven't got time for a job, working on bikes 

I fitted the shock this morning and took it for a ride and was suitably impressed by it's performance straight out of the box. Thanks to all who suggested the YSS shock. Now I just have to reengineer the centre stand. I had a look and it will take a fair bit of modifying. Has anybody shortened a 16 v centre stand?
Regards Martin.

MartinW wrote:Has anybody shortened a 16 v centre stand?
Regards Martin.

I bought a 16V stand to use with my K100 after the standard one broke, thinking it would be easier to modify to use with the short RAM shock.
When I got it, the shortening idea went into the too-hard basket! It may come out when many other things are done.

Bill

Bill I've got a straight leg and a curved leg stand. I think the straight leg is more of a viable option, I'm also however toying with the idea of just starting from scratch. I'm going to have a good look at it on  Friday when I go to the Trades Guild as we also have access to a friendly blacksmith who might come in handy. The main problem that I can see is the side stand and the centre stand interfering with each others deployment.  So hopefully if no one has any suggestions we might be able to cobble something up.
Regards Martin.

Martin, my reason for putting it in the too-hard basket concerns ensuring that the strength needed to deal with the leverage of the foot piece might be beyond my welding skills. I hadn't got as far as thinking about side stand interference.
Your various reports about the skills available in the Trade Guild give good reason for optimism. I'd be very interested to hear the outcome of the collective wisdom and experience.

Bill

nice service in these times Martin 

hope the centre stand fix is relatively easy 

i have a feeling that it may be best to cut out a section nearer the pivot than try to cut off down near the foot 

just what comes to mind 

good luck

I have changed the original stands on my Ks to 16v ones. 

But I changed the entire assembly, its a straight bolt off and bolt on job once you use the complete assembly. I have never tried mixing them mainly because of the hassle of opening them up and so on.

I did and do face the issue of shortening a centre stand and would do it near the foot.

Great result so far by the sounds, looking forward to the centre stand mod....

Regards

Dan

I'm thinking of taking a 40 mm section out near the top of the vertical tubes. This will also require taking out a piece of the horizontal cross brace. Internal reinforcing will keep the strength. I should have a basic plan of attack hopefully by Friday.
Regards Martin.

Done and nearly dusted. I took 40mm out of the lower part of the leg after a discussion with our resident engineer Bernie. This is the maximum I think you can take out and still have the rear wheel off the deck. Bernie made up some 20mm  plugs which he drilled out with a 13mm drill slightly lightening them. We veed the shortened legs and feet tapped in the plugs and feet then fitted them to the bike and checked the clearances and adjusted to suit. We marked alignment marks on the leg with the foot deployment arm. Then removed the stand which was  then welded up. Once the paint had dried the bushes were greased and the stand mounted, a small amount of rubber had to be trimmed off the rubber bumper. On the way home I found I was grinding the foot plate that I had fitted to the side stand so a bit of tinkering is needed but nothing major. The bike is now the easiest it has ever been to get on the centre stand.
Regards Martin.

MartinW wrote:Done and nearly dusted.
The bike is now the easiest it has ever been to get on the centre stand.
Regards Martin.

Looks like it is something I need to replicate here. What size rear tyre and how much ground clearance when on the stand?

Bill

Bill it just clears the garage floor I'm eventually going to build up the foot by 5 mm. If your going to do it I'd probably go by Packo's measurement of cutting out 35 mm, I'd also query him on how much clearance he has from the floor. I've got 18" tyre on the front and 17" on the rear.
Regards Martin.