BTW - What's your take on RT saying they can install different valving in the OEM shock?? That's certainly news to me.
I'll let you know after I mount up the Penske 8981 and take a good look at the OEM shock.
On a side note, I've seen quite a few shocks over the past couple of years while at Traxxion that were supposedly "non-rebuildable". They had peening indentations at the seal head that needed to be drilled out in order to disassemble the shock for inspection or servicing. Some fork cartridge manufacturers do the same thing to their cartridge bodies to prevent disassembly. The "experts" have the means and knowledge to work around this.
The real question; is it worth it to rebuild a POS shock with minimal adjustment range and/or not having adjustments in key areas (compression)?
To give an example - you rebuild/revalve/respring an OEM shock. You spend 250-350 $$ depending on where you source the work for all of that. You still have limited adjustment range or are missing key areas of adjustability. This just isn't cost effective in many cases. And in particular, not a good deal at all for an "emulsion" shock like the FJR OEM shock.
Now, should you purchase a Penske, you could use it for 2-3 years, decide to sell the bike, pull it off and put the OEM POS shock back on. Sell the Penske separately for 50-70 percent of what you paid for it. So, for less than the cost of that OEM POS shock rebuild/revalve/respring, you had the use of an outstanding shock that had 4 areas of adjustability - preload, rebound, compression, and ride height (shock length eye to eye). This is the argument I present to our customers. It just makes sense.
Regarding the forks - The springs are far too soft. Changing them is necessary to support the bike properly but will need the valving on the rebound side changed out. Some folks will say - Well, there's nothing wrong with the valving. I'll just run heavier weight oil and that will work to control the stiffer springs. Then, they find the compression valving is too stiff and the bike doesn't absorb bumps well. So, they wonder what they are going to do. The proper solution is to revalve both compression and rebound and use the proper weight oil for both valving assemblies. We've already done all that testing for the customer. Do it right the first time.
Different suspension shops have different opinions on what works. I can say this though - Traxxion Dynamics is more expensive than many others. I know what you get from TD. I don't know what the other shops provide in their "standard rebuild". I've done the work and after doing it, I cannot understand how some people think it is expensive. For "value" received, it's well worth it. The most amazing thing to me is how many motorcycle owners will spend 800-1000 $$ on a rear shock but will balk on spending that kind of money on the forks. Well, the forks not only hold the front of the bike up, they steer, and hold the wheel that provides over 70 percent of the braking. You won't ever convince me they are less important than a shock. B)
