Cheap and Simple Suspension Upgrades for Dommie...
 

Just taken the new Dommie out for a days green laning. Admittedly it had bald road tyres on it.....But, the handling was impressively pants.

I thought I'd stiffen the front end with some new fork oil and put in some 1" preload spacers. And just increase the preload on the back to get the static sag to the usual prescribed 1/3 travel and see how it goes.

Are there any other simple mods/advice anyone has to help the handling along a bit....other than an XR front end and a new rear shock of course!

Dave

ps. is the dommie shock interchangable with any other bikes?

You can get your Dommie shock rebuilt and re-gassed (to a higher pressure than stock) by ABE. I have just got mine done, cost me just over £120. If you're planning to carry luggage you can get them to fit an over-heavy spring, too.

I'd go for stiffer springs, but not for spacers or higher pressures - you can get coil bound with spacers and blow seals with higher pressures.

I'd also go for playing with damping oil viscocities once you've worked out whether you can adjust compression/rebound. eg the XRL front had adjustable compression damping, but not rebound damping so I upped the oil weight and reset the compression damping. fiddly, but paid dividends.

Hmmm.

The ABE re-gassing involves welding a valve into the top-mount of the shock. I think you also get a new, re-engineered central strut (which is hidden on the Dommie shock anyway) and new seals throughout. I will report back when I know how the 'new' shock performs. I kept the stock spring for now.

On my XRL I had a 20% over spring on the rear, and Wirth heavy springs in the forks, with thicker oil. Worked like a charm, and as a bonus the setup I had wasn't rock-hard when I was lightly laden (accompanying a 4WD, which was carrying my luggage was an example of when this paid off). I think on the Dommie I will leave the stock springs in for now, but install thicker oil.

The weight of a metal tank with stock volume is probably the same as a 20-odd litre plastic tank, and my rallye dash is much lighter than standard clocks. After some off-road playing I'll report back.