Hi everyone,

new to the forum got me a '84 34L, a lovely bike, now that the long nights have drawn in thought I upgrade the suspension on the bike.

I Intend to put a pannier rack on the back, which I have but yet have to modify to fit, for some aluminium panniers, so naturally I want to upgrade the spring on the rear shock for the increased load.

Trouble I'm having is sourcing an adequate spring, I'm just hoping some of you chaps or ladies may be able to help me as to where to point me , in terms of details of a suitable spring and a supplier.

Replacing the spring is no problem for me, just getting the right one is.

The UK would be better as where I am based.


Also WP progressive springs or Hagon for the front?, if you have opinions on either of these much appreciated.

THANKS



Further questions to come I'm sure!!

kedo.com

i've got a rear bilstein & wilbers front for africa. very helpfull and thourough in their shipping as well...

must not go with original rear - will not last!!

A

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Albert Smit
Bredasdorp, South Africa.

Ive heard many people on this site say that the original XT rear shock is no good and really must be replaced before a long trip. In 2004 I was preparing my 34L for my first trans Africa and took this advice to heart so I had original shock rebuilt, a couple of days after announcing this i was assured by severla people that this was the wrong thing to do and that certainly I was going to run into trouble. Now 35000km of hard riding with heavy panniers later my rear shock is still very happy and behaving rather well.
This could be due to the fact that when I had the shock rebuilt it was still in good nick so the rebuild simply replaced functioning parts and prolonged its life. Ive never been on a new bike with super suspension so perhaps my expectations are lower that some people, but in general Yamaha seems to have gotten the 34L right and it has worked very well for me.

Jim

Hi, i did africa on an xt 600e last year, i heard all the old tosh about rear shocks as well, but do you know what? if you look into it and make some phone calls people only really seem to have problems with mega expensive ohlins/whitepower rear shocks because, from what i hear, there too complicated.

We fitted a 15% uprated spring rear spring to the standard shock and some progressive springs to the front and with alloy luggage and rider itcouldnt have been more perfect. We bought our rear springs from a company called D.FAULKNER SPRINGS and they were superb, we took ours off and sent them to them, they measured what the poundage was and then sent us back an uprated spring for about £30!!! the front springs were just from a mail order company as there nothing special and were £70 a pair.

Hope this helps.

Dan.

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bigger is always better.