Happy Holidays, All!
A little backgound to start my story. I am an amatuer road racer, and have been involved in motorcycle road racing for the better part of 30 years. In that time, I have often yearned to have a sport touring bike to explore the world on. But, alas, every year I manage to get myself buried in racing, and another season goes by with no sport touring. I decided that this had to change. Do it now, or it may never happen, right?
So, I bought an '09 C-14 late last Spring with 3k miles on it. The original tires were already shagged, and got a LOT worse in the first weeks I rode it. Keep in mind that I avoid the freeway at all costs. Backroads and corners for me, please!
I turned to local suspension guru, Barry Wressel of GP Suspension/KFG Racing, for help in transferring this beast into something that handled as well as it accelerated and looked. Barry has done the suspension on a couple of my favorite race bikes, and I knew if anyone could tame the C-14, Barry was the man for the job.
The first order of business was to replace the dead Bridgestones. After much research, I decided to try a set of Michelin Pilot Road 3's. The handling was improved 110%. While still not what I was hoping for, the C-14 was now a much more potent backroad weapon. Barry adjusted what he could on the stock suspension, and off I went.
I proceeded to pile on 6k miles in 2 months. Less than 1,000 of those miles came on the freeway. The majority came on the Pacific Coast Highway and the backroads of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. While the handling was a lot better, it seemed I was needing to run what I considered fairly high tire pressures to maintain the front feel I was looking for (41-42 psi cold). Anything less and the C-14 felt like it wanted to flop over on turn in, and took a fair amount of counter steering to maintain a line in a corner. This feeling got worse as the Michelins wore. By the end of 6k miles, the handling was back to where it was when I bought the bike.
I was/am also working on a budget. Racing, house remodeling and life in general means I do not have the funds for an all out mega dollar suspension. But, I also can't afford to replace tires every 5-6k miles either! I need something that will handle well and not kill tires as quickly as the stock C-14.
And so it was decided to see what we could do with the suspension without breaking the bank. GP Suspensions is well known for creating "cartridge kits" that transform the marginal stock internals of Japanese sportbikes into full race caliber suspensions. After consulting with Barry, it was decided that GP Suspensions would engineer a kit for the C-14, and then we would investigate affordable, quality options for the rear shock.
I pulled the forks and delivered them to GP last week. I just got a call late yesterday that the forks are ready to go. Now we need to order a shock. I am leaning towards the least expensive Penske, as the best handling racebikes I have ever been on used Penske.
I hope to have everything ready for some winter testing in a few weeks. I will post the results here if anyone else is interested in options for getting their Super Sleds to handle!
Thanks, and have a Great Holiday Season!
Tim