ST1300 Race Tech shock rebuild

wjbertrand

wjbertrand

Ventura Highway
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
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Ventura, CA
UPS, says my rebuilt rear shock will be delivered tomorrow. Because this rebuild is an extra unit I scored on eBay, I've not yet removed the OEM one. Can it be done without pulling the rear wheel?
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Yes, the wheel can stay. There are a few threads floating around on the R&R that are better than my memory :D. IIRC the trickiest bit is the upper mount bolt. A bit of tape or stiff grease in the socket end of a combination wrench allows you to remove/re-install the nut from under the tank. If you reverse the lower mount bolt, the rear foot peg holder assembly doesn't have to be completely removed the <second> time you remove the shock. The line for the remote adjuster is held to the forward mud guard by clips. These were deformed on my bike and getting the line loose from the mounting was a bytch. The remote adjuster can be snaked through for removal with out removing the adjuster itself...... if you hold your mouth right. ;) HTH
 
It's a piece of cake. A couple of cool ones help. I agree that the top mount bolt will be the biggest PIA but easily done if you remove the seat bracket and prop the tank up a couple of inches.
 
Killtimer said:
Yes, the wheel can stay. There are a few threads floating around on the R&R that are better than my memory :D. IIRC the trickiest bit is the upper mount bolt. A bit of tape or stiff grease in the socket end of a combination wrench allows you to remove/re-install the nut from under the tank. If you reverse the lower mount bolt, the rear foot peg holder assembly doesn't have to be completely removed the <second> time you remove the shock. The line for the remote adjuster is held to the forward mud guard by clips. These were deformed on my bike and getting the line loose from the mounting was a bytch. The remote adjuster can be snaked through for removal with out removing the adjuster itself...... if you hold your mouth right. ;) HTH
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OK, so I finally got the shock off, what a PITA! Had to remove the battery so I could flex the battery box enough for the lower shock clevis to clear the mount boss on the swing arm. My bike is an ABS model and I cannot believe the tortuous path they snaked the prelolad adjuster hose through! I think I'm going to try and find a different path on reinstallation.

I read something about re-filling the preload adjuster with hydraulic oil. Do you remove one of the fittings at either end of the hose?
 
Killtimer said:
Here ya go Jeff. Linky
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Thanks Steve, found your post after I posted that. How important do you think removing both ends of the hose is? I was thinking I'd just remove the hose end connected to the remote adjuster reservoir, with said reservoir elevated vs. the "slave cylinder" on the shock body. I'm thinking any residual pressure on the preload slave cylinder should push back through the hose, ensuring that it's full?
 
You'll let us know how the rebuilt shock works, won't you? (I'm planning to send a spare shock to Race Tech this winter.)
 
wjbertrand said:
Thanks Steve, found your post after I posted that. How important do you think removing both ends of the hose is? I was thinking I'd just remove the hose end connected to the remote adjuster reservoir, with said reservoir elevated vs. the "slave cylinder" on the shock body. I'm thinking any residual pressure on the preload slave cylinder should push back through the hose, ensuring that it's full?
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I'm not sure. With mine there was a bit of pre-load adjuster pressure necessary to fill the line. I've no idea whether that was due to air in the line rising to the top or a bit of fluid leaking out during the process. As long as you're sure there's no air in the system the first step may not be necessary. It doesn't take that long to do both though, and then you're sure the system is air free.
 
OK, shock is in! That nut for the inside of the upper mount can be a real PITA. I found a good solution though. I actually super-glued the nut to my 14mm box end wrench and held it in place until the bolt engaged it. Easy as pie! Left it glued to the wrench until I was finished torquing everything down. It took a couple of raps with a small hammer to free the wrench after I was done. There was no possibility of dropping the nut, that's for sure!

For the lower mount the obvious solution is to reverse the lower bolt so the foot peg / muffler hanger can be left undisturbed. Wonder why Honda did it the "wrong" way?

Finally, I re-routed the remote preload reservoir line to avoid having to remove the seat/tank mount to pass the reservoir up, over some brake plumbing and back down again. No kinks or anything, again, wondering why Honda used such a circuitous route?
 
When Chris gets her next 1300 I want to upgrade the rear shock; so, thanks for the writeup.

I note the race tech spring looks substantially bigger than the stock... did you gain some weight? ;)
 
Just got back from the U.P. of Michigan and gave my Race Tech equiped bike a workout...
John O took us through some nice roads in the Illinois farm land.. Now mind you I'm no boy race rocket. Still learning and my suspension is now just PLANTED. Very confidance inspiring. Point and shoot.. My tubby lady now can dance and she dances way better than me!! Gold valves up front with Sonic springs, rebuilt Showa/Race tech in the rear. The neat thing is the rear can now have the oil and gas changed. Installed a set of B'stone 023 and they work nice too. Very quick turnin with good wear.. Just flattening out with 4200 miles on them...

And I swore I wouldn't farkle up this bike................... Oh well

mitch
 
Mark said:
When Chris gets her next 1300 I want to upgrade the rear shock; so, thanks for the writeup.

I note the race tech spring looks substantially bigger than the stock... did you gain some weight? ;)
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Ha ha, funny Mark!:mad: - NOT!

Honda is notorious for under-springing their bikes and then beefing up their high speed compression damping to reduce bottoming. This gives a harsher than necessary ride. By using a stiffer spring, the bike can be set to the right ride height without using most of the preload and the compression damping can be backed off to allow for better compliance.

The new spring actually uses only 0.5mm thicker wire but it uses one less coil (note the spacer). All things considered, both of those changes make the spring stiffer. However, the Race Tech spring (made by Eibach actually) appears to have been wound to a larger diameter. Again, all things being equal, same number of coils and wire diameter, a spring wound on a larger diameter will be softer because it's longer (i.e. uses a longer length of wire). So with the Eibach spring some of the additional stiffness provided by the larger wire and reduced number of coils is given back due to the larger diameter the spring is wound on. You end up somewhere in the middle.

Bouncing on the saddle in the garage (no chance to ride it yet) it does not feel overly stiff, but a road test will tell. The amount of change per twist on the preload adjuster seems to be bigger though - makes sense with a higher rate spring.
 
I have about 11,000 miles now on my Racetech rebuilt rear shock with Gold Valve. I am satisfied, read very happy, with the set up. I found that I had to back off the rebound damping a little more than the OEM otherwise the bike handles bumps with no drama or upset, including bumps or ripples in corners. Set it and forget it, since my weight of rider and cargo doesn't change much I don't mess around much with rebound anymore. I fettled the stock fork by setting correct ride height for my weight with 16 mm of preload and going to a lighter fork oil - a 66/33 ratio of Showa 5 wt to 10 wt fork oil. In combination with the RT rebuild the bike is still comfortable but tauter in ride quality and reduced dive on braking. I couldn't be happier.

Before I decided to send the shock to RaceTech I consulted another ST1300 rider that had done so to get an opinion. Her shock was resprung stiffer by RaceTech and she advised against the spring swap as the ride became too harsh, however she had no data on sag before and after just a seat of the pants judgement on ride comfort. The comfort of the ST is and has been important to me and I did not want to lose ride quality in the upgrade. I ended up retaining the OEM spring as I am light and always ride solo and pack light on trips. I weigh 158-161 lbs in street clothes and was always able to set rear rider sag at 25-30 mm with little preload and the static sag without rider is 7 or 8 mm which suggests the Honda OEM spring is good for my weight. Heavier riders or riding couples are likely undersprung. I suggest getting your sag numbers if for nothing else than quantifying the change before and after an upgrade.

A problem with the OEM Showa remote preload wheel is that they often lose the ability to add preload. They lose this ability gradually over time and miles so we have to crank up more and more preload adjustment to get the same amount of preload travel. Long ago I calibrated my preload adjustment in sag to the amount of lines on the preload adjuster so I could keep track of this loss. The RT rebuild did not change this relationship. When I get off the bike for anything more than a day or three I remove all preload from the rear shock and I hope that this lengthens the time that the adjuster works as designed.
 
I agree that all the STs are under-suspensioned... like I said... good idea for the next ST1300.
 
First ride on the re-done, re-sprung shock this morning. So far, I'm pleased. The bike handles and rides pretty well with the preload and damping settings at "standard" position per the ST's owner's manual. That would have been ridiculously of for the OEM shock. Running up the super-slab on wet pavement isn't the best testing ground, but one of the improvements I was looking for is evident, i.e. the harshness on the busted up pavement seems much reduced whilst larger bumps still seem well controlled (no pogoing or anything like that).

I think I'm going to click in about 1/2 turn on the preload for the ride home as a test as the ground seems a bit closer when I put my feet down at a stop than before.

Can't wait to tear into the forks next....
 
wjbertrand said:
<snip> Can't wait to tear into the forks next....
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Jeff:

I can ride up to your place so that you can try my bike, if you like. It's fully sorted, front and rear. That may give you an idea what you can expect with the front set also.

Marshal
 
I have a couple thousand miles of riding on the Race Tech rebuild.

The ST cruises over freeway expansion joints very smoothly now. Took a ride up the Million Dollar Highway and those tight twistes before Quray were kick butt fun. The St was very well planted and handled great.

I did back off the damping 1/2 turn from where Race Tech had set it.

A side note: the preload damper took 7cc of hydraulic fluid, I used a 10 cc syringe to measure out how much oil was needed.

This is the only fault I had with the Race Tech rebuild.

I think Honda could have done a better job routing the preload adjuster hose.
 
Marshal_Mercer said:
Jeff:

I can ride up to your place so that you can try my bike, if you like. It's fully sorted, front and rear. That may give you an idea what you can expect with the front set also.

Marshal
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Thanks Marshal, I've got the gold valves on the bench and plan to do the installation myself, but as long as I'm tearing that far into it, I'm going to replace the bushings and seals too. Those parts are in the mail. I've already installed the Sonic Springs and set the preload up front - no changes planned there.

What valving set up did you go with for the forks? I'm going to be away this weekend, and hopefully by next weekend I'll have all my parts and be ready to tear into it. In the mean time I still need to fine tune the rear preload and damping settings.
 
Mike said:
The ST cruises over freeway expansion joints very smoothly now. .
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In my short 46 mile commute to work this morning, I'm already feeling the same thing, less harsh on rough pavement/abrupt lips and seams. At the same time the shock also seems to be handling a couple of large whoops-de-dos well. So far so good!

Mike said:
A side note: the preload damper took 7cc of hydraulic fluid, I used a 10 cc syringe to measure out how much oil was needed.

This is the only fault I had with the Race Tech rebuild..
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On my paperwork it indicates they attended to the preload adjuster and compared to how it was before I sent it in it appears they have recharged the adjuster reservoir. I used to be able to turn the knob 3 or 4 revolutions before the piston started to move and now it starts moving immediately from the point where the knob is fully backed out. No complaints so far.

Mike said:
I think Honda could have done a better job routing the preload adjuster hose.
Click to expand...

True that! I didn't route mine the same way when I put it back in.
 
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