Claviger
Aspiring Student
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2014
- Messages
- 6,934
- Location
- Olympia Washington
- Ride
- '21 Z H2, '14 R3R, '02 Daytona 955i
I just finished installing my Wilbers 642 Nightlines. Yes, bike is super filthy, I ride it daily rain/shine so whatever. Sorry the below is long, but, I have a bit to say.
TLDR: I have to say, I am super happy with 642s, but I put forth a bit of warning for those in the market for shocks; Wilbers 642 are VERY sport oriented as delivered. If you are looking for a suspension that will feel like a Buick/Caddy and float over the road turning gran canyon sized pot holes into slight blips, you won't like how they feel right out of the box! They feel like a race suspension, and if you don't know what that feels like, then I highly suggest you go ride a Ducati Panigale or BMW S1000RR in track mode, before dropping the coin Wilbers 642s cost on shocks!
I took it around a on a quick 10 minute ride, covering some seriously fubar roads, some super glass smooth roads, and some roads in between, I have all of those right around my house luckily (or unfortunately depending).
Initial impressions are a bit strange. They were built for my weight and pre-set by Wilbers for preload and damping setup, so I tried their settings first, which was 7mm preload and 12 clicks on high/low/rebound damping. These are the +30mm length setup, so the very first thing I noticed was the increase in ride height, the second thing was the lack of sag when I sat on the bike compared to the Progressive 440s. The bike sags about 1.5-2cm in the back when I sit on it, so pretty close to their recommended 10-15 percent of travel as the correct sag setting. I am 74.5 inches tall with a 34 inch inseam and it is a slight stretch to flat foot while seated with all my weight on the seat (rear tire is .5 inches taller than stock also). If you have a 32 inch or less inseam, I'd suggest considering a slightly shorter set of shocks.
The road out of my residential area has two pretty wide speed bumps, more like speed humps, about 1 meter wide and 20cm tall. I normally take them at around 25-30 mph, because, why not they are not harsh bumps. At 30, the progressive 440s would kick me out of the seat but the bike would kind of collapse under me when I landed, I never noticed how badly it collapsed until I did it just now on the Wilbers. The Wilbers kicked me out of the seat, about the same height of ass to seat clearance, but the landing was much more supple to my prematurely aged spine. The bike didn't give as much, but the way it decelerated under me was much "softer".
Another thing I noticed very quickly was the reaction of the rear end to full throttle. On the Progressives and the stock Roadster shocks, I could actually feel the rear end lift 2-3 inches under full throttle in 1st or 2nd gear. It's the effect of anti-squat pushing the front of the bike down and it's felt because the shocks had garbage rebound damping, so the anti-squat over powered the shock literally lifting the back of the bike. On the Wilbers, there is some actual squat, that is a GOOD thing for traction. Granted, it's not much squat, the nature of a shaft driven bike, but a good inch or two of squat and it just feels much more intuitive than the lifting of the ass end previously.
This was the theme repeated throughout the ride. It is blatantly obvious the springs are MUCH stronger than the progressive 440 springs, no question whatsoever, but the damping is SO MUCH BETTER. So it creates a firmer but more supple ride. I don't know how to put it in words any other way. You can feel the bike "give" less to bumps and dips, but the "give" the bike does have is much softer. It's a really strange feeling, but, is somewhat reminiscent of my track car that had stupid hard springs with equally stupidly highly damped custom double adjustable Koni's, creates a well damped highly sprung vehicle that gives only as much as it needs to but no more!
I plan on taking it out this weekend riding back and forth across a 2 mile stretch I know well testing out different settings to see if I can dial it in just right, but so far, the rear end seems much improved over the progressive 440s!
Questions:
Others with Wilbers, did you leave the adjustments as delivered?
If not, how useful did you find the adjusters? Small number of clicks big change or not so much?
Did you find the Wilbers had the same very sporty oriented feeling as delivered?
TLDR: I have to say, I am super happy with 642s, but I put forth a bit of warning for those in the market for shocks; Wilbers 642 are VERY sport oriented as delivered. If you are looking for a suspension that will feel like a Buick/Caddy and float over the road turning gran canyon sized pot holes into slight blips, you won't like how they feel right out of the box! They feel like a race suspension, and if you don't know what that feels like, then I highly suggest you go ride a Ducati Panigale or BMW S1000RR in track mode, before dropping the coin Wilbers 642s cost on shocks!
I took it around a on a quick 10 minute ride, covering some seriously fubar roads, some super glass smooth roads, and some roads in between, I have all of those right around my house luckily (or unfortunately depending).
Initial impressions are a bit strange. They were built for my weight and pre-set by Wilbers for preload and damping setup, so I tried their settings first, which was 7mm preload and 12 clicks on high/low/rebound damping. These are the +30mm length setup, so the very first thing I noticed was the increase in ride height, the second thing was the lack of sag when I sat on the bike compared to the Progressive 440s. The bike sags about 1.5-2cm in the back when I sit on it, so pretty close to their recommended 10-15 percent of travel as the correct sag setting. I am 74.5 inches tall with a 34 inch inseam and it is a slight stretch to flat foot while seated with all my weight on the seat (rear tire is .5 inches taller than stock also). If you have a 32 inch or less inseam, I'd suggest considering a slightly shorter set of shocks.
The road out of my residential area has two pretty wide speed bumps, more like speed humps, about 1 meter wide and 20cm tall. I normally take them at around 25-30 mph, because, why not they are not harsh bumps. At 30, the progressive 440s would kick me out of the seat but the bike would kind of collapse under me when I landed, I never noticed how badly it collapsed until I did it just now on the Wilbers. The Wilbers kicked me out of the seat, about the same height of ass to seat clearance, but the landing was much more supple to my prematurely aged spine. The bike didn't give as much, but the way it decelerated under me was much "softer".
Another thing I noticed very quickly was the reaction of the rear end to full throttle. On the Progressives and the stock Roadster shocks, I could actually feel the rear end lift 2-3 inches under full throttle in 1st or 2nd gear. It's the effect of anti-squat pushing the front of the bike down and it's felt because the shocks had garbage rebound damping, so the anti-squat over powered the shock literally lifting the back of the bike. On the Wilbers, there is some actual squat, that is a GOOD thing for traction. Granted, it's not much squat, the nature of a shaft driven bike, but a good inch or two of squat and it just feels much more intuitive than the lifting of the ass end previously.
This was the theme repeated throughout the ride. It is blatantly obvious the springs are MUCH stronger than the progressive 440 springs, no question whatsoever, but the damping is SO MUCH BETTER. So it creates a firmer but more supple ride. I don't know how to put it in words any other way. You can feel the bike "give" less to bumps and dips, but the "give" the bike does have is much softer. It's a really strange feeling, but, is somewhat reminiscent of my track car that had stupid hard springs with equally stupidly highly damped custom double adjustable Koni's, creates a well damped highly sprung vehicle that gives only as much as it needs to but no more!
I plan on taking it out this weekend riding back and forth across a 2 mile stretch I know well testing out different settings to see if I can dial it in just right, but so far, the rear end seems much improved over the progressive 440s!
Questions:
Others with Wilbers, did you leave the adjustments as delivered?
If not, how useful did you find the adjusters? Small number of clicks big change or not so much?
Did you find the Wilbers had the same very sporty oriented feeling as delivered?
