OK, just got back from the metal fabricator shop. Helped them design the new upper mount on the CAD machine. The FlowJet cuts the piece out of steel including the rounded edges and holes and then it is bent into shape on a gazillion ton machine press. The FlowJet machine can cut up to 6" steel with 60,000 pounds of force. Cuts only with water and garnet (sp?) mixed in as the abrasive. Pretty impressive stuff, everyone needs one of these! LOL Anyway, here's the shocker, the first one will cost me $110 USD!!! If I have a production run of 20 or more made the cost drops to $55 each. So I guess that Graves Yamaha mount for $70 was not so bad after all. So, let me get mine back and mount and test it on the bike and then if there is enough interest, I can have them make more. I should have it by the weekend and I'll post pics.

RVFHooligan wrote:OK, just got back from the metal fabricator shop. Helped them design the new upper mount on the CAD machine. The FlowJet cuts the piece out of steel including the rounded edges and holes and then it is bent into shape on a gazillion ton machine press. The FlowJet machine can cut up to 6" steel with 60,000 pounds of force. Cuts only with water and garnet (sp?) mixed in as the abrasive. Pretty impressive stuff, everyone needs one of these! LOL Anyway, here's the shocker, the first one will cost me $110 USD!!! If I have a production run of 20 or more made the cost drops to $55 each. So I guess that Graves Yamaha mount for $70 was not so bad after all. So, let me get mine back and mount and test it on the bike and then if there is enough interest, I can have them make more. I should have it by the weekend and I'll post pics.

Hey! As you probably know by now I'm in!!! Postage to UK is cheap so I'm happy to cover all costs. Let us see yours fitted and tell us how it works. Good stuff mate!
Cheers!

I'm guessing some chopping would be required for these to fit an NC30?! :D

OK, always thinking and calculating. I've been bouncing around on the bike in the garage trying to get sag numbers and it seems a tad soft. However, I remember sitting on the bike with the standard shock and it felt the same way. The R6 action definitely feels smoother but still the rear sinks down quite a bit and I'm really not that heavy. Maybe a re-spring is in order, I don't know??? I did manage to find out some numbers on the R6 unit, '06-'07 R6 stock spring rate is 9.8 kg/mm. Anyone know the stock spring rate for the RVF, chime in?! It is stated on the RaceTech website that the ideal rider weight for the stock R6 spring is 190 lbs. or 86 kg. Using the RaceTech website calculator they say the recommended rear spring weight for racing for a 175 lb. individual is 9.65 kg/mm. So if I had a R6 for racing they are telling me to get a softer spring. Can you see my confusion. I'm sure the weights of the two bikes are not that far apart so why the discrepancy in the springs? I don't know, let me go jump around and fiddle with the adjuster some more.......................

RVFHooligan wrote: I'm sure the weights of the two bikes are not that far apart so why the discrepancy in the springs?

The weight of the bike has little to do with it, since lower linkage ratios etc will be very different.

The standard RVF spring will be closer to ideal than the R6 spring, but a replacement of the right weight would be better.

Well, this has all just been preliminary since I don't have the bike topped off with fluids, coolant, brake fluid, battery, tank, bodywork, and fuel. That will obviously change the sag numbers and also the working range of spring travel and associated spring rate. Just trying to test fit the shock, and it fits great and I have the upper mount issue all taken care of. It's now just a question of the Stock R6 spring???? So I'll really have to wait to see if this spring is going to work. To get anywhere near proper free and rider sag numbers I had the shock on max preload which is not good because then the shock is topped out. This mod may just require a spring change to work 100%. Now the dilema is finding the proper spring. I measured the stock RVF spring and when mounted on the shock it is 6 3/4" long and the thickness of the spring coil is 12mm. The R6 spring is 6" in length and the thickness of the spring coil is 11.5mm. So I need to find a 6 inch spring with a higher spring rate, preferably something off another production bike that I can easily find and pirate off e-bay or something. More work.................

Edit: I did some research and discovered that the '05 R6 shock spring is 10.8 kg/mm. ??????

RVFHooligan wrote:I did some research and discovered that the '05 R6 shock spring is 10.8 kg/mm. That looks promising!

Only if you know what the std spring rate is, my guess would be over 15kg/mm.

The best thing to do would be to find out what the recommended spring rates for aftermarket shocks for nc35's would be. At a guess it is between 15.2kg/mm (850lb/f) and 17.0kg/mm (950lb) depending on your weight and other bike factors.

You can see from this just how undersprung any of the springs you've mentioned will be.

Most race spring suppliers will have any of these in stock.

OK, then someone please tell me what the spring rate for RVF aftermarket shocks would be. Surely race suppliers will have springs but they will also charge a lot more. I can pick up OEM shocks cheap on e-bay and pirate the springs from them. CBR600F4i 14.2 kg/mm, CBR600F4 14.2 kg/mm, CBR600F3 14.0kg/mm. Anyone know what the standard RVF rate is also? Fourfingers had said earlier in this thread that the standard RVF rate was 800 lbs, by my calculations that would put it at around 14.3 kg/mm. Can anyone confirm this?

Edit: Found an F4 shock on e-bay for $1 plus shipping! Think maybe it's worth a shot? 14.2 kg/mm?

Hey,

How's the work going? Did you get the shock to work? I am just about to swap shocks on mine but could use your advice!
Thanks

I haven't had much time to work on the bike lately. I have the shock ready to go and have installed the new spring from an F4i. I had to purchase a cheap set of spring compressors to remove and re-install the springs. I think it would have been easier with a good quality set or bring them to a suspension shop. I had to modify the end of the F4i spring slightly to fit the standard R6 spring collar. I had to use a grinder to increase the inside diameter of the end of the spring. The F4i spring is slightly tapered on one end and this was the reason. I am sure other spring collars would work, but I chose to work with what I had. You could always purchase a new "correct" shock spring and replacement shock collars from a race tuner, ie: RaceTech, Ohlins, Penske, Traxxion etc to re-spring the R6 shock with less hassles. Since I am doing the "development" work I choose to play around with different options. Other OEM springs that might work are as follows........ '99-'00 APrilia Falco/MilleR (6" x 850 lbs.), Honda F4, F4i, 929, 954 (6" x 800 lbs.), '07 Suzuki Bandit (6" x 900 lbs.), Yamaha FJ1100/1200 (6"x900 lbs) FJR1300 (6" x 850 lbs.), Yamaha FZR400/600 (6" x 800 lbs.). Standard RVF spring is 850 lbs and standard VFR is 800 lbs. So, for the purchase price of a used R6 shock, modified upper shock mount, and a re-spring, you should have a decent rear shock package that is much better than stock but far less expensive than a aftermarket race shock. I'll try to get some pics up later today.