I'm back to this old topic again and am going to change the spring on my 06-07 R6 shock if I can find out what the spring rate is on the original shock. I think I need one about 20% softer, judging by the maximum travel it's ever had.

It may be great on the track bikes but it's too hard for the bumpy A&B roads I like to ride.

Does anyone know the spring rate?
Ta

The R6 has a standard spring rate of 9.8kg/mm or 547lb/in in old money.

The standard 3TJ shock has a spring rate of 5N/mm - 5.9kg/mm - 330lb/in so you might want to go somewhere in the middle, around the 430lb/in mark i recon.

Dont forget to include you own weight in your calculations, (Not say your fat or anything) :D

PB Mag have a long term test R6. They had it resprung but they also put in a collar at the top to allow the spring to rotate more feely as it loads and unloads. Not sure about the company that did the spring but it's supposed to tidy up the suspension.

Thanks Oolit. I did some digging later on last night and found the R6 spring rate and measured the travel, which I think was 1.8"

I have a FZR1000 Nitron shock with 2.5" travel and 425lb spring that I'm eyeing up, which at total stroke gives about the same load as the R6

I think that the combination of R6 spring rate and short travel is the problem. If you've seen a R6 linkage, it's very different to the 3TJ, so presumably designed for reduced travel. Either way, mixing and matching stirs things up a bit.

I think the Nitron will probably do the job well but it's only a single adjustment (combined compression & rebound). If it seems to be spring well, I'll compare the used travel to the R6 shock and work out if that spring will do it on the R6 shock, whilst having some use for the preload adjuster that is currently set to minimum.

The other question is what tool do I need to compress the R6 spring to get the clip off?(my Nitron is easy as it's a threaderd collar). No fancy expensive stuff though... improvisation will do for a one-off job