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I From Hobo Camping |
I am officially back in Flagstaff AZ and done with major bouncing around and traveling for a few months. Time to get caught up with Blogging and get a DS Rally put together!
Dave Z. and I rode the second section of the course this past weekend. We only hit a few of the caches as the main objective was to evaluate that section of the course. The Cinder Pit pictured here is classic of northern AZ terrain. It rides like deep sand but thrashes tires like sharp rock!
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| From Hobo Camping |
We will ride the first section of the course this weekend. If Dave cannot ride on Saturday, I may be volunteering at the AZ State Championship mountain bike race happening on Mt Elden, one of our local mountains, as a mobile course marshal/WFR since I gotz the moto.
Either way, I have some great riding ahead of me in the next few days.
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| From Arrival_Suspension |
And now a quick shot to the very recent past...
I received the Cogent Dynamics Moab shock and fully rebuilt front forks. Rick at MotoCD.com was absolutely fantastic and a treat to deal with. The suspension is more than noticeably different! I actually got to test it out on a long ride into the mountains of San Jacinto in Southern California. The new suspension -along with the knee braces I wore for the first time- saved me from what should have been a low side on a slow speed turn when my front tire flatted! More on that exciting story on a soon to come post...it deserves its own!
The craftsmanship is simply impeccable, it is very light weight in hand even without comparing it to stock, and is pretty freakin' sexy (if you're a bike-sexual).
Their prices are among the top best currently available.
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| From Arrival_Suspension |
I asked Rick at Cogent Dynamics to tune the suspension for hard off road riding ranging from fast loose fire-roads to slow technical rock gardens. Also ordered two coils. One is set for my 135lb body weight plus 35lbs of cargo gear and the second for riding with 200lbs of cargo gear -for upcoming moto adventures of course.
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| From Arrival_Suspension |
When the units arrived via FedEx I inspected the boxes immediately. Much to my alarm I discovered the stock presta valves of one of the fork legs had punched through what I presume to be the bottom end as it stacked in the truck. The valve was damaged and a fairly small amount of oil soak could be seen. It seemed to me the box containing my fork legs had been placed vertical, upside-down.
I called Rick and described the scenario. Ultimately we decided that the "damaged" fork leg may not have been compromised judging by the small amount of oil soak I described. The only way to know for certain if too much oil had leaked out was to literally open it up or by riding the bike and experiencing any negative perceived performance. I opted for choice number two and did not notice anything obscene. Actually, I only noticed impressive suspension oscillation on road and off.
What a relief.
The damaged presta valve is not a concern since they do not have an imperative function anymore with the new internals (other than holding oil in). The rebuild included progressively wound springs, RaceTech cartridge emulators, new seals, bushings and oil.
The cartridge emulators control the low and high speed damping oscillation of the front suspension. My only reference to any of this comes from my long time quest to use mountain bike suspension during my pursuit of racing. Grant it, bicycle suspension internals are different from that of motos, but they do get much of their technology from the motorcycle industry and suspension dynamics is still suspension dynamics no matter what machine it is used on.
Here is a great link describing the differences between emulators and other kinds of motorcycle front suspension : FJ Mod site -Yamaha YZFJ1200, a reproduced explanation of Suspension by Jeff Hoffman
The installation of the forks and fork brace as well as the Cogent Dynamic Moab Shock was very simple on the KLR and should be no problem for the home mechanic with the right tools in hand. Originally I had intended on doing an How-to installation post but realized it has already been done very well elsewhere and was way too straight forward anyway.
Take this link [Cogent Dynamics Moab Shock and Spring Review]to a very well done and thorough product and performance review of the Cogent Dynamics Moab Shock and fork springs, on KLRWorld.com . The author, Hondo, did the fork spring installation himself and without the RaceTech cartridge emulators, whereas my forks were sent to Cogent Dynamics for a full rebuild and upgrade.
Now back in Flagstaff, I am able to put them on a full test run to develop an opinion on their intended performance prowess through a wide array of terrain. Today and the rest of the weekend I will do a full run of the CGDSR course and will report back with my thoughts.
Cheers
Contact Information for
Cogent Dynamics, Inc
Rick Tannenbaum
33 Meadow Brook
DriveFletcher, NC, USA
28732
Phone: 828-628-9025
MotoCD.com
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