ZX-14 shock on the SV

[Particle Man]

Well, I finally took the plunge and put a ZX-14 shock on my SV. I've been riding the SV with the stock rear shock for the past 7 years thinking (apparently incorrectly) that everything was working well. For those that don't know, the stock suspension on the SV is set up on something of a budget. For folks that are lighter, it tends to not be a problem. However, I'm not lighter so for those of us that are a bit more, uh, insulated, a better (read: more heavily sprung and adjustable) shock is usually best.

Unfortunately, a nice aftermarket shock would be close to and/or over a grand. However, there are some shocks that are pretty darn close to the length of the SV's shock. For my weight, riding style, and occasional 2up riding, the ZX-14 shock would be ideal.

I managed to score a ZX-14 rear shock from eBay for under $100 and it's been sitting in the garage for the past 2 weeks - I've been putting it off thinking it'd be a huge PITA to install.

I finally decided to just freakin' do it... I put the SV up on the center stand (probably the single most useful aftermarket part I've put on the bike to date), unbolted the dog bones, unbolted the shock, and then snuck it out through the bottom. After some creative movement of the little rubber flap on the swing-arm, I managed to sneak the new shock into the space, lined it up, and it almost dropped right in. Minor thing: I needed to Dremel the top of the new shock just the tiniest bit to get it to slide into the slot. That took about 2 minutes total after which, the shock dropped right in. I then tightened everything back up, put the dog bones back on, torqued everything to spec and pulled the bike off the center stand.

At first, I thought I hadn't done something right... the bike normally drops quite a bit when I take it off the center stand and it settles onto the tires. Not so this time. I proceeded to check everything to make sure there was no binding and found none... Apparently the new shock was already doing it's job.

I checked one more time to make sure everything was bolted in correctly, and then went for a ride. Holy freakin' CRAP, what a difference. It was like the rear wheel was glued to the road. I couldn't believe the difference in the handling.

I'll be spending the next week or so dialing the new shock in (the old shock had adjustable pre-load only while this one has hi/low dampening etc). Either way, it was definitely a worth-while mod. End-to-end, it took me about 20-25 minutes to install (I guess I shouldn't have put it off ). Total cost was just a shade under $100 (you can't reuse the old bottom shock bolt from the SV: it's too short and it actually threads into the stock shock so you're better off just getting the bottom shock bolt for a ZX-14)

Next up, new fork springs, oil, and emulators.