Cheers From Eastern Canada

Howdy from Eastern Canada. Since it's freezing cold and i'm up to my elbows in snow, this is the current state of affairs.

After changing the belts, changing all the fluids, new filters, battery and a couple farkles, it was time to see what i can do with the front suspension on my 'new to me' 2016 HS low. Problem is, i'm having a helluva time finding anyone on this continent that can help me. It seems like my possible solutions are Andreani, Mupo, Gears Racing, and possibly Nitron. I took the forks to the local guy and he said he couldn't help me for less then about $3500 CAD. Needless to say, i walked away. I would have tackled the forks myself but was a little leery of the construction of the LH leg. However, it looks like I'm going to get the experience whether i like it or not. Anyone wanting to help out by offering their experience installing carts in these beasts, please feel free to do so. Cheers from the 45th parallel!

 

Cheers Lad! The weather here changed from -24 to 6 degrees in 24 hours. Gotta love it...

 

Many thanks for taking the time to provide the links. Let me give you a little more background on my travels (travails?). I've spent about 40 years in the maintenance game starting as an auto tech and moving to the electronics field. I'm used to getting my hands dirty and have rebuilt, upgraded a few suspensions in my time and have had good success. I'm not familiar with the construction of these forks which seem to be cheaply made and have given a number of folks a bit of a hard time. I've seen a number of posts/vids/facebook pages etc. Virtually all of these are old with dead links and OP's that are no longer members on the websites. The first link you gave is for an 1100 which has different internals, the second has been book marked and repeatedly referred to. In one thread, Race Tech had stated that installation of cartridges was a 'custom job' requiring machining and the cost would be commensurate. After much surfing, attempts at contacting supposed reps for Andreanni. Footnote: There is only one in Canada and they ceased communication with me as they said they don't deal with Andreanni much. I decided i wanted to wash my hands of the damn things and give them to a local 'professional'. After having the forks for weeks and assuring me he had 'lots of solutions', he couldn't receive any reply from either Andreanni nor MUPO and had no other solution. The price he quoted was for the MUPO LCRR's and was about $2800 for the carts themselves. He basically doubled the price before shipping and custom charges which can drive the price skyward. I've seen lots of listings for cartridges but the issue is contacting the manufacturer or representative. It seems like they may respond in a couple weeks or so if you're lucky. This is what I've been personally told by official distributors and what i have read online. I have contacted all the MUPO reps in North America (quantity 4,of which, one won't ship to Canada). I currently have a resource in Texas who has taken the ball and is running with it. He told me to give him a couple weeks. I discovered a little known Taiwanese company (Gear Racing) that has a rep in British Columbia and I'm now in conversation with him and awaiting a reply. Again, it's the issue with mine being the low version which complicates things. I'm determined to do the job myself at this point. My issue is finding a contact that will respond. My hope is that since this is a European bike, i may be able to find a European resource. It's mostly the reason I'm here. Buying from eBay has been explored but is not an option I'm much interested in. I want to be able to explain/discuss with someone so that i can get my needs met. I don't expect I'll receive much response after the sale on eBay. I guess i'm hoping for someone that has experience and preferably is a distributor/builder for any manufacturer that can provide me with upgraded internals for these forks. Both the Monster and Scrambler have similar designs. On that note, I'm about to darken HBSK's doorstep and see what they tell me. Again, many thanks and sorry for the long winded reply. As you might be able to tell by now, this has been a bit of a quandary for me. Cheers!

 

A very good point. In order to check to see if my forks are 'shorter' i'd need some info i can't find. So far the only info on suspension height is the press release describing the suspension as being lower. There are lots of opinions online as to whether or not a low version actually exists. Others say that in 2016 all HS's sold were the low version. The manufacturers service manual makes reference of different seat heights and chain tensions but provides no measurement of any fork components. The VIN number doesn't reflect whether or not it's a low version. My bike has a sticker stating it is lower. That sticker has Italian, English, German, French, Japanese and Chinese text. Which tells me it was sold pretty much world wide. The chain tension specs on a second sticker on the swing arm reflects it's a low version as compared to info in the owners manual. See photos of the sticker below. Andreani sells different versions and specify a low version. Here it is. https://www.andreanigroup.com/prodotti/moto/105|D12E/?CARTUCCIA+DUC.HYPERMOTARD+821+LOW+-+

MUPO sells a low version and here it is. https://www.mupo.it/product/lcrr/?lang=en&brandID=2292&bikeID=178

I still don't know what the differences are between the two versions. For my DR650, the cone attached to the damping rod can be reversed so that it will lower the front suspension. In the rear you flip the collar the spring sets on and move the shock mount to it's lower position. Our F650GS comes in a low version. Not sure what the differences are there. We just threw in a set of Kouba links and dropped the forks.

It's not so much the question as to whether or not i have a low version, it's to find someone that can supply me with a solution that is reasonably priced and that i can provide feedback to so that i don't end up with a suspension that doesn't work for me. Having dealt with Race Tech in the past, their 'calculator' leaves a lot to be desired and just picking some product off a website doesn't appeal to me. I want to discuss what i need and have someone confirm they can deliver it. There is a longtime member here (mentalist) that has a low version but in his list of mods, i see nothing for suspension. Of course, he probably doesn't need any as he doesn't weight 240 lbs like this fat North American.

For Asian solutions, i'm currently in conversation with the Canadian distributor for Gear Racing (Taiwan) which has a cartridge set but he hasn't verified that he can supply anything for the low version. https://www.gears-racing.com/collec...ront-fork-cartridge-inverted-forks-ffc-250-tt There is virtually nothing online about this manufacturer. Which leads me to YSS. I don't see anything on their website for carts but i've sent them an email requesting assistance.

I don't know of any other manufacturers i can approach. Like everything else, it seems like Covid has created a huge supply problem. My hope was that someone has the components on a shelf and can send it off to me after assembling it to my specs. That may be a little too optomistic i'm afraid.

 

Gandalf,
So very sad to hear about your misfortune. I had lusted after the HS's after they came out years ago but I've pretty much stayed off the street and kept to the dirt roads on my dual purpose machines. Then after falling off my tractor, and tearing up my rotator cuff, i had to keep the bouncing around minimized becauses at 62 year of age, i heal slower then i used to. Hence the street machine which was supposed to be a lightweight cruiser for touring the back roads. Except the backroads have lots of broken pavement and this bike jars my eyeballs nearly out of their sockets. Maybe i just need to lose weight...