Rear Shocks

Looking to button up some loose ends on my 83 kz1100. The rear shocks are wasted, and I am looking for a reasonable replacement set, new or used. It seems quite hard to find any in 13.5" though without spending more than I paid for the bike. I have a set of original air shocks, but when I went to check the pressure oil blew out of the schrader valve, so I am pretty sure they are wasted too. Any input would be great or if you have a set you want to part with PM me.

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I went through the process of replacing my shocks after a bit of research. As a general guide of what I found:

- Progressive suspension seems to be the preferred replacement as you can buy the shock body and spring separately to get the spring rate you want.
- Hagon are also good - most suppliers will assemble based on the bike so there's not just one overly-hard spring rate like the cheap chinese options. But not adjustable unless you get expensive ones
- YSS are similar to Hagon in that the cheaper models are pretty good for the price, built for the bike and non-adjustable.
- Harley Sportser shocks are available on ebay near-new, since many Harley riders swap out their suspension straight away.
- There are some decent made Chinese options like RFY. They're decent quality for the price, but they're often not assembled well, and since they're made to fit on a large range of bikes, they sometimes won't fit bikes they say they do, and often with a completely wrong spring rate. There are [some people]( chrislivengood.net/wp/product/kawasaki-kz750-h1-kit/ ) who rebuild these shocks properly and get good performance out of them.

I'm in Australia and found that progressive shocks and 2nd hand harley shocks were hard to get, and went with some RFY shocks like the like above with the intention of rebuilding them. I've put them on my bike without a rebuild and I'm happy so far - I'm sure there are better ones out there, but they're miles better than the 35 yo stock ones that had no damping left and bottomed out easily.

Irish Yobbo wrote: I went through the process of replacing my shocks after a bit of research. As a general guide of what I found:

- Progressive suspension seems to be the preferred replacement as you can buy the shock body and spring separately to get the spring rate you want.
- Hagon are also good - most suppliers will assemble based on the bike so there's not just one overly-hard spring rate like the cheap chinese options. But not adjustable unless you get expensive ones
- YSS are similar to Hagon in that the cheaper models are pretty good for the price, built for the bike and non-adjustable.
- Harley Sportser shocks are available on ebay near-new, since many Harley riders swap out their suspension straight away.
- There are some decent made Chinese options like RFY. They're decent quality for the price, but they're often not assembled well, and since they're made to fit on a large range of bikes, they sometimes won't fit bikes they say they do, and often with a completely wrong spring rate. There are [some people]( chrislivengood.net/wp/product/kawasaki-kz750-h1-kit/ ) who rebuild these shocks properly and get good performance out of them.

I'm in Australia and found that progressive shocks and 2nd hand harley shocks were hard to get, and went with some RFY shocks like the like above with the intention of rebuilding them. I've put them on my bike without a rebuild and I'm happy so far - I'm sure there are better ones out there, but they're miles better than the 35 yo stock ones that had no damping left and bottomed out easily.

Thanks for the reply and info. I came across many many RFY stories and they seem to be the most plentiful cost effective ones out there. I heard more negative than positive though. Based on your input it sounds as though your experience is good. What model did you get and how long have you had them for? The biggest thing I was concerned about was the eyelets not lining up correctly and having to make spacers and such, those seem to be the general complaint in regard to the RFY shocks, that and the longevity. Thanks again!

Thanks for the reply and info. I came across many many RFY stories and they seem to be the most plentiful cost effective ones out there. I heard more negative than positive though. Based on your input it sounds as though your experience is good. What model did you get and how long have you had them for? The biggest thing I was concerned about was the eyelets not lining up correctly and having to make spacers and such, those seem to be the general complaint in regard to the RFY shocks, that and the longevity. Thanks again!

Some people get Chinese shocks and compare them to Ohlins, and surprise surprise, they're not as good.

I got mine from Ali express and I've only had them on for about 6 weeks, but I've been happy with them.

These are the ones I got: www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.html?order...roductId=32841532582

There are a few options on length, colour, eyelet sizes and spring size if you order from ali express. I asked the seller for the correct eyelet sizes and the 8mm spring instead of the 7mm spring - the stock spring is 7mm but I was bottoming out even with full preload and without luggage. The 8mm spring is noticeably stiffer, but feels more like a modern bike, and corners much nicer now that the back end doesn't dip in so much.

They have less travel, but not by a huge amount - 3.2" of travel, I don't have the stock shock travel in front of me (it's in the service manual), but it's slightly longer . The harder spring means this doesn't matter so much though. You can compare the spring rates here: chrislivengood.net/wp/rfy-shock-updates/

They bolted straight on - the only clearance issue was the bottom of the shock was touching the chain guard, but that may have just been because my chain guard was slightly bent. I bent it back in a little further and no issues. Some other models (mostly hondas I think) use a clevis instead of an eyelet like the kawasaki's do. Sometimes those clevis fittings are too wide and give a lot of movement between the shock and the swing arm, and can cause the clevis to fail. I think this is the main reason why these shocks have a bad rep on some forums - a one-size-fits-all clevis fitting is used where it really shouldn't be. For eye-to-eye shocks, it's not an issue. I think the shocks are ever so slightly longer - maybe 5mm - because sometimes both wheels can touch the ground when the centre stand is down. There's not much in it though.