Racetech Cartridge emulators, anyone use em? heard of em?

I was just browsing around on jpcycles.com when I found this www.jpcycles.com/productgroup.aspx?GID=1...9C-AC2E-06FC4FD14E53 I see there are a few different part numbers and a wide (but probably not conclusive) list of applications. I assume it would just be a matter of seeing which one would fit, and a single p/n would probably fit a wide range of KZs

Pretty interesting. Here is a link where they install them on a vulcan www.motorcyclecruiser.com/tech/race_tech_cartridge_emulator/

There's plenty on google under 'cartridge emulator'


My rear end is ready to go with the ZRX shocks. However, The front end needs some help, I think. Just holding the brake and giving the bars a good push and it compresses too easily, and rebounds too far, and then subsequently compresses and rebounds again. It just feels 'mushy'

Thicker fork oil might help.

I believe Dave Sloan is putting cartridge emulators on hs KZ650/810 EFI

Yep, hoping to get htem and fit over the next few weeks, go the ZRX shocks today, real happy with them Just need to work out themounting to the suz 1100 swingarm and then the Race Tech goodies.

Read the article, it explains about what fork oil weight does. I have bel-ray 10w in there now.

Do you know what part no. emulators you will be using? I assume they are all the same, just size difference for fitmet. If you take the forks apart I'm sure you could call with measurements and they could tell you which would fit.

I was just figuring I would first look up some kaw part no.'s of bikes that are covered in the applications and see if they happen to have the same damper rod..

i know the manual says to use 10w oil but ive always used thicker oil.i rebuilt frontend on skipper76kzs 900ltd a couple weeks ago and put 30w synthetic oil back in there in place of 10w works like a charm and wont dive when you lock brakes up hard. :evil:

Yea, I figured I could use some heavier oil, but when I rebuilt the forks a few years back after getting the bike, I didn't know much better and didn't want to go too heavy, not knowing exactly what effect it would have either.

With the cartridge emulators installed, the oil weight really only effects the rebound damping. The compression damping will be effected by the oil weight as well, but the adjustability of the valve takes care of that.

The emulators based on sizes taken from my 650b2 forks and steells damper rod (listed below) was a FEGV S3001,
I would take the time to strip your forks and measure the dimensions that Race Tech list on their siteas I am not sure that hte 550 shares the same dimensions as hte 650. I looked for the older Kawas on their applications listing but didnt find a listing.


OD of the fork tube is 32mm
ID of the fork tube is 28.5mm

ID of the spring is 15.88mm
OD of the spring is 24.66mm

ID of the dampener rod is 12.33mm at the seal end.
OD of the dampener rod at the seal end is 24.33mm