I had a set of Wilbers ESA shocks fitted to my bike this week by Revs. Twin cam GSA with 25k miles including 2 months strapped down in a container to and from the USA. Shocks weren't leaking but felt past their best and whilst I could have carried on using them for a while yet for various reasons I wanted to change them now and thought it might be useful for some to share my experience.
As has been mentioned previously by many others, Revs were a pleasure to do business with and thoroughly deserve the good reputation they have on this site. Riding away from their workshop the bike felt more 'planted', precise, I felt more in control, not a huge transformation, it was more subtle than that but the bike just felt right. In fast, bumpy sweeping bends it's much easier to hold the line you want and on the motorway it felt much more comfortable, gliding rather than wallowing over road imperfections. Now TBH I may well have got the same effect fitting new OEM shocks, rather like fitting new tyres, we don't notice how crap the old ones are until we fit new rubber, but not only are Wilbers considerably cheaper, they can be serviced and are warranted for 5 years so even if there is no performance increase they are still good value.
Wilburs come in 4 sizes, standard, -15mm, -50mm and -80mm. I'm no short arse ( 5' 10", 31" i/s leg) but I have a wide Corbin seat (which is the most comfortable seat I've had on any bike bar none), solo I have no problems sliding an arse cheek off to either side to support the bike but when the preload is increased to carry a pillion and I'm carrying the kitchen sink I can only get 1 sole down, adverse cambers, gravel, U turns and clumsy pillions getting on and off leave me in a a cold sweat so I decided to get the bike lowered as well. I reckoned 30mm would do it, but of course they don't do 30mm
After much umming I went for 50mm. Bloody hell, what have I done!!! crossed my mind when I first saw the bike arriving back at the workshop. It looks very low, too bloody low, but (easily) slinging a leg over it once sat on the seat everything felt familiar, except I can get both feet flat on the floor. Raising the suspension gets me back on tip toe but once the missus climbs on I can get both feet flat again, much easier and safer doing slow speed manoeuvres and as the Wilbers is dialled in to our combined weight no danger of the back wheel hitting something during it's travel. Centre stand is now just heavy ballast so I need a GS one but rolling the back wheel onto a 2" bit of wood gives me the height to put the bike onto the main stand for now should the need arise. Setting the ESA to high mountain raises both the front and rear of the bike for bumpy gravel tracks which is the most Off Road I ever do.
Riding a lowered bike doesn't feel any different, the C of G is lower, bike seems to turn faster, nothing grinds out, filtering requires more care as I get used to the new handlebar height but they are still higher than most car mirrors and now lower than van ones so maybe the ideal height??? Over the years I've had 2 GS's, 2 GSA's and an RT, loved all of them but had to compromise certain things on each model, maybe a lowered GSA will be the perfect compromise?, only time will tell.
Here's a photo of the lowered bike in solo mode, make your own mind up whether it looks right or not
As has been mentioned previously by many others, Revs were a pleasure to do business with and thoroughly deserve the good reputation they have on this site. Riding away from their workshop the bike felt more 'planted', precise, I felt more in control, not a huge transformation, it was more subtle than that but the bike just felt right. In fast, bumpy sweeping bends it's much easier to hold the line you want and on the motorway it felt much more comfortable, gliding rather than wallowing over road imperfections. Now TBH I may well have got the same effect fitting new OEM shocks, rather like fitting new tyres, we don't notice how crap the old ones are until we fit new rubber, but not only are Wilbers considerably cheaper, they can be serviced and are warranted for 5 years so even if there is no performance increase they are still good value.
Wilburs come in 4 sizes, standard, -15mm, -50mm and -80mm. I'm no short arse ( 5' 10", 31" i/s leg) but I have a wide Corbin seat (which is the most comfortable seat I've had on any bike bar none), solo I have no problems sliding an arse cheek off to either side to support the bike but when the preload is increased to carry a pillion and I'm carrying the kitchen sink I can only get 1 sole down, adverse cambers, gravel, U turns and clumsy pillions getting on and off leave me in a a cold sweat so I decided to get the bike lowered as well. I reckoned 30mm would do it, but of course they don't do 30mm
After much umming I went for 50mm. Bloody hell, what have I done!!! crossed my mind when I first saw the bike arriving back at the workshop. It looks very low, too bloody low, but (easily) slinging a leg over it once sat on the seat everything felt familiar, except I can get both feet flat on the floor. Raising the suspension gets me back on tip toe but once the missus climbs on I can get both feet flat again, much easier and safer doing slow speed manoeuvres and as the Wilbers is dialled in to our combined weight no danger of the back wheel hitting something during it's travel. Centre stand is now just heavy ballast so I need a GS one but rolling the back wheel onto a 2" bit of wood gives me the height to put the bike onto the main stand for now should the need arise. Setting the ESA to high mountain raises both the front and rear of the bike for bumpy gravel tracks which is the most Off Road I ever do.Riding a lowered bike doesn't feel any different, the C of G is lower, bike seems to turn faster, nothing grinds out, filtering requires more care as I get used to the new handlebar height but they are still higher than most car mirrors and now lower than van ones so maybe the ideal height??? Over the years I've had 2 GS's, 2 GSA's and an RT, loved all of them but had to compromise certain things on each model, maybe a lowered GSA will be the perfect compromise?, only time will tell.
Here's a photo of the lowered bike in solo mode, make your own mind up whether it looks right or not
so it can be done
