Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125832
Cerianis were too soft. too vague but are rebuildable.
Bottoming out the Cerianis over whoop-de-doos was the rule rather than the exception.
Springs needed to be stiffer for openers.
The Arnacos kicked around a lot over the whoop-de-doos causing some hobby-horsing
but the ride _ smooth and pretty comfortable.
Great Shock Test
Continued from page 29
shift which looks prone to breaking or
bending.
ARNACO "2ND"' in middle position
wlconstant wind spring
Tester 1 Test... 2
Whoop-De-Doos·
4 minus 3
MX Chicane3
3 plus
Note: Best feature was the way they came out
of corn.s over uneven, rough surfaces.
Excellent traction on bumps - bener than
Girling. Cornering was vague.
Braking on Rippl....
4
3
Note: Good when you stand on the pegs.
Jump4
4
Note: Didn't have good contact with the
ground "feel" when landing.
_They make fine family enduro
whoop-de-d.oo shocks. They kicked
around a lot but were smooth. Not very
good directional control but nothing
scary. They seem to fade fairly seriously
after about ten laps. They degenerated
into a fairly abusive pair of shocks when
pushed hard for extended periods.
Some Legends Are Debunked
By Reality and Others Confirmed
A couple of very firm condusions
emerged from the Cycle News Shock
Test. One is that the whole field of rear
suspension on motorcycles is way
behind in development compared to the
The Amacos started out OK on
braking into comers, then began
fading after about 10 laps
and started hopping.
Girlings did very well over whoopde-doos - a pleasant surprise
in vi_ of their short travel.
rest of the machine. Even now, it
appears that some major manufacturers
are beginning to move in new directions
on suspension, either in terms of
replacing a damping fluid with an inert
gas or entirely new designs such as the
monoshock cantilever rear end on the
works Yamahas and Kramer-Maico. But
these advances aren't available to the
average rider or competitor and he (or
she) will have to live with what is on the
market, probably a set of one of the
types we tested.
The second item that became
i"infully clear to the testers, both
ph ysically and financially in some cases,
is that most off-road competitors should
change or rebuild their shocks a lot more
often than they usually do. You will not
be getting the same performance from
any shock after a few motocrosses,
cross-country races or hard weeks of
trail riding. Most experts and
professional riders rebuild or replace
their rear shocks between each event.
That is the ideal situation but not one
we expect most sportsmen to follow.
But that really is what you should do.
We also discovered that most of the
shocks tested have limited applications
and the same shock won't usually work
for different types of off-road riding.
For example, the S&W and Boge
provided to us were good for carving a
line wi th knife-edge precision around
relatively smooth turns but were too
harsh, and seemed to have too little
useful travel, for extended riding or
cross-country racing. You cannot
comfortably use their motocross model
dampers for riding enduros, for
instance.
The Curnutt shock was smooth,
comfortable and allowed fast speeds
over open desert-type terrain but
became confused if the bumps or
whoop-de-doos were closer together
than four or five feet. The ride they
provided over short frequency ripples
was indifferent at best and definitely
unsettling for the rider. Neither do they
seem to provide precision of wheel
placement at lower speeds. Curnutts are
extremely rugged, however, and seem
well-built according to their basic
design.
The Amaco "2NO" shock was the
only one that incorporated 50-50
damping in its design but we were
unable to detect any marked gains in
handling from this feature or the highly
touted externally adjustable damping
which ostensibly allows the rider to
select a "firm t t or Hsoft" ride. Seat of
the pants reaction was that there was
very little actual difference between the
two extreme positions of the external
adjuster screw and independent data
from a shock dyno test confrrms that
the variation in damping is less than
10% from Uhardest" to "softest"
position. The thing they seemed to do
best was provide improved traction to
the ground during acceleration but
other shocks tested (notably the KONl)
were equal or superior in this area. The
Amacos started to deteriorate under
extended use and other users of this
shock have reported the same problem.
The British Girling was the most
pleasant surprise of our test. A fresh set
of Girlings really does live up to their
historical reputation as a very good
performing spring/damper combination.
Their ability to track smoothly and
quickly over whoop.de-doos, even with
relatively short apparent travel, was
quite good. They do seem fragile,
however, with the thinnest shaft of any
shock tested. The experience of other
riders with Girlings confirmed our
suspicions. The shaft will bend with less
provocation than almost any other and
that ends your ride for the day. They do
require frequent replacement if you're
going to maintain their "as new" good
handling qualities.
The Cerianis impressed us as the
most over-rated of the shocks we tested.
The springs were not-&trong enough to
prevent bottoming nor was the internal
damping responsive enough to prevent
topping. When ridden hard, even by the
standards
of
medium-fair
racer-journalists they didn't seem to
have any proper place on a motocross or
cross-coun try bike.
The KONI 80 series shock, at least
the pair provided to us by Kensingtion
Products, Ltd. which seemed to have a
sligh t1y longer travel than other KONIs
we looked at, was the best all-around
performer that we tested. Their major
drawback seemed to be that they have to
be pretty thoroughly warmed up before
they begin working correctly. Given the
necessary compromises inherent in
suspension design, it seems like they
made the righ t choice. MQst shocks
begin to deteriorate as they warm up
and most shocks warm up pretty
quickly. The KONIs reached a plateau
of constant performance after about 10
minutes and there was no detectable
change in handling for 30-40 minutes
after that, which is as long a simulated
moto as we rode on them. The
improvement in handling they provided
on the stock OT-I left both testers
incredible - and impressed. The S&W
springs recommended to accompany the
o
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