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/126045
Curnutt: The shock eye is sized ex actly for the bike it's to be mounted on . Unique-twa-piece metal covers car ry the bolt and in turn ride on inner rubber mounts. They are press-fitted into the o uter steel eye with rubber O-rings. Welding of the eye to 'th e shaft and shock body was really excellent throughout 36 0 degrees. sm ooth Curnutts were the best slip -in fit of all the shoc ks, possibly be cause they were the on ly o nes wi th a true 15. 25 in ch eye-t o-eye length as cal le d for in Su zuki specs. ~ WO Tks Performance : The eye is ~ actually cast in to the shoc k body an d shock shaft cap. It is th e best-looking o f ~ them all and, fro m wh at we can tell, th e integral construction makes it very strong. A met al inner bush ing sized to fit the bike exactly is suspen ded in a clear, soft plastic. There was no disto rt ion experienced. Detail workmanship was impressive . Boge/Mul h oUand : The shock eye is a piece of metal strap bent into a circl e but not closed. This is we lded on two sides to the shock body and the cap nut at the end of the shaft. The welds on the cap n u t look puny ; those on the shock body itself are much sturdier-loo king. They are roughly comparable to t he Fox Shox in eye c o n s t r uc t i o n and mounting requirements . Mulholland provides nylon b ushings to sleeve down stan dard 12mm eyes and require one me tal spacer to fit the Suzuki brackets. Also Fox, Mulholland provides a like complete lit tl e bag of bushings and washers. Another thing that should be mentioned ab o ut all the Great American Sh ocks is the ir visual impact. As "point of pUTchase" sales items, they all seem st unningly effective. Wish this test were in color so you co uld appreciate the decorative aspects of bla ck and yellow S&Ws, black and silver Works Performance shocks with bright blue spri ngs , International o range . Mulhollands with bold black "LTG" lettering, gray Curn u t ts with the famous bright red springs; and the red, white , and b lue Fox Shox. If these dampers did nothing else for you , they'd make y our bike look superflash . . So far, we know a little bit more abou t t he construction of the American shocks; how much a set with springs will cost ; how much they weigh (They 're .all within a pound of ea ch other. By co m p ar ison , the lightest shock we know of is a Bilstein at 3. 3 lb s. with spring while the standard Su zuki Kayaba is 5.9 bs , with springs.) ranging from the Curnutt at 4 .1 lbs, to t he Mulholland at 4. 85 ; how pretty they are; and wh at is required to actually moun t a set on YOUT scoo ter. Before detailing the riding test, another st atement seems in order. Ea ch of the manufacturers can and do clai m that Fred Frammis, Hotshoe Extraordinary tried their shocks and now won 't use anything else; they're totally convinced Brand X is best, etc. Tha t is cert ain ly true and, as said before, all five examples are good p ieces of equipment. Only Fred Frammis didn't have the chan ce to ride all five ty pes together one after another, or possibly compare them to Bilstein, Marzocchi, Girli ng, or Kayaba. I' m not sure if that's a disclaimer or a claim of tes t validity. Take it as a state ment of - fa ct. :E RIDE OF F INTO THE SUNSET (Baing, Boing) 30 All shocks were evaluated by an Expert and no n-expert rider. We attem p ted to t ake four areas of performance into acco un t : com ers ; small bumps such as whoop-de-docs or br aking bumps into co rn ers; bi g jumps: flat, uphill, an d downhill; an d overall feel wh ich reflected the co n fidence , Pre cision, or speed resulting when th at sh ock was mounted. It would be reasonable to expect another ca tego ry of some importance : resistance to fade. However, ex cept for one puzzling co n d ition we 'll ge t in to later, all o f the shocks re sisted fa de to such an acceptable level th at rating them was po intless because any difference in their w as p e r f o r man c e o v e ra i l indistinguish able . After nearly five years as a syste ms analyst, there developed a well-founded reserv ation about using qua ntitative data, like numbers, to describe qualitative events, like how something feels. We we n t ahead and used a one to five ranking in each category only be cause the sele ction of a spe cific number forces the tester to justify his choice or, as happened in some cases, rethink a rating he'd previously assigned. All shocks were tested on two different COUTse which co uld be gro ssly , categorized as tigh t and gnarly vs, fast and sm o o th . The latter was distinguished by some suitably challenging climbs and des cen ts which were p lenty cabby. It m ay be most ho nest t o reproduce the ratings and co m men ts delivered by each tester immediately after ea ch test Tide before communication with th e other rider (minus profanities, sweat st ains, an d grease smudges) , then offer some co nclusions arrived at .. in discussion after sho wers were taken an d cold beers opened. The shocks are listed in no particular order. As a final shot at objectivity arid reso lut ion of any d ifferences of opinion between the ski lled and less-skilled riders, a thi rd rider (former Expert license holder) was inv ited to participate in testing those shocks where there was some question about their performance, either good or bad. The third set of n umerical ratings assigned ma tche d the other two so closely there was little point in prin ting another set of dat a that was, incidentally, inco m ple te. Opinions of all three riders on the shocks tested was consistent enough to make u s think we actuall y were determining the shocks' performance more than o ur own riding skills ... or lack of them. A couple of significant conclusions can safely be drawn fTom the results of the Great American Shock Test. Nearly ยท three year s ago, in the Great Cycle News Mulholland LTG w/112 Ib/in spring OVERALL EXPERT AMATEUR CORNERS JUMP BUMPS 4 3 4.5 4. 4 3 4 3 Chat tered in small brak ing bumps. b ut no ba d bo unce slow ing over big whoo ps . Go t very ho t ; were using all of th e shock t ravel. Goo d feel in co rneri ng, doesn't give the impression of a loo se swingarm . T he first lap or two , a very im pressive damper. t he n actuall y seem to fade . Afte r 6 -8 laps , they don't seem to work as well . Ouite a 'bit of whee l ho p over litt le b umps a nd dece lera t ing int o corners . Maybe good for t he " wee kend ride r: ' Curnutt w/SO/90 Ib/in spring OVERAL L EXPERT AMATEUR CORNERS JUMP BUMPS 4 4 4 5 3 3 3 3.5 Brake w ell on smoo ther gro und, no hop exce pt in big bumps then lots of ho p when changin g speeds. Gripped t he grou nd better whe n w arm . Really good i n cor ners. Seems like t he swin garm is loo se so met imes so the rear wh ee l doesn't go wh ere you wan t it e xactly . Level ou t nicely over big ju mps but doesn't give as much co nfidence o ver roug h st uff as some other sh ocks. Both riders had t heir feet bou nced off t he pegs when suspension was f ully compre ssed . Can ' t te ll where the rear e nd is with an y prec ision . Bo unced around on bumpy uphi ll - mu ch like Fo x Sho x in fee l. Act ion was stable, t ho ugh . Works Performance w/11 0 lb. springs OVERALL EXPERT AMATEUR CORNERS JUMP BUMPS 5 4 5 5 4 5 4 4.5 Spring a little stiff but the shocks have more damp ing all around than others. Can d rive ou t o f a co rne r twice as herd . Abso rb s t he torqu e of the mot orcycle ch assis in cornering. Better. than mos t in damp ing o ut the little bumps . Excellent co rn eri ng . These shock s mak e a b ig d iff erenc e in co rne rs bu t still no t pe rfect ov e r straightline bu mps. A little hard on b ig jum ps. Very nice damping. Not too bad a rebound from the big jump, but some noticed. S&W Shocks w/75 lb. springs OVERALL Th is little bag is what keeps S&W's f ro m fad ing by keep ing them from bubbling . It ' s pa rt ially f illed w it h lo w pressure freon. Shock Test, we found a number of the da mpers tested seriously wa nting. We expressed the h o pe that the manufacturers would re spond to the ch allenge of improving rear suspension . There was no doubt that all ' the American shock-builders have done a very fine job in' accepting and meeting that challenge . There really wa sn 't a co m plete loser in the bunch, which ca m e as a pleasan t surprise. The second factor noted was that the price of rear suspension has escalated alo ng with the pe rfo rmance . In late 1973 , accesssory dampers cost $35-50 a set. The sho cks tested this year ran from just un der $90 to $120. This wo uld seem to make it even more important that the shock you select to be the righ t one for you . A third factor reflected the skyrock eting rate of te chnological change that makes this year's ho t set-up obsolete by the beginning of the next co m pe tit ion least two of the seaso n. At manufacturers had developed improved models of their damper in the month i t took us_ t o co m plete the test. Fin ally, the cu rr en t cr op of American sh ocks for today's long tr avel suspen sions apparen tly do last. They don 't have to be rebuilt between rac es or junked for a n ew set. In the short term, this m ean s you ge t the performance you paid for while y ou're racin g and in the long run , pro bab ly see an ac tual saving in dollars. EXPERT AMATEUR CORNERS BUMPS 5 4 4 5 4 4 JUMP 4 3 Very pre cise cornering; good rear end fee dback to rider. Fatig uing in t heir firm acti on over bumps but rear wh ee l sta ys on grou nd so co nt ro l is good . Above average o ver b ig jump . Who le fee l of th e shock is very pos iti ve but no t very cu sh y . Lighter spring (75 Ib/in) don't make the shock work as hard. Good contr ol over big jumps. Fairly stiff in bumps. Fox Shox w/83/195 springs OVERALL EXPERT AMATEUR CORNERS 3.5 3.5 3.5 4 JUMP BUMPS 4 5 4 3 Need a bump or tw o t o get working and pumped up . Usuall y go ing pr etty good by the f irst co rner. Don' t see m t o ha ve excessi ve spring bu t lac k t o p en d damping. A little too choppy around co mers. Not as satisfact ory as hoped over lirtle bumps; excellent in landing and rebou nd from big ju mps. To ld yo u w here t he rear end wa s but not as precisely as S&W. Maybe a little so ft e r in fee l a ll the Way aro u nd . Hoppec:l on corners so the rear e nd wa nted to step o ut a bit, bu t O K. A co mfortable shock wit h low rider fati gue eve n while bou ncing a rou nd on the lit t le bumps. FINA L RE FLECTIONS T he Mulholl and damper left us so mew hat con fu sed as t o wh at to say abo u t it since it was th e only shoc k that see med to change behavior during the co urse o f a ride. St arting o ff, it performed very well th en, afte r a while , it wo u ld seem t o dete riora te and the rear end of the RM would st ar t bouncin g around. T hen, even with a co nsci o us atte m p t by the riders not t o co m p en sa te, the Mulholland would get better (presu ma bly when it reached a given sta b le temperature) and normalize ar ound so me accep ta ble level o f handling th at st ill d idn 't feel as goo d as those first few laps. All testers liked th e handling better wit h the 94 / 138 progressive spring.