All You Need To Know About Falco Rear Suspension (probably)

Message

D-Rider · #1 Post by **D-Rider** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:16 pm

Mangocrazy has put together an excellent guide to Falco rear suspension and the common upgrade options.

Follow the link: https://www.ridersite.com/viewtopic.php?t=9153

We've locked the guide (It's OK ... locking doesn't stop you looking at it) so that we can maintain it and it remains clear .... but if you'd like to comment on it, please do so in this thread.

Very many thanks to Mangocrazy for his hard work on this.

blinkey501 · #2 Post by **blinkey501** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:32 am

Excellent work mango

blinkey501 · #3 Post by **blinkey501** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:54 am

I origionally posted about a shock dilema, and that i would measure the dog bone and triangles fitted to the ohlins shock on my mercury grey...

I have not posted until now for various reasons, but i can post measurements now....

The shock is an AP8240 and these shocks seem to be more common

The dog bone centres are 320mm
The triangle hole centres are has follows...
75mm across the top two holes
61mm from top to bottom on the verticle side
85mm from the bottom hole to the top right diagnally

If you can imagine looking at the triangles under the bike whilst nealt down on the foot brake side of the bike, that is how the measurements can be made...

I have posted this so if a trader has a set for sale on ebay measurements can be cross referenced before bidding, and to allow frustration

#4 Post by **mangocrazy** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:14 am

blinkey501 wrote:The shock is an AP8240 and these shocks seem to be more common

The dog bone centres are 320mm

Methinks Sir has one of the exceptionally rare 'Yeti' Falcos (or a very optimistic measuring device)...

blinkey501 wrote:The triangle hole centres are has follows...
75mm across the top two holes
61mm from top to bottom on the verticle side
85mm from the bottom hole to the top right diagnally

That chimes (give or take the odd mm) with the info posted on the AF1 'sticky' thread. I'm intending to take photos of both sets of dogbones/triangles (Falco and RSV/Tuono) and add those to the thread in due course, along with precise measurements. Yours are definitely RSV 2001-2003 or Tuono 2002-2005 triangles (i.e. 2nd Generation RSV).

Aladinsaneuk · #5 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:44 am

graham - awesome post

i think the mille r came out in 1999 not 2000 though?

#6 Post by **mangocrazy** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:00 pm

I don't carry all that model year stuff around in my head, so I decided to use the Model year designation as shown on UltimateParts.Net, which was also the source for all the part numbers. There is also the confusion that different markets got different bikes at different dates, so I just decided to use the parts fiche as the ultimate (no pun intended) source.

So - I couldn't possibly comment on what year what model came out!

But the Aprilia parts fiche is as good a hook to hang your hat on as any other, and that's the one I chose...

Aladinsaneuk · #7 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:15 pm

nod

i can appreciate that !

reason why i raised it was because it confused me.... i thought that the only ohlins that came off the mille that we could use was the later model that needed different linkages - thats probably made worse due to the yank model years being a year out from us in europe....

blinkey501 · #8 Post by **blinkey501** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:17 pm

mangocrazy wrote:
blinkey501 wrote:The shock is an AP8240 and these shocks seem to be more common

The dog bone centres are 320mm
Methinks Sir has one of the exceptionally rare 'Yeti' Falcos (or a very optimistic measuring device)...

Yep sorry 130mm hole centres on the dog bone the shock is 320mm hole centres

MartDude · #9 Post by **MartDude** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:30 pm

Just a thought - the Futura Sachs shock is said to be a rather better spec than the Falco one. Griff thinks it's OK, and not worth upgrading unless you're doing a lot of 2-up touring, or the original's knackered (or you're a fat bastard).

Some early Mille Ohlins shocks (AP8240 & AP8410) can be fitted to the Fut, with a little modification to the seat undertray, so should (??) fit the Falco. I believe the spring rate is around 115 n/mm. It would appear there is no need to change the dogbones (when fitting an Ohlins to a Fut), so I'd guess you'd need whatever dogbones would suit the Ohlins shock.

Fut shocks are rebuildable.

Fut shocks come up for sale from time to time (eg one currently on ebay for £69.00). (And I happen to have a spare one)

Just offering this as a suggestion, should anyone need/wish to change their standard shock, and is after a cheaper alternative.

Aladinsaneuk · #10 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:48 pm

I have a suspicion that they may not fit .... Please measure the cylinder length as I think it is too long

MartDude · #11 Post by **MartDude** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:59 pm

Will do when I can be arsed to go up to the loft.

Edit. Bollocks. I'll do it now; I'll forget otherwise

#12 Post by **mangocrazy** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 7:05 pm

Be very interested to see what the shock's 'vital statistics' are; i.e. eye to eye distance. It also has the very important (to me at least) attribute of a hydraulic preload adjuster. But the spring rate sounds somewhere completely between early and late RSV. Which is a bit of a puzzler...

Aladinsaneuk · #13 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 7:17 pm

I am fairly certain it will not fit in the gap in the rear sub frame...

MartDude · #14 Post by **MartDude** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 7:33 pm

Be patient

MartDude · #15 Post by **MartDude** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 7:46 pm

Width o/a (incl. adjuster) ca. 132

Length of top eye - 30mm

length of bottom eye - 22 mm.

If you want any more measurements - please wait until after dinner - just been summoned, & you've not encountered Gill when she's hungry

Edit - eye-to-eye measurement now corrected