#7
Post
by HowardQ » Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:57 pm
This is my understanding -
The Blue spring Falco shock was revised in 2000 for what has become known as the 2000.5 model, which also had a number of other changes.
The Falco shock does not have a separate reservoir, everything is contained within the shock body. You only have to have a quick look to see the exhaust pipe is right next to the shock body, so it tends to get hot, even when the bike is stood still, get it heated up on a fast bumpy road and the early shock could seriously overheat. The revised shock was evidently much better insulated, but still had no external gas reservoir. I ran my 2001 model with a blue spring for 16k miles, and found it acceptable, not brilliant but have ridden bikes with much worse shocks.
I am 15 stone so had pre-load set pretty high, (also to lift rear a bit to improve turn in, and the damping (rebound only on this shock),set a bit stiffer than standard. Made it a bit hard at the rear but lived with it.
Now have a white spring Mille shock fitted. Bought off ebay for £38 plus delivery. It came in an Ohlins box and looked totally unmarked, so someone had changed it whilst nearly new. It certainly hadn't seen a winter probably never been out in rain, so decided to try as is.
The white spring shock fits with the existing Falco linkages and is also slightly stiffer on the spring than the blue spring. It has a separate gas reservoir, well away from the exhaust. It is also 4 way adjustable, rather than 2 way. Compression & rebound damping, plus preload and ride height.
Only problem fitting is the schrader valve, which sticks out and touches the frame when you try to fit it. The clearance seems to vary on different bikes, some people seem to have fitted it OK with a thinner dust cap, others have just removed the dust cap and got away with it. (Care needed here is the pin sticks out proud so will de-gas if touches frame!!).
In my case I had nothing like enough clearance, so ground down the outside part of the valve with a small Dremel cutter. Kept trying, had three goes before cleared enough off, when sure I then ground off the pin so it was a fraction blow the outer part. Fitted it and works fine.
If you are paying for a rebuild, it is better to fit a recessed valve.
I still have the original Falco side stand, so set the Mille ride height at the minimum, which is slightly higher than the std Falco. I will probably go slightly higher when get round to fitting a new stand. Started off using the std Mille settings, as per manual and just set the Sag.
it is certainly better than it was and rides much better over bumps.
If you go for a later yellow spring unit you will need to get the Mille linkages to go with it, then as above.
Hope this helps, just pot luck I suppose, when you buy second hand. I just went on the appearance, but you could pick one up one in good nick but looking a bit tatty if used in winter. Not a difficult job to swap, so you could try it first. The Sachs shock on the Mille seems to be pretty well made, so worth a try if low mileage.
Hope this helps, good luck with it.
Last edited by
HowardQ on Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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lowering the front helped but I lost much needed clearance but worst off all it gave me a pain in the arse because I ride on rubbish roads which are full of holes.
