Gday Krew...

Ive been in the wilderness for a while...good to be back...this is the greatest forum on the internet (the R1100S forum is full of petty bickering, dick measuring, and is not categorized at all)....Ive still got my army green K, but Ive also added an R bike to fray - an R1100S. Such a different experience to the K, super interesting to compare them. The K is 20 years older but somehow feels more refined. I think ill keep them both for the looong haul. Built the K, so its rather sentimental, and ill never get my money back on it, and I reckon I got the right 1100S at the right price, at the bottom of its depreciation curve...so unless I need to sell them to pay for a kidney, they are both keepers.

Anyways, the R1100S has just over 100,000km on the clock and the suspension is in need of love. For a bit more than the price of a decent rebuild and revalve, I could just chuck a set of RAM's on it (they do them for oilheads too). Ive got one on my K, and its been great for the money, but I dont have much of a 'dataset' to compare it to...

Basically everyone in K land has praise for the RAM units, my self included. In oilhead world, I cant find a single example of anyone using them, and in fact the 1100S dudes are pretty dismissive of them. Stick to Ohlins or Wilbers they say...well if they grew on trees Id consider it...

Ok on to my question....any of you experienced guys got any thoughts on the RAM vs the (much) more expensive options? Just looking for some input from the older wiser brains trust.

The fact that Ben at BSK so successfully runs them is a pretty convincing argument....considering the work and skill he puts into all other aspects of the bike, why would he not use the best suspension for the job?

Cheers all.

Hi floyd My shocker unit faild after just 30 years of use .Motorworks recommended a HAGON unit,works fine for me.cost around 130 pound uk money.

Good to see you back Floyd hope the travels have been good to you.
I have a RAM on the K75 it replaced a Hagon which was a good shock but too harsh for me.
AFAIK RAM don't make a shock for the R oilhead.

RicK G wrote:Good to see you back Floyd hope the travels have been good to you.
I have a RAM on the K75 it replaced a Hagon which was a good shock but too harsh for me.
AFAIK RAM don't make a shock for the R oilhead.

Cheers Rick, good to be back mate. Hope all is well with you. Hows the Chooky going?

They do indeed make oilhead shocks, and other interesting bits too - such as front telelever A arms that have the ball joint 10mm rearward, quickening up the steering. Im in direct contact with Adrian from Realm Engineering. They just dont advertise them for some reason, and their website has not been updated since Adam was a wee lad. They do the oilhead shocks with either the normal eye mounts like in this photo, or with a clevis joint for the lower rear...which is what I'll need for the R1100S.

Great I would go for them. I found that once the damping was set to your liking I just didn't think about it at all just does the job well without any drama.

At the 30K miles mark, my K1100LT suspension still is satisfactory.  When it's time for a change, I'm pondering a suspension unit from the Shock Factory, which has garnered high marks from some riders on another forum.  Anyone here put their products on a K-bike?
https://shock-factory.fr/

After reading the text on the RAM webpages, it is still unclear if the suspension units have provision for both rebound and compression dampening.

I found Hagons were too harsh too, even after they'd resprung them specially for me and my Guzzi. The rebound damping just isn't quite right; not for me, anyway. RAM Shox on the K - now that's a different story!  

Yes, they do have rebound and compression adjustment. The rebound damper is a small back knob at the base of the shock - you can see it on the middle-left picture on the website and also on Floyd's picture above. I'm running LFB on rebound setting five with compression set just slightly harder than the recommended setup.

Thanks all, cool, to see some familiar names.

Dai, when you say compression, do you mean preload? As far as I know, there is only rebound adjustment (the black knob), and preload (the spring tension). 

Ive had my K100 RAM rebuilt once, years ago, as I was doing some serious off road traveling at the time and some big impacts blew out the seal. I reckon next time ill give it a go myself. Other than that, its been flawless and im very happy with it.

There is just a very vocal and abrupt bloke at the 1100S forum that lives 30 miles away from them and reckons they are trash...but like I said, BSK are a pretty darn good billboard for them...

Just adding in this, in the name of completeness

brickrider2 wrote:At the 30K miles mark, my K1100LT suspension still is satisfactory.  When it's time for a change, I'm pondering a suspension unit from the Shock Factory, which has garnered high marks from some riders on another forum.  Anyone here put their products on a K-bike?
https://shock-factory.fr/

After reading the text on the RAM webpages, it is still unclear if the suspension units have provision for both rebound and compression dampening.

In the US for a K1100 I'd also look at:

http://www.worxshocks.com/  (They've been making top notch K shocks for decades.)

https://www.beemershop.com/category/motorcycle-suspension-center.html (Wilbers)

brickrider2 wrote:At the 30K miles mark, my K1100LT suspension still is satisfactory.  When it's time for a change, I'm pondering a suspension unit from the Shock Factory, which has garnered high marks from some riders on another forum.  Anyone here put their products on a K-bike?
https://shock-factory.fr/

I do. Mike is a neighbourgh and I often bought him shocks, for me, friends or customer.
It's a good product, excellent quality for price ratio and a very reactive customer service.
The basic version has a single adjustement device for rebound and compression, but there's an option with separate adjustments.
I never had any complaint about these products.
Not as smooth as an Ohlins, but much cheaper.