Tell it exactly like it is. T7 build and review as I go.

[Suspension101]

Picked up a T7 recently at a $1500 premium. My other dealer Motoworld wanted a 2k premium. So is life, and supply and demand.

Currently have about 400 miles on the clock.

I am old but aggressive for my oldness, having a bit of mx racing intermediate class in the olden days. Carlsbad, Saddleback, Perris etc.

I beat my bikes up, I bend my rims, I drop them, jump them, and generally hammer them. I also maintain them quite well. Not so much cosmetics but I do keep them mechanically sound.

 

I have a 2011 990 that has gone on about a 50lb diet. Raised to 245mm of highly refined travel, a bit of a bump in horse power and it is a hooligan.  It wheelies down the road like a raucous animal and It handles high speed off road with aplomb, I love the bike. It is the blue bike on my website.  I have owned the 950 adventure S and the 690 Enduro as well. Have time on the 1090R the Africa twins, a bit of 790R etc as I dial them in for customers.

 

I am going to compare this T7 to the 990 heads up side by side as I do my mods.

I ordered a couple items from that Camel guy @Camel ADV and my intent is to make the T7 Better than my 990 adventure. Can I do it against a large WP 50mm shock and 48mm forks with Gobblers? Time will tell and I do not give up easy.

So the menu so far:

Reduce weight within reason.

Increase horsepower within reason as you guys have done.

And make the suspension handle everything I can throw at it. Pot holes, getting air, and generally take a flogging,  and do it without making the bike ride like a buck board. That is a wagon, horse drawn, for you youngsters out there.

 

So the challenge is getting the suspension on par with 35mm to 45mm less travel. That is the big deal here. The little shock that holds not much oil will only show its size if you go hard on the bike to the point of overheating the shock. Yes go race it and your fluid will be gone at the end of one race. But how many of us are that hard on an adventure bike for any length of time. I can make the action of the shock as good as any with some modifications.

How many modifications I do not know but I have some pretty dang happy customers already.  I started a thread on another site, but not much interest and should have known better, as the passion for the bike is likely right here.

 

My brother is buying one as well and he will be doing some racing like the Nora and maybe the Virginia City race etc. in the younger old guy 50yr old pro class.

That bike will have to be a bit over the top regarding the suspension as we will be competing against Rottweiler and who knows who might pop up for that race. We will see what that entails in a new chapter, but likely will be calling in a favor for some custom parts from the Camel guy as he has some real deal components.

 

If you guys want I am willing to do full build details regarding the suspension allowing you to do some DIY mods. If not no problem I will just post results.

Will have to do this post over a bit of time to catch up with where I am, as I have been into this thing several times already.

Tomorrow will be yet another prototype Gobbler test for these forks and I am quite optimistic as things are definitely coming along.

 

Thank you for listening,

George

Suspension101

I love doing suspension and I love motorcycles.

Go figure!

 

 

 

 

 

[jeff936]

Looking forward to seeing the Build George. 

[Landshark]

This is going to be very interesting.  Let it happen...

[Dirtrider99x]

My T7 definitely needs upgraded suspension… cant wait until you have it all sorted out.  enjoying this thread so far.

[Yammybound88]

@Suspension101 Hi George, I will be following your build with much interest.  I also like the @Camel ADV stuff.  Cory gave me your contact info and we talked via email and I've got to say you are easy to talk to and have a wealth of knowledge, this forum will benefit from your build thread.  All the best. 

 

cheers

-Bob

[cstatman]

i too, am eagerly awaiting the kit foor retail availability.. 

else I need to ride to SD and git-r-dun

[Matth]

This is gonna be awesome! Hurry up and get on with it!

[Camel ADV]

Hey George, welcome to the club!

You might want to explain what the "Gobblers" are. I know what they are because I have them in my dirt bike and 790 but many people here may not know.

I'm quite curious to see how far you can get with the stock parts. The work you did on my original parts (before the KYB SSS and TFX shock swap) was very impressive and that was just the first one you'd done. I'm sure you're well beyond the ride quality of that revalve now.  My OEM parts are in a friend's T7 and he's blown away by the difference, he's loving it.

If Giovanni races VCGP, will you be headed up with him? I'm planning on racing it again. My race ended so abruptly in 2019, I feel I have to go back and do it again.

 

 

[POLISHADAM82]

This is GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Ace402]

Thanks for detailing all of this! I love it. The more pictures and detail the better!

[Clax]

awesome. following!

[Baramon]

interesting, any idea when commercially available?

[Stujamur]

5 hours ago, Suspension101 said:

So the idea in my mind is to keep the wheels on the ground for better traction, turning, stability, safety etc.

When hitting rocks and sharp stuff allow the suspension to move enough to keep from denting a rim, but also have enough bottoming resistance to maintain control when you do something bad.

No clank allowed. I do not think I can make this bike clank now. If doing a jump the front and rear have to hit the ground and stick. The up bounce is a good way to lose control and many times is caused by too hard a bottoming event, or lack of rebound. But when you really bottom hard and have proper springs many times it overpowers the rebound circuit.

I am learning how to edit the gopro and I have some really revealing video with in rocks, g-outs, small jumps, washboard, ruts etc. But it is really long.

I did not want to keep you waiting too long so it took me about two hours to get a teaser. It is not all that revealing except one scenario and actually a scenario we will not often see. The goal is to get the suspension to handle brutal then when the clickers are backed out for real adventure riding it is very well rounded package.

This is a low speed jump down a hill. But look at how the bike handles the landing and remember stock height. If I landed on the gas the rear end would have stuck even better.

 

 

https://youtu.be/tTJatlwx190

Very settled , nice work

enjoying learning about your work & testing

[Ace402]

Any update?

[Suspension101]

Sorry for not staying in touch.

We had to confirm that the posts were in line with the T700.net standards.

It took a bit of time to get this handled and then the busy season hit us considerably earlier than usual.

Anyhow we have completed the first major stage of the T7 build and our customers are responding.

I got a call today stating, it is not the same bike. He said he even jumped the bike and it was controlled and it steers better etc. If you are on this site, post up and thank very much for the call today.

That is why we like doing what we do. When we get a call from a totally satisfied customer, and we at the same time make a living.    It don't get better than that.

So do not remember if I posted the youtube video on this site regarding this latest build. But I assure you I can put the hammer down and the suspension handles it like it was just a walk in the park.

We did a 1000 mile ride with 2 T7s with full internal Gobbler built, one 950 Super enduro Gobbler build, a stock new 890R, and 990 fully built with 245mm of travel as it is my old bike, now my sons.

Bottom line when we all traded bikes. The 990 with 245mm was definitely the plushest due to travel. Regarding the T7, the pickiest rider, gets off the bike after a hard run and says, I feel like I am cheating.

It corners, and feels so much lighter, it feels like a dirt bike. Those were the words of a 54yr old pro Baja champ that was riding the super enduro. My brother Gio, but he does not tend to pull punches, always with tact of course. Lol

So if anyone has any questions regarding the build I am happy to answer.

The next step will take some time due to the season upon us in SoCal. But we will be looking into more up travel both front and rear. The shock is then the challenge. But all good and looking forward to the challenge. The former build kept the same seat height. The new build will raise the bike. Only need another inch or so. But this will be for the taller folks that want plush first or the guys that want to flat out haul ass. But I will say look at the youtube video suspension101 and I was not exactly going slow.

If you are unable to find it and I did not post it here earlier let me know and I will post it up.

 

Thank you both Tenere700.net and you riders that make our job so much fun.

 

 

[JohnfromDP]

what items did you remove/ replace in order to drop the weight?    

 

Totally happy with the suspension work you did on my T7 btw.....

 

[Ace402]

On 9/30/2021 at 8:34 PM, Suspension101 said:

We did a 1000 mile ride with 2 T7s with full internal Gobbler built, one 950 Super enduro Gobbler build, a stock new 890R, and 990 fully built with 245mm of travel as it is my old bike, now my sons.

Bottom line when we all traded bikes. The 990 with 245mm was definitely the plushest due to travel. Regarding the T7, the pickiest rider, gets off the bike after a hard run and says, I feel like I am cheating.

 

 

 

Have you ever considered getting a +30mm Rally Raid kit and valving it to your liking? Increasing the piston size from 20mm (i think) to 35mm should help a ton with tuning the damping.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Ace402

[Ace402]

Just saw your posts on the other ADV site. Thanks for all that you are doing to develop the T7 suspension. It's nice to have someone stateside with passion for the T7 suspension.

What are your thoughts on modifying the stock suspension vs spending the cash and doing a KYB SSS conversion?

[Suspension101]

I have a 50mm shock on the way here. Showa and will be modifying the body, shaft, clevis, whatever it takes to make it simpy work. Setting this one up for the Nora Rally likely.

 

 

 

[Ace402]

20 minutes ago, Suspension101 said:

I have a 50mm shock on the way here. Showa and will be modifying the body, shaft, clevis, whatever it takes to make it simpy work. Setting this one up for the Nora Rally likely.

 

 

 

Awesome! Thanks for the update. Looking forward to seeing the results.

[Suspension101]

So the 50mm shock showed up yesterday. As I get into it will post the build on Adventure rider as I just a moment ago received this from Cruizin on this site. I do see his point. But I have all the business I can handle, year round. Just enjoy posting on occasion so it is what it is. Thanks guys!

He wants free advertising for his business. He may not understand that we run this forum as a business, it costs me money each month to run this website and if someone wants to advertise on a forum, they need to join the vendor program like all of the other vendors. Its only $65 a month, hell of a deal for T7 branded advertising and the major SEO benefits. 

 

Websites charge me to advertise, thats just the way business works. 

[Cruizin]

1 hour ago, Suspension101 said:

So the 50mm shock showed up yesterday. As I get into it will post the build on Adventure rider as I just a moment ago received this from Cruizin on this site. I do see his point. But I have all the business I can handle, year round. Just enjoy posting on occasion so it is what it is. Thanks guys!

He wants free advertising for his business. He may not understand that we run this forum as a business, it costs me money each month to run this website and if someone wants to advertise on a forum, they need to join the vendor program like all of the other vendors. Its only $65 a month, hell of a deal for T7 branded advertising and the major SEO benefits. 

 

Websites charge me to advertise, thats just the way business works. 

Ok, so my moderator forwarded me messages where he had reached out to you because you are a vendor who is not part of our vendor program. You replied to him rather rudely. I replied to my moderator the above message and instead of chiming in, or messaging me directly, you post it here in what, an attempt to hurt me somehow? 

Yes, I charge Vendors a modest fee to advertise here on the website that I built, admin and pay for each month.  I am also a member at ADV rider, have been for a long time and pay to be a supporting member there.  Unlike Baldy, I am not wealthy, so every penny counts and the image hosting on this forum is getting expensive so the small vendor fees help pay for this place. 

 

I appreciate your suspension submissions on our forum. But going after me here on the forum I built is not a good idea. In fact, I'm pretty surprised you would stoop to that. I'm sorry that you don't like your free experience on the website that I pay for.  Maybe next time consider reaching out to me directly. 

 

-Rob AKA Cruizin

[wardog327]

On 7/24/2021 at 5:54 PM, Ace402 said:

Thanks for detailing all of this! I love it. The more pictures and detail the better!

Agreed...

[wardog327]

On 10/4/2021 at 1:49 PM, Ace402 said:

Have you ever considered getting a +30mm Rally Raid kit and valving it to your liking? Increasing the piston size from 20mm (i think) to 35mm should help a ton with tuning the damping.

Nice...