Very interesting to see this done on the CB1100. I just put a new shock and springs with drop-in damper cartdridges for my DR650. I don't claim to understand how they work, but many dr650 owners vouch for their improved handling for off-road riding. Hopefully, I get the chance to find out soon.
welp everything is together with the springs forks feel great I may need to stiffen the low speed damping
(02-11-2026, 09:20 PM)pdedse Wrote: [ -> ]Very interesting to see this done on the CB1100. I just put a new shock and springs with drop-in damper cartdridges for my DR650. I don't claim to understand how they work, but many dr650 owners vouch for their improved handling for off-road riding. Hopefully, I get the chance to find out soon.
A lot of the older bikes, and still many new ones, use a simple hole in a damping rod. The oil must get through that hole, the resistance though is very mutch based on the velocity of the oil going through the hole. Very little damping at low speed but increasing by the square of the velocity at higher speeds (damping speeds i'm talking about). That can lead to underdamped bikes at low speed damping and harsh suspension at high shock speeds. Either way there will always be some compromise. The cartidge damper gives back a certain proportionality, linearality to damping and hence much better tuned performance.
SHOWA made a bit of a big deal of markeing their "dual bending valve" fork technology as used in the 2017MY EX and I think the later NC750X's, I have to say it is excellent fork in that respect but it is actually not a full cartridge fork. A great solution for a non adjustable fork though with great intermediate performance. It's design goal was to bridge low and high speed damping transitions.