Some stuff too good not to share...

[KTM-Lew]

Yeah, what he said......

Welcome aboard....abroad, whatever......you have been offically knighted Duke of Race-Tech.......your duty, is to explain from your perspective (Race-Tech) the how and why you do things. "We" don't discuss specific stacks or proprietory info but try to clear the fog......

The cyl-valve post should be a blast......put your flame-suit on.....

 

[svi]

I think I'm missing something here.
I've never seen a PDS shock stripped or ridden a bike with one fitted and my whole knowledge on the shock has been gleaned from the posts on this site.
It appears to me as a complete outsider that here we have a concept that has never worked as well as a linkage system, there seems to be complete confusion on the manufacturers behalf as to what the way forward is so it will be a while before it ever does work.
Is it not the case that despite the drawbacks in weight etc that the linkage may be the best system for the job. For many years people have been trying to find a better system as an alternative to the many compromises in telescopic forks but none work so well.

 

[terry hay]

SVI
I passed comment in the cylinder valve thread regarding product being released by manufacturers whilst still under-developed. Personally I don't believe this is fair to the motorcycle purchaser. The PDS shock brought huge attention to KTM when it was released and bikes were sold on the concept of the product rather than the performance. This attention has enabled KTM to finally be taken seriously as a mainstream manufacturer in the offroad market. For this reason alone the PDS shock has been a major success. Honda were guilty of similar dealings with its aluminium frame in 97. It took four years to come close to the performance of their steel framed 96 version. You remember that bike. It was the one that McGrath rode, only he chose to use the 93 model frame. From what I'm led to believe the PDS shock contributed to the overall performance of the KTMs by allowing a more direct flow from the carby to the cylinder. Figures were thrown around and claims of up to 3 hp gains for the 125 were common. Having ridden several KTMs its hard to not be impressed with the power delivery. As for the shock itself, every year sees steady improvements. Wether the day will come that the PDS shock will hands down outperform the linkage setup remains to be seen. In the meantime we'll do the best we can with what we've got.
Terry

 

[DougRoost]

So back to the original post on this thread. Granted KTM fixed lots of chassis things in the '04 but it sounds like they went in the wrong direction on the shock/spring. I love my '99 300 exc but have been thinking they've gotten good enough that I should consider an '04 300exc. Yet I don't race and my current bike runs and works great -- it's just the idea of better and lighter that's appealing. Would I be smarter to wait until the '05 models are out?

 

[grunk250r]

I tell you guys what, if you think they've gone the wrong way with the shock/spring on the 04'EXC's, for offroad enduro h.s. work, you'd best think again!! EVERYONE i've spoken to whose ridden an 04'EXC in true offroad terrain, myself included, comes back with the same comment...HUGE improvement.
Oh GOD.....now he's a PROPHET?? LOL!!

 

[JCV 220R]

originally posted by jeremy: Sorry you guys don't like it, but Terry has no idea what he's talking about in PDS shocks, and I don't like someone critiquing me when they have no idea whats going on.. I gave him a polite shot, and he came wih more BS... Thats the problem.. Golaith falls just as hard no matter what his name is...

Wow! It's probably been like 2 years since I've been in this forum and I see nothing at all has changed! Good old Jer, he'll never change... someone has the balls do disagree with him and he gets all mad and freaks out. Even when you're really good at something, there's always more to learn. If you're always right, how can you ever learn? Or improve?

I have an '04 KTM and I had an '01 in the past. I ride offroad so I have no experience with "stadium whoops". My new bike is the first bike I've EVER had that doesn't (IMO) need a revalve or any kind of suspension work. I can't believe how great the suspension is on this bike.

Great thread LOL

 

[JCV 220R]

Hey, maybe Jer's just mad because the '04 KTM riders won't need his services... hmmmmmm..... ;)

 

[Jeremy Wilkey]

Thats the spirt o'l boy!

Guys as fun as this sounds like it could be, I'd rather avoid your snake pit, besides I've got to get out of town for John Lakovich's open house and a little riding.. Hope you all have a nice weekend. :moon:

Love
Jer

 

[terry hay]

JCV
The straight rate spring brought many a praise when installed for enduro applications. Still it has many shortcomings when it comes to providing bottoming resistance for more aggressive usage. If your riding suits the straight rate thats fine. Obviously when it comes to suspension setup ultimately we may end up with some form of compromise. At the end of the day we want to have as little compromise as possible. Manufactures are bound by circumstance to provide arbitrary settings when they produce their suspension packages. They have no idea who is going to ride the bike or how. It could be an "A" grade MXer weighing 75kgs, a novice weighing 60kgs or a trail rider weighing 120kgs. They try to produce an average setting for what they believe is the average weight rider of average ability and average out the average usage for that style of bike. Obviously then the best performance we can hope for from the stock bike is in fact average. Every year as technology, materials or methods improve we simply witness a raising of the average. This is not to say the performance of your bike is not good. It simply means the potential for improvement is very real. If you are satisfied with the current bike that's great. But for those who want a little more it's nice to know it's available.
Regards
Terry