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[ST] A funny thing happened...



..while preparing for the HSTA National in Lexington, KY last week.  It all
started about 2 weeks prior when I led a group at a, um, spirited pace down
to Eminence, MO.  I noticed that after being on the road for a while the
back end of the bike had a bit more bounce to it's step than I was
comfortable with.  Well I guess 54k miles is longer than an OEM shock is
willing to deal me.  So I contact a friend who can get me good prices on
aftermarket stuff.  I was all hot to buy a Penske 8981 shock.  After a few
days the answer we got back from Penske was, "dunno".  They told my friend
that they did not have the Sprint ST on record.  Well that sucks!  He shot
me a price for an Ohlins and said he could lay hands on one.  Well about
that time an e-mail crossed the Sprint ST/RS list pointing out that one of
my former Sprint brethren was selling his Ohlins on e-bay.  I successfully
fended off 2 snipers at the end of the listing and won that shock.  Then I
come to find out it's Jim LaPoint, a fellow HSTA member, and he happens to
be headed to the HSTA National as well.  He was kind enough to agree to
deliver the shock too me at the rally.  Perfect, that saves us both from
having to deal with shipping, and I get the shock sooner.  Did I mention I
won the auction 2 days before leaving for the rally?  Then I thought,
instead of just having the shock laying around in my room for the whole
event, then having to lug it all the way home.  I decide there's no reason
why it can't be put on the bike right at the rally.  All I would need is a
small handful of tools and a little help.  So I gather up the tools, and a
tape measure, pack them in with the rest of my necessities for a
rally(cloths, maps, Tarantula.  You know, the staples) and took off for the
rally.

When I pulled up in front of the home base hotel, who's the first person I
see but Jim!  I love it when a plan comes together.  He even offered to help
me put on and set up the shock.  I am very thankful for his input and
assistance, as I would have probably been a lot more frustrated, and had
taken hours more to do it.  Of course this operation gathered quite the
crowd.  I had many highly qualified foremen 'helping out'.  In other words,
watching and drinking beer.  There were also a lot of very puzzled people
gawking at this crazed loon tearing his bike apart in the front parking lot
of a Holiday Inn.  What can I say, I like to make an interesting first
impression.  In about 3 hours total I had removed the tank, seat, rear
plastic, and OEM shock, mounted the Ohlins, customized the battery box to
allow access to the compression adjuster(thanks again Jim!), buttoned it all
back up, and we set the sag, on both ends of the bike.  I was pleasantly
surprised when I found the Race Tech springs, and settings were almost
perfect.  They were just a touch soft, but a little preload seems to have
balanced things out.

Now, I was a bit leery of setting up the shock on unfamiliar roads.  But
northern Kentucky proved to be a very good testing ground.  There were
sweepers, nice tight 15-25mph twisters, some nice 20-25mph combinations(2+
corners in a row), and some really bad pavement(but only in small patches).
So far I've only really made a slight adjustment to rebound dampening.  The
rest is fairly standard.  Well I have to say the operation was quite
successful.  I doubled, and then some, many corners posted limits these past
few days, and it's not beating me up down the slab either.  It takes a nice
set in corners now.  But it is a bit more sensitive to my inputs too.  I'll
call that a good thing.  Of course this probably means I'm going to get in
some real trouble soon on our local roads.  But such is the price for
happiness, I guess.

Oh yeah, and the rally was really fun too.  True to form I have about 6
pictures from the entire 6 day event.  But the personal memories,
friendships, and stories are what we all really enjoy at events.  I think.

Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen
2002 Triumph Sprint ST
AMA life member #548538
HSTA # 9351
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