Removing rear shock, to install new spring

i did that with a bimmer. looked nearly the same but only nearly.
front stand was a "not streering head?" type.
the ladder was 2 pipes "connected" with a strap.
and the lift position at the rear of the frame.
beware of the COG i say!
bike was one step from flipping over.

Is using the ladder that way bad luck? I would have to look at my stock rearset when I can dig them out. On other bikes without fixed begs we cut some keys to fix foldable pegs so you could use Jack stands or the like. Thumbs up on the creative solution.

me?
draw a line from hinge to hinge and imagine the COG,
and you see it is perfect. like CoolSparky did.
if the hinges are at the very end of the rearframe und the fork...bad luck is in reach
edit. and the "ladder" is made from two sticks

So once you get the shock out, what’s the process of removing the spring?

Go to 19 minutes:

I had to change the shock spring to 21040-26/85 and the forks to 8.5 for me 68 kg

Don't forget, your weight is only half the argument. Pace, and riding style, is the other half.

Ooof that was a faff. Swapped springs on my 22 V4S and it was not an easy job. I think the stock exhaust makes it 2x as hard as it should be. There’s minimal room to get the shock out of the swingarm and I had to resort to taking the plastic subframe cover (right above the shock) to make room. Though I do have to say that my subframe adapter worked a charm. Kept the rear wheel on. Had to bodge together a socket to capture the lower shock nut. Basically just clamped a vice grip on a 15 mm socket.



A few things to watch out for
- make sure your rear wheel chocked, bike is in gear, and the chain slack is taken out
- be careful raising the bike up too high as the rocker will interfere with w the exhaust

I had to raise the bike just to where the rocker kissed the exhaust and had to kind man handle it out.

When I got the shock compressed, I ran into trouble removing the spring collar after you remove the clip. Turns out the groove that the clip goes into created a ~5 micron lip and the collar wouldn’t slide over the end.



I gently filed the lip down using a fine ....... and Bob’s your uncle.

Swapped the stock 8.5 down to a 8 Nm spring and the bike feels more balanced w the 8.5/9 front spring for my weight. Returned the preload to the stock setting (18 mm thread showing from 12, I know that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it) and I noticed on my test ride the bike seems to turn in a bit quicker. Static sag was 13 mm from 17, not sure what rider sag is but I’m not sure I care to measure.

Anyway, working on this bike is terrible. I hate it.