Ordered some new shocks for my F3S a while back.

And on to the new hotness!



Sitting gracefully in the air like a ballerina.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And the package arrived!


Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


Look at all the glory! And if you look close you'll see the problem.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


So I ordered these a while ago. A long while. They were a week or so late in shipping. But hey, supply chain issues and whatnot. So they arrive, they look awesome. They came with the wrong instructions. I called the shop, got the guy, he gave me the info I needed. Yes they should be longer than stock. Install them upside down so the extension piece faces up.

Challenging install because the pressure wants to keep them extended further than the distance between the mounting points. Loosened the spring all the way, took off the top keeper, personhandled the shock into place.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr


Old and busted->new hotness

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

So I went to install the second shock. Ruh-roh shaggy, look at the pic again. Look at the ends of the springs. Look at your man, then look back at me. I'm on a horse. Look at the second pic. There is a thrust bearing only on one end of the spring. There's thrust bearings on both ends of the other two. I call again and say what I found. The gentleman expressed displeasure at the finding, and immediately overnighted me a new thrust washer. I'll continue the install tomorrow when it gets here.

So on the good side, the shocks are awesome looking, seem well built. The company is immediately responsive. On the bad side, the build was slow. The shocks came missing a piece that most people wouldn't have noticed is gone. The wrong instructions were in the box. And to nitpick. the thrust bearings have a 1.75" inside diameter, which sets the diameter of the spring rest. The inside diameter of the spring is closer to 1.95" so there's a solid .2" of slop available in the spring. I can't come up with an easy way to fix the problem, and it's not really a problem, but when you pay a lot (relatively) for custom suspension you have high expectations.