This is maxtons view on the Honda suspension system. If you think this is bad you should have seen what they said about the BMW shocks
FRONT
The front forks on the NC750 X are a conventional fork with no adjustment. Internally they have a very old design, basic damping system called a Damper Rod damping system. This design simply uses different size holes to create more or less flow for the oil. The Damper Rod design does not have shims or properly design pistons and is not separately controlling the rebound action or the compressing action. The premise of the fork is that the spring supports the bike and the damping controls the
spring. There is no support from the damping system like in a more modern designed
damping system.
The front forks tend to feel very harsh over small bumps, this is because the forks have too much damping over a small movement, so when the forks hit a bump in the road the forks lock up and ‘kick back’. The rebound damping in the forks is not set up very well either, there is not enough rebound damping so when you let go of the front brake the forks ‘pop up’ very quickly causing the bike to run wide, also when you accelerate round a bend the forks extend very quickly, this causes the front to get very light, very quickly and then compounds the harsh feeling problem as there is not enough weight on the front of the bike.
The springs in the forks are progressive which means the spring has two different spring strengths or rates. The first rate is too soft and the second rate is too soft, this causes the bike to dive under braking and bottom out under very heavy braking.
Unfortunately due to the design of the damping system we can not revalve these forks to improve the damping, so we recommend a replacement damping system. We recommend our GP20 cartridge damping system with linear springs chosen to suit your rider weight. The GP20 cartridge damping system has separate rebound and compression damping pistons and shim stacks controlling the forks. We choose the type of damping and spring rate to suit the bike and the rider. On the NC750 we choose a progressive compression damping action with a linear rebound damping action. This means the forks are compliant initially but when you put force through the forks (brake hard) the damping builds up and supports the bike. The springs wefit are harder than the standard springs to give more general support anyway, but too much support that it makes the front harsh again. The amount of rebound damping is chosen to suit the spring rate so the fork has control all the way through its action. The forks are also externally adjustable for rebound damping. The GP20 cartridges with springs costs £350.00 + V.A.T a pair. To service and fit the cartridges to your forks with new forks seals costs an extra £140.00 + V.A.T.
We can also supply another model of GP20 cartridge which has rebound damping and preload adjustment, this costs an extra £140.00 + V.A.T.
We can also respring the forks with harder springs and heavier viscosity oil, this improves the support but makes the harsh action of the forks over bumps worse. We can also just respring the forks, this gives more support but makes the forks a harder
‘pogostick’than what standard as they return even quicker. To supply harder fork springs and oil costs £95.00 + V.A.T.
REAR
The standard unit on the NC750 X is very cheap; the unit is not adjustable for damping it only has a spring preload. The shock absorber is soft for the average rider weight which makes the bike sit down under power and run wide out of corners, it also means the rear of the bike can bottom out quite easily when loaded up with luggage or a pillion.
Unfortunately due to the shock being so cheap it is not rebuildable, so we can not cure the damping problems, but we can respring the unit with a harder spring if necessary. The problem with this is it makes the ride a bit hard/harsh and makes the rear of the bike a ‘pogoastick’ To respring the standard unit costs £95.00 + V.A.T.
What we recommend is a replacement unit, we supply our own Maxton NR4 unit which costs £420.00 + V.A.T. This unit is high pressure gas shock absorber with a floating piston to separate the oil and gas in the shock. It is fully rebuildable and adjustable for rebound damping, compression damping and preload via our Tommy Bar system, which takes seconds to change.