Well, out with the old! Big shout out to my mechanic for his once again solid work. Suspension stuff is out of my comfort zone and today he spared some time to remove this stock shock and throw my new penkse shock on.
In with the new, once again! Decided to raise the rear of the bike by 5mm, essentially what this does is increase the quickness of the turn in and improve the flickability of the bike. It makes the bike dive into turns much more aggressively with minimal effort required.
Initial impressions, I had to get used to riding the bike again. The rear felt noticeably taller, definitely can't flat foot. I think I should use the time from now until May to get used to the new tip in characteristics of the bike. When my DOT race tires go on, its going to raise the rear even a little higher than it already is now. The DOT races have a much more aggressive profile than regular street tires and in turn result in a much taller tire. Why? Increased contact patch when bike is in full lean, and also improved turn in.
As far as the ride goes, it felt a bit firmer on smooth roads, but when going over large bumps the rear of the bike didn't tossed around as much and it just felt planted. I'll get a real impression come May down at the Ridge Motorsports Park, I can't really offer much feedback until then as I won't have an opportunity to really push this bike.