Replace Electronic suspension with Non Electronic on Gen 1?

[Dark Rider]

Has anyone ever swapped the suspenison from a non EDC XR to an EDC bike and used a blanking plug?

Im thinking of finding some stock XR forks and shock and replacing the electronic ones on my gen 1 XR, 2015.

Has any one ever done this?

My thoughts are that I can replace the forks and shock with the adjustable units and set it up nicely for my weight and then just get the Adrianni blanking plug?

Good idea or bad idea?

[bazzer]

I have fitted K-tech cartridges to my ESA forks and K-tech have my bike at the moment developing a  rear shock.

I have had my bike flashed to disable the ESA so no warning lights etc. Though before I did that I made some dongles to fool the ECU to thinking it was connected.

[Mareng1]

Originally Posted by bazzer

I have fitted K-tech cartridges to my ESA forks and K-tech have my bike at the moment developing a  rear shock.

I have had my bike flashed to disable the ESA so no warning lights etc. Though before I did that I made some dongles to fool the ECU to thinking it was connected.

Who flashed the ECU to disable the ESA?

[bazzer]

Phil Crowe at Crowe Performance in  Market Rasen.

[Mareng1]

Originally Posted by bazzer

Phil Crowe at Crowe Performance in  Market Rasen.

Thanks - always good to have a 'loose' plan in the event of failure of the electronic suspension.    I think I would be reluctant to throw a heap of money at a new electronic shock/fork if a good manual setup was available.   

[bazzer]

When I get the bike back I will do an update on how it goes, I literally only ran it around the block with the forks and the remap. So I still don't know if I have ruined it yet :-)

[Winger]

For the OP there’s another thread running with similar info, as I ordered a non ESA X/R in 2016, put a Wilbers on the back and been more than happy with it, and compared to other bikes that I have with aftermarket sus  just as good,, now the blip...bought a KTM GT end of 19 my first intro into electric suspension...frankly it’s rubbish...ok for those that are happy for their sus to go boing boing but when you are used to decent kit not great...

So when Bazzer mentioned what he was doing pulled up a chair as very interested spectator and await developments 

[Dark Rider]

Originally Posted by bazzer

When I get the bike back I will do an update on how it goes, I literally only ran it around the block with the forks and the remap. So I still don't know if I have ruined it yet :-)

Cool thanks, please post an update when you have finished testing :)

I dont really have many options here in SA so trying to see what other route I can go.

If I can get a fork set and shock of eBay for a semi decent price and then have them valved etc after riding for a bit that would be great.

I also like the option of being able to fully revert to the ESA should I sell the bike for instance.

I did find a XR shock on eBay but I couldnt see any adjustment for the rebound?

Can someone show me on this pic where the compression and rebound settings are?

[Mareng1]

I parked my bike in the local town and on return, there was a guy looking at it and started asking questions.

He was praising electronic suspension, but I told him that if I had the opportunity, I would have ordered one with basic suspension and then fitted decent aftermarket units.

"No, I'm telling you mate! - Electronic suspension is what all the race teams use! I had it on my ?*?*?*?  - fantastic!!!!"

"I think the race teams are fitting electronics to fantastic shocks/forks in the first place - not compensating for cheap production units"

He wasn't convinced. 

[Antares]

I've seen a couple threads bashing the ESA at this point and whilst I do believe that a properly set up quality manual suspension kit would be better I can't imagine the difference being more than marginal. I've tracked my old Ninja 650 (2011) where the only options were 7 clicks of preload on the rear and I've put 15W instead of 10W in the forks. That bike was perfectly fine. And then I moved to the my XR and it's a whole another universe. It's soft on bumps when it needs to be, supportive in turns other times. The only issue I had is I'm fat so the standard 1 rider preload was too soft for me on the rear but all issues that caused were immediately gone upon selecting 1 rider + luggage. I admit the steering damper is a bit on the weak side but I reckon heavier oil will fix that too when time comes. So all that being said is the ESA really that bad? If you're just out touring and having fun in the twisties it's more than capable. It's still vastly superior to all the competition (Multistrada, Tracer 900, Tiger 1050, probably on par with KTM GT maybe better). Cuban Rider regularly tracks his XR and I've never heard him complain and he is riding in groups with fully race spec 1000cc super sports. Anyway I'd probably get the spring changed on the rear to something a bit stiffer and set up the 1 up riding more so that it's perfect for my weight but i've got absolutely 0 problems with rebound and damping. Tyre wear is normal, no pogoing when going over smooth but wavy roads, very little dive when braking in dynamic. Couple this with the ability to change it on the fly I'd rather have 90% correct suspension 90% of the time than 100% correct suspension 10% of the time. Until someone gives me an M1000RR with full top of the line Öhlins dialled in perfectly to my weight and riding I doubt I'd change my mind. That's just my 2 cents, i'm not dismissing anyone's views