Shock absorber length for Featherbed

Hi Peter - if you go to Paul Goff's site (Yeah - odd eh, as he's primarily an electrickery man!) he has a comprehensive list of Norton shocks - http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffyshockabsorbers.htm

You'll see that the Atlas uses 11.9" - the shorter type. See how there are just two lengths for the whole range? 11.9" (OK - 11.7"!) and 12.9". Many people in the trade get it wrong! I've had arguments with them about what my 1959 Dommie 99 should have! (12.9" with 5/16" bushes). As it happens I still have the original Girlings, which are holding their dampening fine! I'll fit the new "fat git"110lb springs though because I'm 1.5 of the man I used to be! Most suppliers seem to use 90lb springs as standard nowadays. It's worth asking whoever you buy them from.

Cheers, Lionel

Yeah Pete,

I bought mine from him too and asked for the heavy springs - although according to Paul Goff's table they're standard!

Cheers, Lionel

I bet these shock are the same as Paul Goffs. They are probably made in the same factory in China or india

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REP-GIRLING-SHOCK-ABSORBERS-BSA-TRIUMPH-NORTON-/200577175892?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2eb354d154

Very cheap butI wonder how good or bad they are? Cynics will automatically say they are "crap" but are they?

Has anyone stripped these down and felt the action of the damper? They will also need to be long term tested with about 10thousand miles of usage to see if the damping action tails off at all. The otherpart that wears on any spring damper unit is the the chrome slider. Usually the top cover twists slightly on the compression and it wearsthe chrome bottom cover. This was always a bad problem with the originals whether Girling or Armstrong.

The new Hagon units have stainless steel bottom covers which should stay looking good far longer. The Hagons though are 3x times the price at around £182 but they are also supposed to be gas loaded too. The Ebay ones are only £62.25.

With such a price difference even allowing for the Hagon's quality, a good user test of these would be useful. It would make a good magazine article but as the mags like to keep hold of their advertisers, they might not be too keen on the idea to spoil someones product sales.

If I was running Hagons company,I would do some testing of the cheapo ones and if they were rubbish I would publish the results...BUT if they were of an acceptable standard with a decent longlevity, I would keep very quiet about it and hope the cynics with the automatic "crap" response, scare off the more open minded buyer.

So has anyone had a genuine hands on experience with the cheapo ones?...I'm sure many of us would like to know.

Regards

Les H