I've also thought of the same. Wife's cousin purchased an fj and had good things to say about the rear suspension as far as moderate to aggressive street riding. Coming from someone that hits the track on a Duc regularly I would trust his opinion.
If I could get a used FJ shock for under 125 I'd likely roll the dice. It did snow in Ohio today so... maybe I'll just wait until late spring. So depressing.
Sent from my SAMSUNG
Let's bring this back from the dead.......has anyone purchased an FJ 09 shock, installed it, but never discussed the results here, due to a lot of the negative / mixed reaction, to the OP?
I was ready to off, the stock FZ shock.
Having recently ridden, several FZ 09's with shock and fork upgrades, ranging from $800 to $2,500 worth of suspension hardware, the time was ripe
to make changes to my own FZ.
I purchased a new FJ 09 shock for $265 delivered.
At the risk of reading, what I expect to see, from the internet experts....here goes.
The FJ 09 shock swap, to the FZ results, are very acceptable...the rear shock, works better than it does, on the heavier FJ 09.
With Sonic 95kg fork springs ,10wt PJ-1 fork oil, with an additional 5mm height in oil volume...the bike feels very stable over a variety for surfaces.
The fork tubes are slid up, 10mm into the triple clamps.
I weigh 215# in riding gear, no longer ride 9-10ths on the street, but often enjoy a more than "spirited pace".
After playing around with rear spring preload, and the dampening adjustment, I left the preload at the midway spot, and the dampening is still being dialed in, it is set more on the firm side.
My guess is, that if the FZ had come from the factory with this set-up, most riders would not be in a panic to upgrade stock suspension.
On the other hand, some riders never leave anything stock, no matter what hardware was installed at the factory.
Anyone else, do this swap?
I was going to do the ZX6 / 10 shock swap, but wanted to try this out instead.
As several have suspected, this shock may work out well for them.
Initially, I had a lot more detail about my riding style, area, and background, but thought, none of that would matter to most.