Hi fellow CanyonChasers. I have what many would probably call an unhealthy
level of appreciation for my scooter and today I'm going to be upgrading to
suspension so if this is of any interest to you please stick around.
So, yeah, this is my heavily modified Yamaha Zuma
affectionately known as The Zoomie. I fit an Athena big bore kit with some custom
weights in the clutch. I matched those with a bigger carburetor and Mike built
a custom cable for it so it doesn't accelerate when you rotate the throttle
forward. I fit this MotoGP inspired titanium looking exhaust pipe, integrated
the rear turn signals into the tail light, and I had the wheels powder-coated
red because, why not? I even made my own custom decals that reference one of
Yamahas greatest homologated race bikes the OW01. Yeah, I know, it's
ridiculous but freaking scooters are awesome. There's just something really
fun about riding a small bike at its limit you feel like Tom Cruise in
Mission Impossible 2.
Full flat-out on a stock zoom a 50 cc two-stroke it's like 32 miles an hour. I
go faster than that on my road bike. Hell, I go faster than that on my mountain
bike. I even choose tires not based on what
provides the best grip for the most longevity, but based on how much sound
they make when you lock the rear tire and slide to a stop. It's like being 8
years old again on your BMX bike. So one thing I've never really been able to
solve on this is the anemic rear shock. It basically has no rebound damping and
the spring is really way too soft, and way way too soft if you ever carry a
passenger or two... or three. A few weeks ago I damaged my front fender so I got on eBay
and people are selling used Zuma fenders for 60 bucks. That ain't right. But
then I learned that a brand new front fender from Yamaha is, I'm not kidding,
$8.00. But then, at the bottom of the page, they had a "you may also be interested in
this rear shock" for about a hundred bucks and it's not even Chinese it
claims to actually be made in Taiwan. So, why not?
It's just arrived so I thought we could install it and then go out for a ride
and see if it's an improvement over the OEM unit. Look! You can change the ride
height and it has the ability to adjust for spring elasticity! I'm pretty sure
that means you can adjust the preload. It's only two bolts to remove and
replace but you do need to remove the side panel which means you have to
remove the rear rack too. I'm just gonna slide a block of wood under the rear
wheel to kind of take weight off the shock to make it easier to remove. The
top nut has this cute little clip on it just pull that off and then a fourteen
millimeter ratchet and wrench. For some unknown reason the bottom one is a 10
millimeter. Then it's simply a matter of just removing the bolts and removing the
old shock. Looking at these two shocks side-by-side there's a couple of obvious
differences. One being this NCY shock, even in this lowest setting, is longer
than the OEM shock. But I think that's going to be compensated by the
difference in this spring. The OEM shock has a straight-rate spring that's pretty
short. The NCY has a progressively wound spring, meaning
the coils are wider apart here and they get closer together. So that means, that
the energy required to get the shock moving on this progressively wound
spring, is less so that you'll get a lot more compression at the beginning of the
stroke and then it gets stiffer or takes more energy to compress the spring the
further into the stroke you go. Installing it is going to be pretty
straightforward. We just put the put it back into place and bolt it in. Put the
panel's back on and that's it. So, let's go take this for a ride and see if it's any better.
So, does it work? Yeah, it actually really works a peach. I mean we're talking about
scooter suspension so it's not like the expectation was really all that high. But
still, the progressive spring works just as I thought it would. The initial
bump absorption is really plush but when you start going faster, or when you have
a passenger the shock is way less likely to bottom out. I even took some preload
out of the shock after a few minutes of riding, which just reinforces my opinion.
Seriously, for the super reasonable price-tag, this is a worthwhile upgrade. We
really hope you enjoyed this quick little video, and remember, scooters are
freaking awesome and deserve love too. Thanks so much for watching and ride well.