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644
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6/26/2014
Location
Southern MD, MD
US
Edited Date/Time
7/28/2020 6:37am
Can anyone that's done the bladder shock conversion on a new model WP shock (2015.5+ SXF) comment on if it's worth it or not? From what I've heard, it reduces stiction and makes it easier to service, but couldn't find many reviews on real world performance gain.
Night and day for me. Hope that helps.
The Shop
I tried a K-tech bladder kit. What happened. It failed, and basically ruined my whole shock shaft and shock body.
I'm pissin' like 3 times a night
I figure my guts are just all wadded and callused from years of being tossed like ice in a martini shaker.
White power would be top of the shaker list from 85 till 90 ,those first generation upside down forks and a shock that had a design that would blow todays tuners minds.
I still have a drawer full of shims,spring or wave washers,little springs that went in the forks, bottoming cones. Just all kinds of shit.
Made my own tools for disassembling.
The 85 ktm 500 was the bike ,god what a beast. Then my husky had them up front, then the cagiva 250 had them front and back.
Good times
And quite a few of them with bladder and piston comparisons as the test sequence.
Both have heat generated - hell that's the dispersal of energy.
A bladder distorting under oil and gas pressure with heated oil, has a shitload of heat to shed.
Conceivably an overly 'tight' piston with a band and a seal could generate more heat. But, that's an example if a crap piece of engineering, just as cheap, shitty bladders allowing Nitrogen charge through to the oil is.
Most of the time, it's the rebuild and better oil that people get the notable performance from. But, they, and the Suspension shop they bought from, will tout the new reservoir and bladder as being the big thing.
Me, on my TTX, I set the piston for far more oil in the reservoir, and fit a Fox Schraeder valve so I don't have to faff with a needle etc.
I'll be putting in an SKF piston next rebuild. Every time I've used SKF fork seals , wipers and shock seals ,seal heads, I've been very pleased with their performance and durability.
People selling a new canister insist that's the best. People selling bladder say they at are the best. People selling linkages insist the stock linkage is no good.
Pit Row
I have an after market setup on my shock and it didn't make any difference.
The bladder kit is just another thing to bling out on, although it does make rebuilds a bit more simple. The average joe is not going to get notice any performance gains. Change your oil and add a low friction band on the piston. You'll notice that more and for a fraction of the cost
I invested in a tank on mine since it was supposed to come with a schrader, but it ended up having a needle septa anyway.
A few tuners i have heard off, just drill out the stock canister and fit a schrader since the aftermarket needle septa can be unreliable.
I'll admit, ive never rebuilt a shock that uses the separator setup.
All this talk about bladders blowing out... to me that means someone didn't install it correctly. Or it was supper old... The SDI one is very well built. btw if it was a "bad" technology Showa or KYB wouldn't ship millions of shocks with them.
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