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Andreani Fork Upgrade: The Review

Joined May 2014
184 Posts | 0+
Long Island
You've seen the anticipation.
You've seen the installation.
You've seen the first impressions.

Now, the review.

If you have the money to spend, do it. Have a set made to your body weight and riding needs and put them in or have them put in.

After a few weeks of riding around with my new fork internals, I'm finally at the point where I have it dialed in so that it feels the way the bike should have felt from the factory. It rides very well. Bumps don't upset it. And New York's 5 boros and suburbs of Long Island have plenty of bumps. Speed bump sized mounds of asphalt between sections of pavement. Ruts and potholes. I aim for them now.

I rode around for a while without having set suspension preload and sag because I didn't have anyone to help me hold up the bike. I dialed it in to the point of it being plush. I was happy, but knew it could get better and that preload would have to be set correctly to get the most out of the suspension. So because I didn't ask anyone to help I devised a way to do it myself (knocking the bike over into my car in the process.... *******) and managed to get the sag set up to a very close approximation of what the experts recommend. Then I rode the bike and it didn't feel like the same bike at all. It felt higher, for one. It felt stiff, for another. That's when I realized that the compression and rebound settings I had before the preload was set correctly were compensating for the improper preload adjustments. So I backed off compression and let the preloading do the work. Ahh, much better. I backed off the rebound a little bit too in order to allow the spring preload to recover from bumps more naturally. Ahh, even better! But still, a bit stiff. I then rode a bit, backed off the preload a bit, rode a bit more, backed off preload a bit more, both front and rear. Then I hit the sweet spot. I had cranked in too much preload before.

Planted. Confident. Unphased. Not squirrel-like. More gazelle-like. There is no more handlebar judder indicating every imperfection in the road. No wallow either. Brake dive that's just enough to plant the front end, not make it feel like you're about to lose it. It rides better than any car I've ever owned. I'd say it's pretty close to the way the KTM Duke rode, with it's top-shelf WP Suspension. Sure it's not nearly as adjustable (high and low speed damping adjustments and so on), but it's a marked improvement over stock that makes me hope the rest of the bike proves to be good enough to hang on to.

I don't want to be one of those that puts lots of money into it, has electrical gremlins and limp mode, burned coils etc and needs to bail out before the warranty expires. If the bike manages to stay running and riding just like it is now, it'd be one I could see riding for a long time.
 
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The roads in Norfolk, VA, are the worst I've seen. Like, I don't really enjoy my commute because the entire route is like an IED practice grid. The roads are concrete mostly and during the occasional hard freeze, they burst when the water expands. So, there are asphalt plugs and seams about every 20 yards.

Oh, and you're not the only one that dumped his bike into his car. I was shaking the water out of the radiator after a wash and it slipped out of my wet/sweaty hand...right I to my brand new VW. Double ouch. So, in the words of the immortal Slick Willy: "I feel yer pain."
 
Gat, buy yourself a small aircompressor to blow the water away after a wash, works great on the Rad, too late now I know, but for future may be the way fwd.
 
I think i'm going to bite the bullet, the suspension is my only ***** with my bike.

It was a big gripe for me too. I was kicking myself for trading in my KTM Duke for something more costly that rode worse. But now it rides well enough to put those feelings to rest.
 
Gat, buy yourself a small aircompressor to blow the water away after a wash, works great on the Rad, too late now I know, but for future may be the way fwd.

I have a large compressor and do that normally. This was literally one of it's first baths and I had no idea where all the water would come from when I rolled it out of the garage the next day. It was just stupid and I get to look at the scar on my car every time I go to get in. Piss.
 
You guys wash your Hyper? :eek: Mine has been wet once, when I took it in for first service. :D:D:D

Thanks for the review, ND.
 
Well, when you have 3 kids, you have to have 1 thing that's yours. One thing they can't touch or destroy, or even breathe on. I've given up on keeping the cars nice and clean. The Duc- that's mine. Don't touch.

I'm also one of those sick puppies that enjoys cleaning a vehicle. Scrubbing with a cold beer and some loud tunes is pretty close to heaven for me.
 
But I ride the piss out of mine, too. It has a fine layer of highway scars. The bags look like they were off one of the bikes in Mad Max.
 
Last time I washed the bike I rode it in the rain the next day and haven't washed it since.

I'm not out to make people spend money, but I look forward to reading others experiences with the same fork upgrade.
 
Has anyone had any success in ordering a kit direct from Andreani ? Their web store does not seem to accept orders from outside Italy, and I tried emailing their info address (in English) and got no reply.

There is a local reseller in Aus but he doubles the price.
 
I think you have to go through a distributor. At least, that's the only way to get them in the US.
 
And that distributor (actually the Official NA importer) is Fast Bike Industries in NC. When I checked their price against the EU price w/shipping, FBI's price seemed quite reasonable.
 
And that distributor (actually the Official NA importer) is Fast Bike Industries in NC. When I checked their price against the EU price w/shipping, FBI's price seemed quite reasonable.

That's how I obtained mine. It seemed more straight-forward than going any other route, since Dave was able to understand my needs and order the set to the specs that'd work for my size, weight, and riding style. Not sure about where to get them in Australia, but if there's an importer there, I'd go that route. This way if you have an issue with what you buy, you're dealing with someone in your own country.
 
NurseDaddy, How long did it take you to get your order? i sent fastbike an email, but i havn't heard back from them. I will call on mon morning to see what's up.
thanks, mark
 
NurseDaddy, How long did it take you to get your order? i sent fastbike an email, but i havn't heard back from them. I will call on mon morning to see what's up.
thanks, mark

My first inquiry was May 8. My next email that same day got lost in his spam folder and he replied by the 14th. He ordered it and it was shipped on May 23rd. He was always available by phone when I called the number on his site.

Try calling David. He'll likely answer.
 
fork kit should arrive next week, i'm so ready for this, the hyper fits me to a tee, but every time i ride it, all i do is piss and moan about how bad the suspension is.
 
fork kit should arrive next week, i'm so ready for this, the hyper fits me to a tee, but every time i ride it, all i do is piss and moan about how bad the suspension is.

Great! I look forward to hearing about your experience with the install and first ride impressions.