Here come the Andreanis. I hope they're worth it.

As much as I would have liked to avoid spending so much on a bike I already spent so much on, I can not live with the front suspension the way it is from the factory. Not after owning the 2010 KTM Duke 690 with fully adjustable WP suspension. That setup was amazing. I know I probably won't come close to that with the addition of the Andreani kit, but I'm hoping the coin I spent will at least make the ride more tolerable.

I'd have gone for the RaceTech valves since the setup costs less, however my OCD would have me forever wondering if it was right for my needs the first time around. I'd rather have adjustability so I can tweak the settings until it feels right.

David at FastBike has been good to work with via phone, and I sent him my specs like height, weight, riding style, percentage 2 up, and he ordered a kit made for me. It came in today, I called up and gave my credit card info and the set ships today. Gulp.

I went over the install process with him again over the phone, and I'm fairly certain that I'll be able to handle it. If not, I've got some friends that are very skilled that may be able to lend a hand. I hope. We shall see. The prospect of having to dismantle my front end and ship forks out, pay for installation, and wait for them to come back wasn't going to fit with my level of patience or my wallet. The kit cost enough. $890 shipped. Yikes. However, I priced another kit from another suspension outfit that hadn't ever made a set for a hyperstrada, and they were talking $1250, plus $200 installation, plus the cost of shipping both directions with a two week turnaround. I figured I'd go with the Andreanis and hope for the best. I've seen a few blurbs online about positive results with their kits, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get to come back here and let you all know how much better the bike is.

I really like the bike. I want to make it as good as I can for my needs. I just hope I'm not throwing more money than I should into something that, like others from this forum, I'll have to give up and post for sale all too soon. It's scary. Maybe I'd feel better had I gotten the killer deal others have mentioned, had I not taken half of what my Duke cost me as a trade in value after just two years of ownership. Sometimes I think maybe I should have shopped around more. On paper the bike sounded like the perfect one for me, and with the exception of the ride quality that I found in the first few miles, I think it would be. I hope it doesn't fry coils, or ecu, or dash. Seems those that have put theirs up for sale after a short period of ownership had enough problems to make them get out while they could. I don't want to take another big hit and have to get something else. Not for a while.

I'm trying to remember that a small percentage of people that actually own a HyperStrada are actually on the internet sharing their stories of breakdowns and issues, and hoping that there are a greater percentage out there that don't have any issues at all. I'm easily influenced by bad news, I guess.

ZRider said:

I hope you're feeling better. I will be following your suspension experiment with great interest.

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Thanks. I'm feeling a bit better. The ribs still hurt and the cough I had before the fall won't clear because I can't breathe deeply enough and cough the gunk up, but I'm swilling nyquil and pain meds and just trying to ride it out.

I'll see if I can take pics of the process while underway. Shipping from down south ought to take three business days, but with the holiday in there I probably won't see the parts until late into next week.

Tomorrow I'm off, taking the bike in for the first service. On one hand I'm hoping they do an update to the ECU to stop surging, on the other I'm scared that an update may lead to something else going wrong.

Maybe what I'll do is put my GoPro camera on my helmet and record my commute to work prior to the upgrade, and then do the same commute with the camera on after the upgrade. You'll either get to hear me happy or cursing.

Thanks for that. I had the first service done today. The ECU update seems to have smoothed out the surging I had at 3500 to 4500 rpm. So I feel better about the bike. I look forward to the suspension changes.

The parts are here. Now to find time to put them in. Probably on the weekend since I will be resisting the urge to call out of work.

st2cmack said:

I think the bike could use a better front end and was a bit disappointed at the lack of adjustability...but, I have not experienced that much in the way of performance. Just out of curiousity, how much do you weigh? I weigh about 165lb so am wondering if we "smaller" guys don't experience as many problems.

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I think rider size and weight may have something to do with the perception of the ride. I'm 6' and 220. The stock suspension is, for the most part, fine on smooth roads but in the NYC metro area, smooth roads are really hard to find.

Besides the road conditions on my commute, the dive under braking tends to impact stability as well.

As the weekend draws near I am still contemplating how I'm gonna do the work over this weekend. For now I've got to try to focus on my work. I just realized that I didn't take any video of my commute before the fork upgrade and probably won't be riding the route again until after it's done. I'll just have to write up my "before and after" thoughts. I'll see if I can take pics to do a write-up of the work involved.

They're in, and it seems they're worth it. Rode 300 miles today. Will report more when I wake up from a much needed nap.