Ohlins and Andreani cartrige set installed

[Alex]

Hi guys,

So after owning this bike for 2 years I decided it's time for an upgrade and changed the shock and the fork cartridges. After some research this is what I went with:
https://www.omniaracing.net/en/andreani-kit-advanced-cartridge-shock-absorber-ohlins-for-yamaha-2014-p-20144.html

I'll try to express here a few thoughts to the best of my abilities.

All the installment was done at my Yamaha dealership. The shock can be swapped pretty easy. The cartridges however need some more specialized work and the use of a lathe machine. If someone wants I can add a pic of the manual.

The setup as the guys from the dealership told me was ''standard'' and supposed to fit me for my daily riding (I'm 183 and weigh 87 kg). However after just a quick ride I had to adjust the compression and soften the shock as it was way too stiff. I'm quite new to having this level of adjustability on my bike so I'm still tinkering to find out what works best. After 2 days of riding I can say the front is like from a different bike and the back seems to be much better. Still need to experiment more but so far I'm very pleased with the changes.

 

[msesma]

Thanks Alex.

Yes, please, post a pick of the manual for installing the cartridge. Having to use a lathe seems too much for me

And any comments on how the fork has improved or how difficult is to tune the shock will be great too.

 

[Noggie]

Nice.

I was looking at this kit for months, but opted to change bike instead.

How is the brake dive, greatly reduced? and is the rear ABS less intrusive? does the front brake feel different?

 

[Alex]

Gonna try to attach some pics. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw I needed to use a lathe as that is a bit out of my reach. Also there was no mention of this on the website when ordering.

The fork has greatly improved. You notice it first when you use your front brake hard, dive is almost gone. Being able to adjust it I think would help a lot of MT owners especially those that want to take this bike on the track.

The shock requires actually more time to adjust than the original. Besides figuring out the rebound which you can adjust very easy by hand (the black knob in the 4th picture), the compression is tuned with a similar key to the original. There is a safety ring that needs to be loosen (in the 3rd picture you can see it) and after you can adjust the compression with the key. There is a bit of a hit and a miss until you get it right as you don't have separate levels like on the original shock. If you want to ride with a pillion it will be way more time consuming and annoying,

 

[Alex]

Nice.

I was looking at this kit for months, but opted to change bike instead.

How is the brake dive, greatly reduced? and is the rear ABS less intrusive? does the front brake feel different?

Yes for the dive, but so far haven't noticed much difference in the brakes. I haven't changed anything there yet, still have all the standard stuff

 

[Noggie]

Yes for the dive, but so far haven't noticed much difference in the brakes. I haven't changed anything there yet, still have all the standard stuff

ok, I found the back brake ABS kicking almost instantly when breaking "hard" using both brakes and suspected it had to do with the nose dive shifting the weight forward.
Also the front brake felt a bit numb at the start as the bike pretty much just dived.
I was hoping the reduced dive would make the rear ABS less intrusive and make the front brake feel more confident.

On my S1000R the front brake is a single finger operation and very little pressure and leaver travel has to be applied to make the bike stop, but those brakes are in a different league compared to the MT-07.
Just trying to figure out if that mod would be as good as I hoped it would be.
I was thinking long and hard about upgrading the MT or getting a new bike before I decided to change bike in the end.

 

[goloso_b]

I have the Andreani fork kit and stock rear shock in an ABS MT07.
Regarding breaking, the front has the same feel and (lack of) bite and power. The front suspension makes it easier to break harder and further into the turn if you need to, though. This weekend I took it to a track day and I noticed that I could use the back break a bit more without the ABS kicking in, probably thanks to the reduced dive.

 

[Noggie]

I have the Andreani fork kit and stock rear shock in an ABS MT07.
Regarding breaking, the front has the same feel and (lack of) bite and power. The front suspension makes it easier to break harder and further into the turn if you need to, though. This weekend I took it to a track day and I noticed that I could use the back break a bit more without the ABS kicking in, probably thanks to the reduced dive.

Thanks, this is in line with my thoughts for this update. in stock form I was actually glad I never had to emergency brake with the MT, both due to the suspension and brakes, I do understand this is hugely individual, and me being a heavier rider probably added to the problem.
I would imagine it feel a bit more confident when the suspension is doing its thing right, the brakes can probably be improved with braided lines and different pads.

This is what I found to be the problem with the MT in the end, a lot of things needed upgrades to make it the way I wanted it, and with the money spent you might as well buy a new bike.
Don't think I'm overly criticizing the MT, it's a great bike for many, many reasons and had my riding not taken the turn it did I probably would have kept it.