Can anyone confirm that a rear progressive shock from say, Arrowhead, will fit the C model? I'm in Quito with a 'mucho mal' rear shock and no new ones in sight from Kawasaki for over 3 weeks and a stupid amount of money. Arrowhead can get me one in about a week but I need to double check that it will fit the C model.
Thanks,
Michelle

I'm almost 100% sure that the shock fits although the C does not have the quick adjuster for the spring preload.
Will check at my shop tomorrow

Michelle,

Let me know if you need anything from the US, I have a spare used spring/shock (in good condition) available I could send to you right away. It's off my 90 B2 Tengai, I took the shock/spring off my A model KLR and put it on the Tengai.

Good luck,

__________________
John C.

John,
I've ordered a upgraded shock from Dual Star. Fingers crossed it arrives in Colombia before I leave.

Michelle,

Let us know how you get on with this. I'm riding a KLR650 C model too, and getting parts for it is always a hassle because of the A/B/C differences, so the more info on compatibility that's available here, the better!

I'm just converting my C to a "Cish" by replacing the 14L "C" tank with a 23L "A" tank. The seat needs to be replaced as well (the C seat goes further up onto the bitty little C tank, so will not fit with an A tank), so I've just picked that up secondhand on ebay as well. Next, I'll probably discover that the whole rear subframe needs to go, or that I need to make a few "tweaks" to the "A" seat to fit it on the "C" rear subframe... one thing at a time though..

Colm

Hi Colm,

I bought the shock absorber from Dual Star becasue they had a sale on. Both Dual Star and Arrowhead (Moab) sell the Progressive Shock and are normally the same price. And both were very helpful on the phone. I ordered the shorter spring becasue the guys at Dual Sport thought it would fit better. It fit fine with two little things to be careful of.

First: You'll need to get a longer bolt for the bottom fixing as you'll see just how flimsy the metal work of the stock shock is. I imagine it would be the same for the 'A' Model though and think it should have been included with the shock, mainly becasue they went to the effort of including two sleeves to make the top bolt fit. I ended up having to have bolt made for it.
If you do have to get a bolt made up, make sure there is a little more room to spare when it fits through the hole in the shock as the hole in the bit that attaches it to the bike is ever so slightly smaller. Also make sure the bolt is only as long as required to fit through and have the nut fit on the end. With the extra width of the shock at the base, there isn't much room left between the shock absorber and the two bracket thingys - sorry mental block on all things to do with motorbikes.

Second: The bike wasn't lowered to start with and now with a shorter shock on it, my side stand is more useless than normal i.e. it really needs to be shortened. (My side and center stands are custom built and weren't great to start with, but now they're worse)

Let me know how you get on with the 'A' seat regarding the rear sub frame.

Cheers,
Michelle