Followed a link in the Motor Show thread over to GT-Rider and started poking around there.

There was a thread on Y.S.S. Shocks Thailand that fairly sang their praises. Apparently, since the arrival of some outside expertise, they are now world-class manufacturers.

My Cbr150r is a 2002, owned since new with 20K km. That is the first year of production.

Comparing to my friend's, which is 1 or 2 years newer, there are only 2 visible differences. The mirrors on the newer machine have an extra hinge for adjustment and the mono shock. Mine is non-adjustable, while the newer version has the more familiar adjustment for solo and 2up/sustained high-speed riding.

Funnily enough, while we have had these machines for several years now, we have never gotton around to swapping rides for comparison. Since he also swapped rear sprockets -he went smaller for better high-speed cruising and claims it was a good swap- we probably should have done that by now. Point is, I've not ridden his machine to see the difference in the 2 settings for the mono shock.

There are 4 versions available from Y.S.S. for the Cbr150r but 2 are for racing. The other 2 are a choice of internal bladder and external gas reservoir models. The non-reservoir model is apparently (according to the Australia website) more expensive and obviously looks more like the stock shock. I would worry abit about the reservoir taking up more space but they must have designed it to fit.

So...what thoughts on this swap? I don't imagine the shock will be that expensive here so no major money risk in going for the swap. Though in Aus. the shocks sell for A$300.

6 years old? Change the fluid in your front forks and then go buy the dearest shock (if money is no object). Nothing wrong with the racing shocks as long as they have enough range on the compression and rebound adjustments. Would be surprised if they haven't. Make sure you have both adjustments