Rear spring

[pcarrell]

I see said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.

[chief]

Yeah, Ronayers sells the whole shock which is in the $600(US) range. The OP has purchased a Progressive shock replacement, which is what I would have done. I am thinking the shock itself has a problem, not just the spring.

[CDNRatMan]

  When I checked with them 2 winters ago it was the whole shock not just the spring, PC. they might have changed but at that time you could not buy just the spring.
And that unit was selling for just over $700.00 with taxes and other stuff they tagged on the price so progressive was the answer and repalce the whole thing because you already have it off so why not.

[pcarrell]

Ron Ayers looks like they have your stock spring.  http://www.ronayersmotorcycles.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=395051&category=Motorcycles&make=KAWASAKI&year=2001&fveh=9081

[kfoster]

The shock is pretty much a short version of the KLR shock. There are a couple of places that will sell you a different KLR rear spring. The hard part is disassembling the KLR shock and installing the spring. You need to compress the spring to do the job. The KLR springs run about a hundred bucks. I did this with my KLR 650 with good results.

This is where I got my KLR spring.

http://www.topgunmotorcycles.com/KLR_springs/klrsprings.html

You would likely need to shorten the spring to get it to work. It would not hurt to call these guys to see if they can source a spring of the correct length for the Drifter application.

[CDNRatMan]

  Asked around about swaping the spring out and was told by a few shops it was not a doable thing for the cost involved and to just buy a new shock, so I sucked it up and bought a progressive mono shock for the Drifter, called then and talked to a tech and explained my size and weight, and he told me how to set the sag and were I should actually start the process from and it has worked really well.

[chief]

sounds like the shock needs to be replaced.

[Brilamb2]

Anybody have a rear spring that is possibly still "somewhat" firm? While doing more tinkering with the 800 I recently acwuired, the stock shock is still kinda firm, but the rear spring is so soft it almost bottoms out with juts me on it.  We en me and the old lady get on its fully compressed and is already on pre load 7