Installing an XTRIG

Go ahead and file this under
“Things I really didn’t need to add to my bike, but did anyway!“

A full year ago I finally got around to ordering and installing the correct spring on the rear and front too! Installing was the easy part. Adjusting for the correct amount of sag was not. I took a guess and while we were in Death Valley Charles popped out his Sag-O-Meter (ok it’s called a “Slacker”) and measured everyone’s bikes. Mine was way too low – as in not enough sag and there was nothing I was going to do in the middle of Death Valley. I just knew it was measuring low.

When I next had my shock out I put it on the bench and once again guessing out my ass I decided this was worthy of my next attempt. The blue tape was where it was before and I adjusted it all the way down to where I could measure from the top to the adjustment area to the top of the spring.

That was 50 mm of thread. Which is not to be confused with the amount of actual sag – the two are different measurements and not directly correlated. Confused? Sorry. Actually the two numbers counteract each other. If I push the spring down further (higher numbers on my caliper above), the bike would be stiffer and have less sag. Think about that really slowly before we continue until it makes sense.

Ok?

Now, totally unrelated to that 50mm on my calipers image above…

Borrowing Tomm’s Slacker, my bike was showing (once again totally by coincidence) 50mm of actual sag on the bike. My bike should have around 83mm for the proper amount of sag.

That means my bike was too stiff and I needed to back off the spring preload to whatever position gave me the 83 mm sag in the rear. Make sense yet?

It’s even a little more complicated as we want a setting of 83mm for my fully loaded packs, gear and even fully loaded me. This current 50mm was me sitting on the bike with shorts and a t-shirt on.

The problem is that the rear shock of a 690 is buried deep under the tank, behind this and that. So much so that some honda style mechanics will pull out big ass screw drivers and try to tap the threaded rings into proper adjustment. That’s when you start screwing up the delicate threads on the shock body.

See “WHO THE FORK DOES THIS TO A SHOCK?” or just this image…

Yes, that’s how I bought the bike and also yes, I had to get a whole new shock. That middle arrow is pointing to a section of completely stripped threads!

To remove the shock from the bike to adjust the rings you’ll need to…

1. Remove the seat
2. Remove the rear rack
3. Remove the gas filler cap
4. Remove rear plastics
5. Remove the side plastics
6. Remove the skid plate
7. Remove the ECU
8. Remove the battery
9. Remove the Rottweiler Intake Manifold
10. Remove the fuel quick disconnect
11. Remove the muffler
12. Next loosen the two top gas tank bolts near the battery
13. Remove the lower gas tank through bolt (because you have an updated version)
14. and then finally the shock top bolt and bottom bolt
15. Now tilt the gas tank up towards the handlebars and you can start wiggling the shock out.
16. Once you have the shock out, take a wild guess and adjust the rings to what you think will give you the proper amount of sag using the correct tool for the job – a 68-72 mm spanner wrench.
17. and now, simply install following the same 16 steps in reverse. 😉

Once the bike is back together measure your sag and see how close you were to getting it right.
HINT: You were not.
If not, do the above all over and over again – rinse, lather, repeat until it’s correct.

Here’s a cute little gallery of me doing just that

IF YOU ARE REALLY LUCKY

The previous owner installed something called an XTRIG on your shock body.
I of course, was not.

But.. for a few hundred dollars you could put an XTRIG on your shock all by yourself! So I started looking around for one and the best and cheapest price I found was one on ebay.

With tax I was looking at $172 delivered. Ouch! But ok.
It arrived without incident in just a few days. Yay Me!

Be careful as they changed the threads on certain years and you need to make sure you get the right one for your shock.

Here’s what it looks like. It’s pretty and uber machined to German Vollkommenheit (perfection).

Next we needed to remove the spring and then remove the old adjuster rings. To do that you can try the zip tie thing or tie down straps, car spring compressors or any of the thousand other ideas you see on tiktok that are all guaranteed to cost you an eye ball.

Or you could use the Motion Pro Shock Spring Compressor tool just like the one Charles lent me a year earlier. It was, and I am not in any way exaggerating, the slickest, easiest spring removal I have ever seen, ever done – by far!

The trouble is… Charles had since moved across the country. And as I had said a year ago, if I ever needed to do this again I was going to own that tool!

One Hundred and Eight Eight Dollars and a few clicks later I had one ordered on Ebay. UGH!

My eBay transaction last time was breeze… but not this time. There was a problem – actually one problem after another after another. The seller didn’t actually have the item – he was a drop shipper. The place that had the item was supposed to ship but didn’t. When I complained and asked for a refund he said it was already shipped. It wasn’t. When I contested the transaction through paypal they took yet another week before deciding in his favor as he provided proof it was now shipped. He found a different source to ship from. It gets better. When the item was set to be delivered to my house it wasn’t. Amazingly it was mis-delivered to a large company address a mile away from my house. Really!

And when I complained that I had not yet received the package it took another 3 weeks before I was issued a refund. It’s seriously been the transaction from hell!

Luckily for me, Charles sent me a link for one from Texas. I looked at the website and it looked legit. I then pulled up the address on Google maps and there was no big super store of motorcycle parts at this street address. This guy was a drop shipper too. I reached out directly to the guy though and asked him when it would ship, if it was indeed in stock etc. and he confirmed it was and it would ship the very next day.

I took a chance and amazingly the tool did ship the next day and it did arrive when he said it would. Also amazingly, the package arrived with another box of equal weight and size.

Guess what? Yup! I was shipped TWO of them! Anyway enough of the drama.

IT’S A GREAT TOOL and YOU SHOULD OWN ONE!

Seriously. It’s life changing and guaranteed to make you 17% faster in the whoops! Besides, while every body needs ONE, nobody needs TWO.
https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/motion-pro-shock-spring-compressor.1810029/

INSTALLING THE XTRIG

With the shock gently clamped in the vice upside down, first push the rubber bump stop up a little bit on the shock shaft.

Attach the Motion Pro Spring Compressor to the bottom eyelet of the shock and then adjust the two sliding plates to grab the spring.

Next, just simply start turning the big hex nut. This will pull up on the shock shaft and push down on the spring. At a certain point you’ll have enough room to reach in and pull out the aluminum shock collar.

At this point you can unscrew the tension on Motion Pro and remove it and then the spring and spring washer and then clean and inspect everything.

IF you have a KTM 690 Enduro R I can next save you a bunch of time figuring out the install set up with just two things.

#1: The XTRIG comes with two different length dowel pins. Generally they are shipped with the shorter one installed. Swap out the shorter one for the longer one. Use the longer one.

#2: Next you are going to be wondering where the best place to mount it so that you can get to the adjuster easily. You have around 360 options but trust me. Mount it so that the pin is as close to the shock reservoir as you can get. This was my first attempt and it was close. I actually took it all apart again and moved it a few mm closer (clockwise) to get it right.

As for how far up on the shock to mount it – I have the proper spring rate for my fully loaded bike and my fully loaded self. It’s a 10.0 nm spring. Because of this I know I should be closer to the top of the shock rather than towards the bottom. If you had a softer spring you would need more preload and so you would be closer to the bottom – right?

So my starting point for the top was just a few threads from the top. Yours might need to be different.

Just remember wherever you decide, that you want to ‘clock’ the dowel pin as close as you can to the reservoir.

Next clamp the top ring of the Xtrig into place making sure it’s properly threaded. Yes, you can clamp it while also cross threading, so just don’t.

Now assemble your spring back on the shock, attach the Motion Pro again and add tension enough to compress the spring and slip in the Shock Collar.

Note: the opening on the Shock Collar should go opposite from the end of the spring. Looking at the spring, if the end is at 12:00 o’clock the opening of the collar should be at 6 o’clock.

With it all together you can now grab an 8mm socket and test to see if the XTRIG goes up and down without binding. I actually put my socket in a drill (NOT AN IMPACT DRILL) and spun it up and down that way. It worked great!

Remember my arbitrary 50 mm guess at where my old spring sat on the shock body. I am at 37 mm but can easily move that up to 32 mm or down to whatever I need. If I need less than 32 I still have a few threads that I can back the locking collar up to.

Satisfied that everything is good, now for maybe the last time, you can install the shock unit back into the bikes and re attach everything.

IF you put that dowell pin close to the shock reservoir like I showed you, the XTRIG adjuster nut will be right here. Check to see that you can get a 8mm socket on it. My first install was just a hair too close to the frame and I could not so I had to do it all over again.

And that’s all there is to it!

Next up for me is to pack all my camping gear, get fully dressed, attach the Slacker and set my sag to the proper 83mm which now is going to take just a few seconds to get pin point right.

This is saving me hours and hours of time and cost me an even $360 (172 + 188) but it was all worth it!

Don’t tell my wife (please).