Most standard shocks have a whole catalogue of faults and cannot justify having a single penny spent on them so replacement is the only sensible option.

We can supply shocks from all the leading manufacturers set up specifically for your requirements.

Penske Racing Shocks have been serving the racing industry for over a decade. Using the technology first developed for Indy Car, Penske engineers have designed shock absorbers for all forms of racing. They are fully CNC machined from 7075-T6 aluminium with a hard anodised finish making them both lightweight and strong. They have a heavy-duty 5/8" diameter chrome plated stainless steel shaft with an adjustable length bottom mount to allow the optimisation of the rear ride height without removing the shock from the motorcycle.
Fitted with the best spring available, matched to the rider's weight and adjustable spring pre-load.

There are three models of shocks available, they are of a "modular" construction and share many common parts. The entire body and shaft mechanisms are identical.

The Sport Shock is an emulsion shock for street riders who want a quality replacement shock, but don't intend to use their bike on the racetrack. It is a complete Penske Shock, minus the reservoir, and therefore is not compression adjustable. It retains, normal spring preload, rebound, and ride height adjustment, and can be upgraded to a full race shock at any time in the future. It is available as twin shock or monoshock.

The Model 8981 shock is the standard shock adjustable for spring preload, compression and rebound damping, it can be upgraded to an 8987 should greater performance be required. Available as twin shock or monoshock.

The Model 8987 is the top of the range shock adjustable for spring preload, high and low speed compression and rebound damping.

Adjuster Options

8100 Series Compression Adjuster fitted to the 8981

The 8100 Series adjuster offers a wide range of compression adjustment. When the damper is compressed, the fluid being displaced by the shaft entering the body must pass through the compression adjuster drum and the selected orifice located in the remote reservoir. As the knob is rotated, a drum inside the compression adjuster is rotated, aligning the chosen orifice within the direct flow of oil into the remote reservoir. The adjustment knob is numbered, from one to six. By clicking to the number one position, the adjuster is set at full soft (utilizing the largest hole in the compression adjuster drum). The number six position on the knob denotes a full hard setting (oil flow is greatly restricted).

The redesigned orifices make every adjustment have a noticeable "feel" and have increased the range of adjustment. At higher shaft velocities, oil passes through the orifice in the compression adjuster drum and gets a point of "locking-up". Instead of locking-up and increasing the damping force, a valve in the compression adjuster housing allows for the oil to bleed off, making for a more linear damping force.

8760 Series Compression Adjuster fitted to the 8987

The 8760 Series compression adjuster is the ultimate tuning tool for the professional racer. The 8760 Series adjuster offers separate adjusters for both high and low speed shaft movements. The high speed adjuster controls larger track inconsistencies while the low speed adjuster controls slow shaft movements such as pitching.

When the damper is being compressed, the fluid is being displaced into the adjuster and passes through a piston in the adjuster. When adjusting the high speed, the secondary valve shims are being preloaded, giving you different compression forces. The low speed adjustment meters the fluid that bypasses the piston in the adjuster, providing an adjustable combination of bleed and shim controlled damping.

In effect, the combination of a low speed and high speed adjustments will offer the ultimate tuning combination.

On bikes with heavily braced swing arms it is often necessary to remove the shock to adjust the preload. This kit fits on to the bottom of the shock which is more accessible allowing the preload to be adjusted with the shock in place.

Supermoto suspension tuning, until now, has been ruled by compromise. In this multi-faceted form of racing including road sections, dirt sections, and motocross style jumps, suspension tuners have been forced to compromise toward either motocross, or roadracing settings to suit rider preference. Either direction has involved less than optimal tuning characteristics at some point on the racetrack. The Penske Supermoto Damper has been developed over the past year in Pro and Amateur racing, providing a no-compromise suspension setup for this challenging form of racing.

The Supermoto series damper comes standard with Penske’s Velocity Dependent Piston (VDP), giving Penske riders the benefits of both motocross and roadrace setups without the negative compromise of each. Firm linear low speed damping provides a stable “roadrace” style platform for road sections. A stable platform allows for consistent corner entries, early throttle application, and better drive out of corners. When transitioning to dirt sections, a typical firm “roadrace” setup will lose traction and leave the rider with a numb, harsh feel. The VDP provides a digressive damping curve in these areas to eliminate harshness and inspire rider confidence. Finally, to provide bottoming resistance when landing motocross style jumps, the VDP damping increases progressively at higher velocities. This three-stage damping setup instills the confidence necessary to attack all portions of the racetrack without compromise.

The Supermoto Damper comes standard with a 1” rear ride height reduction from OEM ride height. In addition, our ride height adjuster, which has proven so valuable on our roadracing shocks, has been built in to allow for up to 1.25” of adjustment at the rear wheel without removing the shock from the bike, or changing spring preload! This proves to be extremely valuable in finding that handling “sweet spot” that is different at every track.

The Supermoto Series Damper offers desirable features that are not available on typical “re-worked” stock suspension. Damping is triple adjustable, offering high and low speed compression adjustment as well as a single rebound adjuster. The Penske Supermoto Damper is up to 2-1/2 pounds lighter than OEM dampers that it replaces. Further weight savings of up to 5- 1/2 pounds can be achieved with an optional Titanium spring.

Delivering a no-compromise setup and unmatched adjustability in a high quality package, the Penske Supermoto Damper is the ultimate in suspension available for Supermoto today.

All coil springs look similar but there are huge differences not immediately apparent or visible to the naked eye.

Hypercoils are a different product than other springs on the market. They are manufactured from the best materials to closer tolerances. A wider range of wire sizes are available from stock so proper sizes are selected to optimize the designs.

In addition to multiple inspections, Hypercoils undergo an exacting heat treat and shotpeening process to ensure accuracy. The inside diameter of the end coils are beveled to keep the spring from hanging up on the shoulder of the spring seat. Reliable and accurate, Hypercoils are lightweight and generally offer more deflection. And most importantly, they will not lose free length. This is especially important in production based classes where it is impossible to have an advantage in the chassis itself.

Increasingly the advantages are in the details and the components selected for the chassis. Suspension setup/components is an area all top competitors exploit as a performance advantage. To gain an edge, high quality, consistent suspension coils are essential.

An inherent characteristic of coil springs is that they produce a lateral, or sideways, load due to their not being able to distribute their load forces evenly around the face of the end coils when used with fixed position perches. This lateral loading manifests itself as a bending load with the result being highly increased frictional forces within the damper, these extra friction result in lowered tire grip levels, and greater tire wear.

The assembly allows the end coils of the spring to tilt (up to 4 degrees) as compressive loads are applied, and the hydraulic pressure centralizes the load around the centerline of the shock absorber. The result is that up to 96% of the bending load on the shock absorber is eliminated, with attendant increases in mechanical grip.

Units are currently available in two basic types; add-on’s and full replacement. The add-on style can be used with any existing shock absorbers just by fitting between the existing spring perch and the spring, whereas the full-replacement style totally replaces the existing perch. Currently, full-replacement perches are available for Penske and Ohlins shock absorbers.

This spring is the highest-quality lightweight spring you can buy anywhere. Typical weight saving is 1kg over a steel spring, the important thing about the weight saving is that half of the spring is unsprung weight. Reducing the unsprung weight enhances ride control and reduces tyre wear.

The performance advantages of titanium springs goes beyond the 40 to 60% weight savings over steel springs. Advanced data recovery systems have proven that titanium springs enhance shock performance and wheel control through improved dynamic response.

Riders talk of the improved feel, reduced wheel hop, and better grip provided by titanium springs. These characteristics are the benefits of reduced weight and inertia. Every motion of the suspension sends a shock wave, or surge, up the spring. Surge is never a good thing, it works against the damping action of the shock absorber, at low speed this can show up as fishtailing and wheel hop, at high speeds it shows up as suspension induced vibration. Titanium springs because of their reduced mass and higher natural frequency have been tested to exhibit one fifth of the surge energy of comparable steel springs, giving riders more confidence and better acceleration.

Manufactured from the finest quality aerospace material, it has been uniquely designed to reduce stress and fatigue on the spring making it the most linear on the market. The material has been extensively endurance tested and does not suffer from any loss of rate or free length.

A dampers purpose is to absorb energy and convert it in to heat. Heat affects damping in a number of ways, oil viscosity changes becoming thinner as the temperature rises, heat also changes the density of the fluid due to expansion, and mechanical tolerances also change with temperature.

Manufacturers incorporate temperature compensation devices into their dampers which are effective at higher temperatures typically above 60°C. However track testing has revealed that it can take anywhere from 4 to 10 laps to reach this temperature dependant upon operating conditions. Shock dyno testing carried out by ourselves and Penske Racing Shocks has revealed that damping force can decrease by 10% during this warm up period. This means that the damper operation at the start of a race will be much stiffer than at the end of the race.

Pre-heated shock absorbers will ensure consistent damping performance throughout a race, improve tyre wear and increase rider confidence.

The warmer simply wraps around the shock body and fastens with Velcro. It will heat the shock to 60­*c in 45 minutes, and is fitted with a long loop for quick removal.

It is available in two lengths for coil-over and non coil-over shocks.