[InvisiBill]

I've seen some people recommend Hagon for the 500. They seem to be much less common in the US though. I had never heard of Nitron before this.

Ohlins and Penske are top of the line, and probably overkill for most commuters. I picked up a used Penske for $400 because it was too good a deal to pass up. Over a year later, it's still waiting to be installed because the NewGen shock's spring rate was such a huge upgrade for me that I haven't been motivated to swap it out.

Holy crap! I bought two used NewGen shocks off eBay for $25 each or less. I wouldn't pay anywhere near £100 for one. The idea here is to get a stock (i.e. "good enough") replacement for dirt cheap, so anything priced near a good aftermarket shock is a bad deal.

It might be worth your time to have someone do the DIY mod for you. Again, it depends on prices over there, but if you can get a GSX-R shock for $40 and pay someone $50 to do the work for you, that's still only £60 (which seems to be the cheapest option by a longshot). I'm not sure how much shipping would be, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone here was willing to pick one up and mod it to fit the 250 for only a small fee to cover their time (with purchase and shipping costs covered, obviously) so you could just bolt it on. While it may not be perfect, it's very cheap and actually beats some of the more expensive aftermarket options on features (e.g. 3-way adjustment). Even though I have less than no need for another shock, I actually thought about picking up a GSXR shock to play with just because they're so cheap.


But the Nitron looks pretty good. If you're willing to spend that much, it should end up being basically a perfect shock/spring for you, with a drop-in install. From what I've seen of Hagon, it should be pretty similar. Hopefully someone with firsthand experience can chime in.

Note that the style of shock pictured for the Nitron and Penske are smaller at the bottom end, so they won't interfere with the dogbones like the larger GSXR shock does. It's just one less thing to worry about.