Suspension adjustments experience.

[Guest Janusz]

My weight being 235 lbs I knew that the factory suspension set up was not able to cope and needed adjustment. With my sometimes aggresive riding the bike felt overwhelmed in some turns. Unfortunately the usual step one, preload adjustment for a proper sag, seemed impossible for lack of access. The factory tool is simply useless.

 

Finally last week when replacing cracked side body panels (warranty replacement) and having fuel tank off I took a flat screwdriver and a hammer and started tapping locking collar - simple and easy! By tightening adjusting collar one full turn my sag decreased from 48 mm (horrible) to 44 mm (still not enough). As a curiosity under my 158 lbs son the stock bike was sagging 33 mm which I think is just about perfect. For the proper sag measurments an original MG paddock stand is indispensable.

 

The front sag is 35.5 mm measured and I will leave it at that. Forks stiction was 13 mm (not bad, oil replacement at first 1000 km didn't hurt them) and rear one was 1.5 mm; really excellent, the rear linkage has almost no drag.

 

Now was the fun time to play with damping setting and I am still experimenting here. So far my only advice here would be to take ALL the damping to zero and, carefully, take it for a spin. It is a real eye opener and helps to understand what this whole damping business is all about. Then you can gradually introduce damping in the quest of finding your personal sweet spot.

 

My bike is now sitting at almost factory rebound and both compression dampings slightly (3 clicks) tighter then factory was.

 

Of course you need to make lots of notes in the process and be sure about your arithmetics.

 

If my rambling was boring or unnecessary I want to apologize but today is raining here and I rather not go for a ride this time.

 

One more thing; even such a minimal rear sag decrease made a difference in the bike's ability to turn in easier which is a very good thing for me.

[Guest hyper]

To many the art of setting up suspension is a black art. I am a pro level roadracer with approx 20 years of track time, to stay competitive you are constantly buying new bikes and having to set them up. Track time is valuable and the ability to get your bike in the sweet zone asap is very important. Here is what I do.

Step 1, Set up sag 30mm rear 35mm front

Step 2, Set front damping adjusters to their middle settings, example,if you have 20 clicks of adjustment set it at 10

Step 3, Set your rear shock at its softest compression setting,

Step 4, Set your rear shock at a soft rebound setting,example, if you have 20 clicks try 5 clicks from full soft

Step 5,Find a second or third gear corner that you love and are very comfortable with, mid corner get on the gas, it should squat down and stay at that position with no wallow. It will probably wallow(pogo up and down) at this soft setting. Stiffen up the rebound 2 clicks and try again. When it stops wallowing go to the next step.

Step 6,Find a bumpy section of road and stiffen up the compression damping until you get the feel you desire, a comprimise between bottoming out and a harsh bone jarring ride

Step 7,Set your front compression damper on full soft, set your rebound adjuster on a soft setting, example, click 5 of 20

Step 8,Find a approx. 70 mph corner that you can ride aggressivly, as you turn into the corner and the weight loads up the front you will probably notice that it will compress the fork and then pop up, you will want to stiffen up the rebound until it stays settled.

Step 9,stiffen up the compression until the fork dosn,t bottom under hard braking .Take a small zip tie and put it around your fork so you can see how much travel you are using.

 

Hopefully this helps you out, for riding aggessivly on the street this should be good enough for 90% of riders. For the other 10% go to the track and enter the dark side of suspension tuning, Example, fork oil level, shim stacks, ride heights etc.

Good luck ,

Hyper

[Guest v11eric]

Hyper,

 

Thanks for the lecture on setup. Youre step's are very logic and i'm convinced i'll find a better setup, or come back to standard settings after following youre steps. Only step 5, does our shaftdriven v11's squat down after opening the trottle?? I thought it would wanna comeup at the rear??

 

start testing after tyrechance

 

Eric

01 V11 Lemans

[Guest hyper]

Eric,

With our floating rear ends we get little or no shaft drive effect, the V11 when set up with too much sag has some jacking but its still fairly well controlled for a shafty. Set your sag and it may not be a GSXR but its very good in my opinion. The big thing with step 5 is to try and get the back end to settle down under power and not pump up and down. You will have to ride fairly agressively thats why I always recomend you pick acorner that you are comfortable with and is safe if you have a oops. Modern motorcycles are so good that even if the setup is way out the rider will probably never know the difference if he's just learning to ride. The best place to set up your bike is at the track, go to a track day and usually if you run off the track you ride off into afield ,turn around and try it again. Good luck with your setup and don't be scared to adjust the settings on your bike. They can always be put back to the stock or otherwise position. Have fun with it. Thanks, Hyper

[Guest jimjib]

You wouldnt belive how bad the ride is on the scura...this valving is just way off. I have an appointment next week for some major tweeks.

[Guest hyper]

Jimjib, Please let us know how it turns out and what they've done. I went for agood rip last night on apoorly maintained secondary road that is very rough. It was approx. 120 miles roundtrip, halfway through the ride my arms were ready to fall of, the rear suspension on the rosso is pretty good but that front suspension is just too harsh on really rough roads. Over the next couple of weeks i'm going to try some things. I,m pleased with the rebound side but not so pleased with the compression side.On smooth pavement you can just rip,the only thing slowing you down is fear but when it gets rough the bike is whats slowing me down. I will let you know what the score is when I get all my ducks in a row. Thanks, Hyper

[Guest Scura Owner]

Jimjib-Who is doing your suspension work? As indicated in an earlier post, I am not happy with the suspension. On the fork, I have the preload max'ed out and still have about 45 mm of sag. The spring rates are too soft and there is not enough of preload adjustment. Given the stock spring rates and preload, the stock settings are in the ballpark. With the rearend, I left the preload as since it matched the front-end sag. I am running the minimum compression and stock rebound.