Set the sag with some friends first. Dial out the compression damping to full soft and then stiffen it up to where it feels good.

 

Lift up the bike some front and rear. Set the sag. Play with the clickers.

A 180 rear tire on the rear tire in place of the 190 that came on the 2000 and up bikes will help you get the bike into the turns.

Have the forks reworked. Install and aftermarket shock or have your revalved. That would make a huge difference.

 

Sag is OK. But(t) :wink: What's causing the bike to want to slap my bottom on bumpy roads?

KC

 

The rear shock has adjustable low speed compression and rebound. You have two hands.........

 

Fine, I hear you, I'll figure it out myself.

Thank you,

KC

 

suspension settings

After 5000 miles I finally looked at my sag settings ( the bike felt great right out of the showroom compared to my other bike). I found the rear was too stiff and the front was too soft. Now everything is adjusted to where it should be and I added about 5mm worth of shims to the rear ride height. It felt great for the short time I had to ride it and then the snow fell, and fell, and fell, and fell. I hoping that the roads will be clean enought in a few weeks to start riding again. The only thing I anticipate is a little tweaking on the compression and rebound settings.

 

Thanks for the input Carey, Mine seems to have the same characteristic but the sag is within spec. I might just dial the preload a little on the rear and see what that does and then tune damping from there.

KC

 

Without being there it is hard to say what it is. There also is no one size fits all adjustment.

I find that most people will just ride the bike and never touch any of the stuff, no matter how much the bike sucks to ride.

I was just trying to say get in there and try making some changes and see what it does. That is the start of the learning process.

 

I got it. Guess what I do for a living? I'm a teacher. Anyway, I just wanted some guidance on what adjustment tends to address what symptom, since I've never had a bike with full adjustments like this. It's sort of like the math teacher giving out the formula for area before the kids try to figure area out. I can take it from there but, I need a little a + b = c.

KC

 

If you're only 155 then I'd suggest that the stock settings are a little stiff right out of the box. I'd back off all the damping settings by one click for compression while leaving the rebound alone for the time being.

To set your static sag you'll need a couple of people to help. The static sag is from the bike actually lifted up so the shock and forks top out to the static position with you on the bike. Fronts are easy. Put a zip tie around the stanchion just tight enough to stay so you can slip it to the extremes. Sit on the bike and bounce it around a little to settle to the final resing spot with you in full gear and on the pegs in the final riding position. Don't forget to crouch a little if you ride that way. You'll need a couple of buds to hold the bike up and one of them will reach down and slide the tie to the top of the slider dust seal. Now carefully get off the bike without pushing on the bars. Have your two buds lift on the bars so the forks top out and measure the difference. That's your front sag. It should be about 1 1/4 inches for our 9's.

The rear is a bit tougher. You'll need to rely on a third helper to measure from the axle center to a screw head on the undertail as directly above the axle as possible. Do two measures. One with you on the bike after you bounce it to settle the sticktion out of it and another while a buddy leans the bike against the side stand to lift the rear wheel off the ground. Again you're looking for 1 1/4 for the street.

Finally your rear shock may have been set too stiff by accident. Turn it out while counting turns until you feel it tighten a little. And I mean just a little or you'll damage the needle seat or whatever is in the shocks and forks. The manual calls for 7 turns on the rear IIRC. For your weight I'd say 2 1/2 or 3 in from full out should do the trick. I believe it came stock 4 turns in from full out.

I don't have my manual in front of me so I'm going from memory here. I'll check it later unless someone chimes in.

 

Stock setting, according to the OM is 8 clicks out from 0 on the rebound and 10 out on the compression damping. They claim these factory settings are for a 68 KG rider, which is about right, but, I'm still getting spanked. If I understand you correctly, the butt-slap is from the compression damping being too stiff, right?

You local? I live in Vancouver, B.C.

KC

 

Geez, I was way out on the click count wasn't I. Must have been for another bike.

Anyway, you're right in that I suspect you've got too much compression damping in the rear. The manual says one thing but now it's time to test it on the bike. Turn the screws in and count. Then turn them out and count to get back to where you were. From there I'd turn out one more turn and go ride to test. I wouldn't go more than 2 turns out without a long term test through corners and over bumps for at least a couple of thousand klicks. Fine tune from there. But I wouldn't go too far or you'll get into other problems with the back end.

But lets remember that it IS a sportbike. You may just have to get used to it. I don't think twice about lifting my backside to go over train tracks and the like to soften the damage to the "seat of knowledge" and perhaps that's the answer in the end.......... (oooh, bad pun)

Yeah I guess we are local to each other. I'm over by Burnaby Kawi. You may know me better by my evil alter ego....... Hi I'm TeeTee......

 

Cool. I think I'll just dial it out full soft and work up from there. That should allow me to feel what the ass-end is doing.

Ah, the evil :evil: article writer from BCSportbike....Now we'll have something to talk about when we meet. My evil twin is "CrotchetyRocket".

KC

 

Here are a couple of how to links!
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/suspensionadjust/
Here are the suggested settings....
http://www.sportrider.com/bikes/146_susp_settings/
Hope this helps