God damn suspension

As most people know when my bike is on the side stand its pretty upright. So this morning, after a night on the juice, i decided to do my suspension for tomorrows ballarat ride.

I've seen and read several suspension setup guides, including the one from the Australian Superbike school.

Are these setup guides for track or road or both?

I did all the adjustments as per the guide went for a spin and ............

ITS ABSOULTE SHIT. THE BIKE FELT LIKE CRAP

the bike doesn't wanna turn as easily as it use too. the arse end is jacked up too much imo.

after a quick spin i came home sore. it felt like i'd been violated from behind with a hand mixer and my stomach was all quizy (alcohol from last night probably didn't help).

also to get the bike to lean while on the stand, i had to compress the spring until about 20mm of thread was showing from the top of the shocker to the locknut on top of the spring? is it compressed too much?

can some one please offer any advice.[/b]

did you write down what the suspension settings were before you screwed around with em?

If you have the service manual there should be the section on standard suspension setting. Myself I was not happy with standard adjustment and from reading from the web generally compression damping should be bit less than rebound damping (the top). Now the bike feels like it's hugging the road .

Btw. setting is now 3 clicks compression, 2 clicks rebound, and 4 "bars" for hardness. I'm 80kg.

Mina get one of the older or Track going blokes to help you set your static sag n loaded sag then start twiddling from there. Cause your a pretty big bloke i dont reckon any normal settings will even come close to what you need. Also lifting the bum is done purely to make it tip into corners quicker it actually will make the steering heavier at slow speeds or when turning the bars due to the change in rake angle. I'm still learning all this stuff myself n it pays to get it done by someone who knows what the hell they are doing.
hth.
Cheers Brett

I just wound all my suspension settings to the hardest setting.
It's perfect.

i was speaking to dan on todays ride and he told me a bout a bloke that does bike suspension at PI, this bloke has a shop in melbourne. so i might take it to him and see what he says.

Dan did point that my rear shocker could be stuffed which i thought that could be the case but i was in denial cos they cost a fortune.

when i had a sit on dans bike it felt like it was bouncy compared to mine which sagged and didnt come up quick. could be a spring...... could be anything.....

will see what this bloke says and take it from there i reckon.

Good luck mate, could just be the spring.. hopefully that's all it is, or better still, just some adjustment to suit your height/weight.



Dan

Well Mrmina, looks like yr in for some fun with the black art of suspension. Best of luck. Just in case no one has yet mentioned it. You can have standard suspension rebuilt very economically. A friend of mine just had n old BMW mono shock rebuilt n it was less than $200 i think. If you are int i will find out n post.

Well.... the story so far....

i rang suspension r us and they are out past cranbourne, but i can get it on a courier for $8.50 (or free if i sent it from work despatch area ) and the shock will cost $250.

i rang vic wreckers and a second hand shock will cost $250.

i rang a local motorbike shop and they put me onto a bloke that will do it for $120 plus the cost of the seal.

so the last option is looking very good, but this bloke mentioned he specialises in mx shockers.

tomorrow i'll ring up a couple of motorbike workshops and see who they use or if they can do it themselves and the prices.

i might ring up brighton kwaka and see what the bloke says.

ps. if anybody has had there shock done (serviced/rebuilt) and were happy with the work please feel free to pass on their number so i can ring them up and have a chat.

Terry Hay from Shock Treatment in Sydney rebuilt a shock for a friend of mine, he was pretty happy with it.

ps. if anybody has had there shock done (serviced/rebuilt) and were happy with the work please feel free to pass on their number so i can ring them up and have a chat.

mate of mine had his zrx11 done @ promecha (sp??) they are in melbourne. other than that maybee check in amcn classifides

more info:

promecha - $120 + seals
Crooze Tune - $160

So it looks like around $150 for a rear shock service which includes oil, re-gas and seals.

I'm happy with that. Hopefully i have the time to get it done soon

when i had a sit on dans bike it felt like it was bouncy compared to mine which sagged and didnt come up quick. could be a spring...... could be anything...

Sounds to me like you may have way too much rebound damping wound on the rear there Mina. Also, if you adjusted the rear spring preload just to get the right amount of lean on the side-stand, that isn't going to do your suspension action any favours.
I'd be trying a few alternative set-ups before spending any money on rebuilds etc.
Maybe go back to standard settings as a start and work from there.

FYI, these are the recommendations from Sports Rider (US mag):
front preload: 4 lines showing
front rebound damping : 9 clicks out
front comp. damping: 4 clicks out
rear preload: 25mm thread showing
rear rebound damping: position 3
rear comp. damping: 19 clicks out

Out of curiosity, what tyre pressures are you running?

Cheers - Tony

Mina, I live about 10 minutes away from Suspensions R US, so if you want I can take your bike to him
I promise I'll take care of it


My suggestion would be to take the suspension back to stock, your owners manual will have the settings for your bike. If you dont have a manual get one. Then take yourself and the bike to a suspension shop. Get chatting to the suspension tech/mechanic and ask him to help you set up your bike.
For a fee they will set the bike up for you. This set up should be spot on. This *should* cost you less than the $150 or so you have been quoted for a rebuild.
When they do this they should be able to tell you if your suspension is in need of a rebuild.
Bring it out to Suspensions R US in Cranbourne and then I'll take you for a ride out my way.

What do you think???