Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Just reading some of the other posts about suspension work , and I think I need to give a BIG THANKYOU to Ponti, for setting up my suspension on the 12 on the recent WSB run.

Big Kev also runs a 12, and had already had his suspension set up properly prior to this ride.

However, yours truly had left the settings *exactly* as when the bike left the showroom.........#1 reason, I am a lazy prick, and #2 reason, after riding Zeds for the last couple of decades, the suspension on the 12 was just soooooo nice, I left it alone........and simply became used to how it felt.

The boys from Qld were straight onto it when they turned up, and immediately pointed out that the pre-load was set up *way* soft......this was the first adjustment Brett did at Khancoban, and the difference was immediately noticeable.......the bike felt *much* stiffer on the road, and dived far less into corners under braking. Of course, the static sag was checked and the pre-load adjusted to bring it into the required range. To say I was impressed with how easily and quickly old 'Nanna' did this is an understatement......

The second adjustment was to the compression and rebound damping. The compression damping was soft (all the stock settings were soft, which explained why it sometimes felt a bit *vague* at speed, and in the really tight stuff). Brett adjusted the compression damping by about 4 clicks 'harder'. Then the rebound damping - FFS it was 1 click out from softest setting , so it was adjusted up into the 'middle' of the range.........

The diference this made was quite amazing. Front end really felt *planted* now, more road-shocks transmitted through the bars, but overall it was a vast improvement, and I felt a lot more comfortable through the bumpy stuff, trying to hang onto the Crim and Tigger

Last adjustment at Alexandra on Day 2 was to the rear suspension. The static sag was checked and found to be OK, they had actually set up the pre-load correctly before delivery, but the rebound damping was again set soft, so he bunged it up another 3 clicks.

So there you go, all done on the road, with simple tools, if you get on a ride with Nanna and your suspension is *up the shit*, then get him onto the job.........

cheers mate, I have *some* idea now of what its all about.......damn newfangled bikes with all these adjustments, fair dinkum its all too much - give me a 'C' spanner and a set of Koni's !!!

Nice one Gos.

So Nan, what can you do with the GPX for me?

Apart from set it on fire...

Bullshit! straight up

Why?

You are a larger guy right?

Those fork springs from stock are good for fellas to 85kg. I know, yes I do coz mine are on max preload and I am 92+kg and I can show ya scaped fairings and all the rest of the crap the rest of us 12R people did.

You need to get 1.05+ springs for the forks, rear spring funily enough is good for 120kg go figure.

Mate, don't trust them 9R guys especially liars on blue 12Rs, why would ya listen to them, they have no idea how a 12 runs FFS.

Thanks for the Wraps Gos. I've learn't most of what I know about this sorta stuff from the KSRC & it's members. Special thanks to Madkaw in the early days & barrabob of late on his search for suspension excellence of the Barrakind.
It's not hard to do guys, & you can get some huge improvements in your riding.
The Preload is the important one get it close to 35mm (rider sag) for road use & tweak the rebound & compression to suit yourself.
Cheers Brett

Hopefully Barrabob will come along shortly & explain STICTION for you all, thats the only place where you can get messed about a bit.

Jonno wrote:Bullshit! straight up

Why?

You are a larger guy right?

Those fork springs from stock are good for fellas to 85kg. I know, yes I do coz mine are on max preload and I am 92+kg and I can show ya scaped fairings and all the rest of the crap the rest of us 12R people did.

You need to get 1.05+ springs for the forks, rear spring funily enough is good for 120kg go figure.

Mate, don't trust them 9R guys especially liars on blue 12Rs, why would ya listen to them, they have no idea how a 12 runs FFS.

??.

Jonno wrote:Bullshit! straight up

Why?

You are a larger guy right?

Those fork springs from stock are good for fellas to 85kg. I know, yes I do coz mine are on max preload and I am 92+kg and I can show ya scaped fairings and all the rest of the crap the rest of us 12R people did.

You need to get 1.05+ springs for the forks, rear spring funily enough is good for 120kg go figure.

Mate, don't trust them 9R guys especially liars on blue 12Rs, why would ya listen to them, they have no idea how a 12 runs FFS.

105kg........mate these mods worked just fine for me ?? The initial scraping I told you about last year was only small, about 15mm thick and 150mm long, with a couple of long skinny scrapes from front to rear.

Bumping the pre-load up made a *slight* difference to ride height, which resulted in the new patch being higher up the belly-pan, and heaps bigger (almost the size of a ciggie packet). The long scrapes also increased *a bit*, and were also higher ( better ground clearance = more lean angle = higher contact patch on belly pan).

I'm not too fussed about the scrapes, you did say to me last year that this was not uncommon for 12R's with lard-arse pilots , so it was not really unexpected........and its no big deal to me at all , it is more a design flaw from the manufacturer really......

But the mods done did make the bike feel heaps more *settled* , and this just made me feel more comfortable, higher corner speeds, etc. Thats it..... I gotta tell it like I see it mate......

Gosling1 wrote:

Jonno wrote:Bullshit! straight up

Why?

You are a larger guy right?

Those fork springs from stock are good for fellas to 85kg. I know, yes I do coz mine are on max preload and I am 92+kg and I can show ya scaped fairings and all the rest of the crap the rest of us 12R people did.

You need to get 1.05+ springs for the forks, rear spring funily enough is good for 120kg go figure.

Mate, don't trust them 9R guys especially liars on blue 12Rs, why would ya listen to them, they have no idea how a 12 runs FFS.

105kg........mate these mods worked just fine for me ?? The initial scraping I told you about last year was only small, about 15mm thick and 150mm long, with a couple of long skinny scrapes from front to rear.

Bumping the pre-load up made a *slight* difference to ride height, which resulted in the new patch being higher up the belly-pan, and heaps bigger (almost the size of a ciggie packet). The long scrapes also increased *a bit*, and were also higher ( better ground clearance = more lean angle = higher contact patch on belly pan).

I'm not too fussed about the scrapes, you did say to me last year that this was not uncommon for 12R's with lard-arse pilots , so it was not really unexpected........and its no big deal to me at all , it is more a design flaw from the manufacturer really......

But the mods done did make the bike feel heaps more *settled* , and this just made me feel more comfortable, higher corner speeds, etc. Thats it..... I gotta tell it like I see it mate......

Sure ya got some more preload on that thing, of course it will feel better.
To get it spot on you need 1.05 or more fork springs as them standard sukers can only be wound right in on preload and even then they are shitfull. Ponti's way is a temp measure, he aint no hydraulic shock engineer and he does a rough job on the side of the road, ok he improved it some thats an easy thing. Now you gotta get it fine tuned.

Pontikat wrote:

Jonno wrote:Bullshit! straight up

Why?

You are a larger guy right?

Those fork springs from stock are good for fellas to 85kg. I know, yes I do coz mine are on max preload and I am 92+kg and I can show ya scaped fairings and all the rest of the crap the rest of us 12R people did.

You need to get 1.05+ springs for the forks, rear spring funily enough is good for 120kg go figure.

Mate, don't trust them 9R guys especially liars on blue 12Rs, why would ya listen to them, they have no idea how a 12 runs FFS.

??.

Yeer full of shit. how would you know how a 12R runs FFS

...and he can measure you for a new jacket


It's worth rechecking your preload settings too. I know I had checked mine when the bike was new and they were OK, but with over 12,000km under it's belt the Crim was starting to sag a little bit. A couple of rings more preload on the front and it felt sweet again....thanks Nana