Suspension Adjustments

[Ralph]

I am about 100 kg "must eat less pies and bacon butties" and position 7 is about right for me,
I have noticed that the suspension frees up and smooths out after 2000 miles or so.

 

[gregjet]

Bluemachine are you racing an MT07? You lowered it front and rear you said. I have found the weight bias is way too far rearward std. The soggy rear doesn't help. Doing what you did will bring the front back in a bit and move the rear wheel a little back but is that enough? At the moment I am waiting for a Ohlins for the rear and a gold valve for the front, but except for the rear being a little stiffer currently, I suspect the weight bias will still be too far rear. I wait to see. Getting a bit tired of having to ride it motard style, especially as the Aussie version with it's 50hp, couldn't light the rear if you used a blowtorch. ( ECU reflash is happening). Swapping the std exhaust for the snail pipe akra has helped move the weight a bit though.

 

[Gaulois]

HAHAHAHAHA im 105 and havnt touched the suspension, maybe i should?

I will say that you should. Set it up on 3 or 4 clicks and feel it in the next ride. That should do you fine. 131kg with my pillion and 7 clicks came out perfect.
Other wise, when riding alone, I leave it at 7 clicks and it seams alright. But the roads around here don't have pot holes. Just smooth as silk.

 

[Donut]

With kit I'm about 92kg (14stone 7lbs for those of us in UK) and found standard setting (3?) too soft and have upped the preload by 3 to 6 which feels much better. May try softening it by 1 to 5 but seems about right for me now.

 

[menzic]

Great thread, interesting to hear the shared experience. Going to leave mine alone until I get used to it. Being around 80kg stock might be right for me anyway. Ok maybe a little over 80kg but I still have my 'winter weight' and not bikini ready.

 

[Welsh Wizard]

Hi Jateureka,

I note that you had a Wilbers rear shock fitted to your MT-07. As I'm about to receive and fit a Wilbers Type 640 Road rear shock to my MT-07, I'd be really interested to hear what you thought of the difference in suspension performance between the Wilbers and the OEM rear shock.

BTW, I also live in Brisbane (Samford) so if you still have your MT-07 maybe we could catch up for a ride over Mount Glorious.

Regards,

Alan ( aka Welsh Wizard )

 

[Ralph]

It may just be me getting used to it but I find that the rear feels better when pushing on a bit than
when riding at medium speeds.

 

[Noggie]

I was experimenting a little with mine. I'm probably around 105-110kg with all the gear.
The factory setting (3) was way too soft, I went to 6 and it was better, but still vague, I ended up at 8 and there I feel like it's pretty ok there.

But since I also struggle with the very soft forks I may either change the suspension all together or change bike.

 

[Ralph]

Strange thing wile I have bikes were I did not like the forks the ones on the MT dont bother me at all
maybe it's due to me not being hard on the brakes, I had the tyre squeaking the other day though and
apart from a bit of initial dive they did not do anything silly or bottom out, dont think I could have braked
much harder without it locking. Maybe fitting a rear shock would soon have me finding the forks limit.

 

[Noggie]

In the beginning I found the nose dive terrible, every time I touched the brake I felt like the bike would disappear under me.
After a while I changed my braking technique and for normal braking it works relatively fine, emergency braking still sucks.

That aside I do feel it's limitations in corners too, the whole suspension is not very confidence assuring on this bike, and more than once have I come out of a corner and almost soiled myself.
Now the riders weight is probably a huge factor here, so heavier people may have more problems than lighter people, and benefit more from a suspension change.

I will say I did not have these issues on the cb600 and Hornet I rode when I got my license. But I was not riding as hard then. That said the front end dive was not something I noticed on those bikes.

 

[Lausie_d]

There was a brilliant post a while back which essentially worked out which click you should use for your weight.

There was a bit of guestimating involved in that stock setting 3 was probably for a 56kg japanese guy so take that away from max load (click 9) and divide by 6 should give you weight for each setting.

It was pretty spot on for me, although being a londoner and facing so many potholes, I dont mind a slightly spongier set up.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[Viking]

Here are some very useful informations!

FixBroke - Spring preload and sag: what does it really do?

Poslano sa mog LG-H500 koristeći Tapatalk

 

[1a2a3a]

Actually folks, this is how I see it....

The shock + spring itself is thrash AF (lets face it, it is).
GIven the notion that 3 is factory setting for say a 50kg person, but you conditionally accept the fact that the shock is soft. Hence in order to counter the weak shock, you might have to up the click to say 5,6,7 to put yourself in a position of the notion "factory setting of 3 is great for a 50kg guy".

For instance, I weigh 48kg and many people tells me I should set it to like 1 or 2. But somehow something doesn't feels right to me. I went all the way up from 9 and slowly tune down and I realized that 6-7 seems alright for my weight.

Unfortunately for rider weighing 80-100, more often than not, they tried to make do with 9 setting but eventually swap it out for aftermarket exhaust.

Front fork - diving is mad. I swap out the stock fork spring for hyperpro progressive spring (-20mm). Incredibly, diving is no longer an issue.