Suspension set up

Hi mate, I recently bought an RSV and found the suspension set up all wrong for me. I only weigh 9 stone so have this problem with all bikes I have owned/ridden. The first thing I did was put all the settings back to the manufacturers default (you can find these in the manual that came with the bike).

Take the bike out and see how it feels.

First thing I would adjust is the front and rear preload. This was important for me due to my low weight. Before when I sat on the bike there was no sag at all. Now it sags a little when I sit on it which is what you want.

Take the bike out again and see how it feels.

Next thing would be the compression and rebound damping adjustment. Do these two seperately not at the same time.

My best tips would be:

1) Only change 1 thing at a time and make a record of what you have changed so you can put it back if it is all wrong
2) Only make small adjustments at one time
3) Make sure when you test the ride that you cover all sorts of ridding that you normally do
4) Take your time getting it right, I adjusted mine over the course of 2 weeks. Making a change then ridding for a couple of days. Make another change etc.

This is the guide I used

http://www.moto-racing.co.uk/Guides/motorcycleSuspensionSetup.htm

good luck

or use our Griffs own guide
http://www.rsvzone.com/forums/showthread.php?7123-Suspension-set-up....help-needed/page2

as below
http://rsvzone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=842&d=1239382660

Start at one end, don't adjust more than one thing at a time. Write down what you have so if you hash it you can always go back to what it was.

Try the road settings in the book, then maybe the race settings in the book, see which one you like best and soften it or harden it to get to a happy medium?

As I understand it, to simplify it a bit. The Compression controls the rate at which the bike goes down the shock or compresses, the rebound controls how fast it comes back up to normal. This way of thinking has helped me get in the ballpark. The tough bit is figuring out what bit is doing the wrong thing!!!

I'm no expert, take it easy, hope that helps!

I decided to check mine the other day after seeing a few posts on this subject and was surprised how much the front was out . Decided to go off standard settings ( 1.5 turns of the screw at the top of the leg ) but not had chance to try yet , Had to turn the screw around 3 times . Thought theres was something up as the screws were not in the same position .

At the moment my front is fairly in the middle between road and race settings, but my rear has more compression than the race setup in the manual and has quite a lot of rebound on it too. I'm only 78kg and with the Jester rear end the back is so light now!!

Im always bothered about messing with suspension settings , not exactly a guru at this kind of thing . I know the other week I adjusted the rebound the wrong way on the rear shock , softer and the bike was squirming a bit on the back a bit so put it back as soon as I could . I think we have to remember these are sports bikes so any bumby roads will be felt even more as I found out whilst out with a friend on his " softer " er5 .

floakey said:

Im always bothered about messing with suspension settings , not exactly a guru at this kind of thing . I know the other week I adjusted the rebound the wrong way on the rear shock , softer and the bike was squirming a bit on the back a bit so put it back as soon as I could . I think we have to remember these are sports bikes so any bumby roads will be felt even more as I found out whilst out with a friend on his " softer " er5 .

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Went for a ride before it started whizzing it down after altering the suspension and ended up at the local ape dealer. had a natter to clear a few things so currently the bikes set slightly over race settings according to the book but I wont know for a couple of weeks , off to get some sunshine next week