Suspension Settings SP2 - ongoing tweaks

[Mono]

Hi All,

I decided to have a play with the suspension settings on the SP as its a bit of a bucking bronco ride on the UK roads! I notice it more due to riding an 07 blade and having the direct comparision between the 2 bikes. Also riding for a while both road/ track you get a feel on how a bike should feel or not feel.

Ok this thread will be ongoing but thought I would share some of the set up and how I'm doing it and some of my conclusions. Im no expert... but I guess most of us are not on the forum.

First thing was to measure the Static/ Rider Sag. This is how I did it. I found this website a great help to understand the basics and what I needed to do.

http://www.gostar-racing.com/informatio ... set-up.htm

This is what you want to be aiming for as a rough guide for road riding:-
Front:-
Rider Sag = 35-48mm
Static Sag = 25-30mm

Rear:-
Rider Sag = 30-40mm
Static Sag = 5-10mm

To give you an idea, my bike is an 02 model SP2 its done around 11K, I think the suspension/springs are all standard and assume its the original fork oil from new (unless the fork seals have been changed in this time?) I am about 13.5 stone with all my bike kit on.

After putting the bike on the standard settings from the owners manual as the base point to measure the sag, the conclusion I found that the front end springs are too soft and the rear spring is way too hard.

These are the standard settings:-

Front:-
Preload - 6 turns from soft
Rebound - 1 turn from hard
Compression - 12 turns from hard

Rear
Preload - setting 5
Rebound - 1 turn from hard
Compression - 10 turns from hard

After a while of tweaking and measuring the sag to get it near to the mid points, I have changed my preload settings. As you can see this fits with my conclusions above, ideally I could do with some better springs in the front end and a softer spring on the rear as Im on the limit of the adjustment at both front/ rear ends.
Front:-
Measured Rider Sag = 44mm
Measured Static Sag = 38mm

Rear:-
Measured Rider Sag = 34mm
Measured Static Sag = 8mm

Front:-
Preload - 1/4 turn from hard
Rebound - 1 turn from hard
Compression - 12 turns from hard

Rear
Preload - setting 1 (softest)
Rebound - 1 turn from hard
Compression - 10 turns from hard

The next thing is the check how the bike reacts to pushing the suspension up and down, ideally you want the bike to be similar front/ rear. So grab the bars and seat and push down on the bike and see how it comes back to settle. I found that the front end was slower to come back up than the back end. So I had a play with the rebound damping. I found that only small adjustments are needed and it makes a big difference to the suspension if you do a full turn out for example.

These are my final settings, the bike seems to be more at one now and I only had to turn 1/2 turn out on the front rebound to get the front/ rear in sync. The next step is to go for a test ride and see how it feels then I will see if I need to tweak the rebound/ compression as the oil will warm up and probably have some effect on the damping.

Front:-
Preload - 1/4 turn from hard
Rebound - 1.5 turns from hard
Compression - 12 turns from hard

Rear
Preload - setting 1 (softest)
Rebound - 1 turn from hard
Compression - 10 turns from hard

I hope this might help people and maybe good to share what settings people are running and how they find it. I think the SP1 will be completely different so probably better to run a separate thread so it doesnt confuse people too much. As when I was doing it it was very easy to confuse yourself

Cheers Al

[Dmac]

Good work AL

I would be no expert either, but that does't stop me from messing with stuff

Totally agree with your findings. The rear spring is too stiff and the front I am still not sure what's going on.

The standard settings are nuts, way too harsh over the bumps and no sag on the rear and don't ask me about the front.

I sat on the new BMW s1000 at the bike show a while back, the way it just squated down by about an inch front and back was great, but showed how hard the rear spring on the SP2 is.

I did much the same as yourself,

Rear spring preload set to minium, front preload about half way - still messing with it.

Then I backed the rebound and compression damping way off, and then increaced it step by step as needed.

The adjustements do make a noticable difference, I am down to quarter turns on the rebound and 3 clicks at a time on the compression.
Nearly there now - still tweaking and adjusting tyre pressures too.

I will check my settings later on and list them here for comparison

[Dmac]

I dragged my ass out to the bike to check the settings,

Front:-
Preload - 6 turns from hard - work in progress!
Rebound - 1.5 turns from hard
Compression - 24 turns from hard

Rear
Preload - setting 1 (softest)
Rebound - 1.5 turns from hard
Compression - 18 turns from hard

All of these are still work in progress, but not too far off for me, road use and approx 12 stone geared up.

still experementing with the front, but the rear is not too bad at these settings.

[Strappy]

Interesting. Now, I'm a bat fastard which might explain why my rear preload is set to 8 while you skinny types have it down on 1. I found that was the best setting for me to get into the right ball park for sag plus it makes the shock damping work properly. I've got the other settings written down in the garage but it's cold and I can't be arsed to go out there right now

[wild01]

Its one thing I've never played with on my SP. She handles beautifully so I've never seen the need. However, the spring and forks are long over due for some tlc. I reckon the forks are in desperate need of new oil, perhaps my next project. As for the rear shock, hell they are so expensive!

[Strappy]

Have a word with one of the suspension experts, MCT, Kais, K-Tech or the like. I'd be amazed if you can't get the shock rebuilt with an appropriate spring and a good service for less than a replacement shock.

[Mono]

Hi All,

I have managed to get out and do about 100 miles over the weekend and get a feel for the new suspension set up. It has made a big difference to the ride how ever its still too harsh over the bumps and ends up in knots on a bumpy road. The back end is feeling OK but the front is still too harsh. I cant back off on the preload as Im on 1/4 turn from full hard setting and am about 10mm from bottoming the forks out according to the cable tie guide on the fork leg.

So Im gradually backing off the compression and rebound to a softer setting.

@DMAC, think we are on the same lines with the set up.

As a comparison I thought it would be a good idea to check the sag on my 07 blade, well this was a bit of a surprise the bike didnt need touching was perfect with the out of the crate settings for my weight. Maybe this is why the blade feels so nice to ride in comparison.

So with this in mind I can try to get the SP set up with a similar feel to the blade as this seems to be a good base line for me. Also would make it easier jumping on each bike to have them set up closely.

Will post up again once I have done some more fiddling.

This is where I am after a 3rd attempt with the tweaking

Front:-
Preload - 1/4 turn from hard
Rebound - 1 3/4 turns from hard
Compression - 16 turns from hard

Rear
Preload - setting 1 (softest)
Rebound - 1 1/2 turn from hard
Compression - 14 turns from hard

[Sppete]

Keep Tweaking Mono
I think you will end up in the same position as me and from your first post I think you have already hit the nail on the head.
We're about the same weight and after half a summer of tweaking, when I had the feel that I wanted, I kept bottoming out the spring when ever I either hit a bump or had to do an emergency stop on anything less than perfect tarmac.
In the end I spent £100 quid on the Hyperpro progressive fork kit and have never looked back since. In my opinion it's how the bike should have been sold from new. All I can say is it's bloody brilliant and has transformed the bike for road use.
You can make do with the rear shocker misbehaving occasionally but the front has to go where you point it and behave how you expect it to. Give yourself a treat, you won't regret it any of you

Pete

[Mono]

Hey all,

I did a bit more testing at the weekend. Was difficult due to the bloody wind and no it wasnt the curry from the night before

After some playing around with the settings changing the compression wasnt really doing anything on the improvements. I think the SP suspension struggles to deal with the multiple bumps. So I started playing more with the softer rebound settings.

My conclusion with the rebound is this is the way to go, it feels like the suspension isnt reacting to the bumps quick enough/ eg the suspension isnt returning quick enough and this is why it feels like riding a pneumatic drill

So I feel happy with these settings now:-

Front:-
Preload - 1/4 turn from hard
Rebound - 2 1/4 turns from hard
Compression - 14 turns from hard

Rear:-
Preload - setting 1 (softest)
Rebound - 1 3/4 turn from hard
Compression - 10 turns from hard

The bike feels nicer to ride now, I have also reduced the rear tyre pressure to 38 instead of 41 which also has made a small improvement.

So if you are about 13 stone you could try this set up and see what you think. Obviously you can tweak it to suit your own riding style. For road riding I dont ride to the limit so would say I ride medium/ fast and do say 60-100 miles on a ride out. This was always saved for the track on the GSXR6 where I would push it. But I think the older I get the faster I was.

@ Pete,

I think you are right, the springs in the front are crap, Also looking at the forks on my bike I think its probably never been touched as there are no marks on the anodised nut. So probably have the original fork oil/ seals which are about 10-11 years old now! so probably not helping either. I think I might invest in some new springs and fork oil change at some point.

[Sppete]

Glad you've found something you like for the time being Mono.
No point in wasting those beer tokens before you're sure

Keep it rubber side down

Pete