…well me too! :excited May be we can help each other out.
Trying to organize something for 6/23 and see if someone also need their suspension done like basic measurements, SAG, pre-loads and may be hydraulics and don’t mind meeting at my garage near SUNY Main Campus in Albany.
Date: June 23. Weather looks good.
Time: 1pm
Location: PM me with contact info (email or mobile) if interested.
Thanks.
You know I’m game if and when the schedules allign.
I wish I was in albany. I definitely need a second pair of hands to set my sag 
we can do that again when you are back.
i’m no bike suspension pro but if you want to stop over anytime next week, I finally just about have my garage all set up. We’ll have tons of room. I don’t need anything done with my bike a.t.m. but I’m always willing to lend a hand.
Just let me know. I’m usually home by 4:30 every day during the week.
i kno this may be a dumb question but do you have to set up your suspension if you’re not taking your bike on the track and just steet riding?
Hey, thanks for the offer. I need it done for my race sv so I won’t be able to ride it… :giggle
You don’t have to, just like you don’t have to set up your tv when you got one; It will be wrong 95% of the time and if you don’t know what it should be, you can never tell the difference can’t your.
A lot of people ride with completely wrong suspension set up right off the showroom and never touch a knob on their suspension for as long as they own the bike.
Yes please! I still need to adjust my penske shock! Sending PM shortly.
you should be good with the OEM settings unless you do some aggressive riding
at the moment mine is set to the softest settings, and no preload. the only thing I would change for the street is preload, but compression and rebound damping you can usually leave alone for now. (But if your forks are bottoming out on big bumps or while braking hard, you must definitely add some compression damping. a zip tie on the fork leg will tell you how far the fork travel is while riding).
also, if you buy a bike used, check to see if the previous owner changed any of the settings. your owner’s manual will usually tell you what the OEM settings are. (when I bought my R6, the prev owner had set the suspension to the stiffest settings, and the bike felt a million times more comfortable after I softened everything up).
If nothing else, most bikes from the factory are set with their ‘recommended’ settings, given their recommended riders’ weight, positioning, etc.- many times, even if you are a rider of average experience, you can tell from riding a bike with suspension that’s adjusted for your weight or not- the best example I can think of is when you ride a bike that is setup for your weight, position, style, etc- you feel like you are sitting “in” the bike, as opposed to “on top” of the bike. If nothing else, safety is one good reason to adjust your suspension.
Let me know Aaron, last time we spent the whole time on my bike, so I owe ya!
Nah man, you’r good. Owe is such a big word, but if you have time feel free to come an BS for a while.
Going back to OEM suspension setting, it is only may be kinda work for a certain group of rider weight, and most likely all the damping will be wrong. If you have the weight of a half eaten burrito like me or kind of heavy, most likely the OEM setting will be way off.
Also the OEM setting is set for bikes with fresh fluid, if you have no clue how old your fork/shock oil is, most likely the OEM setting will not work.
Not that I am an expert, just base on the info I came across.
how exactly do you “custom” set it for yourself? Does it just go by feel or is there a specific ratio for setting vs weight, etc.?
You adjust your preload to adjust for certain SAG number range depends of the type of riding and your weight on whatever spring rate you have now. That will tell you if you are in the range or if the spring rate is too low or high for your weight and the type of riding.
All the hydraulics will be tuned base on feel and some visual cues. The target is to make sure all the suspension hydraulics is neither over nor under damping your suspension. The difficult part is more than often you will have to bandaid the lack of or too much spring rate, especially for OEM springs which is not custom for the rider’s weight.
One thing most people are confused about spring rate (linear spring) is the rate is constant and you simply cannot “cure” or compansate for having a wrong spring rate with the preload. Adjusting the preload does not and will not change your spring rate. There is a reason why having the “correct” spring rate is critical.
Hope this helps.
Yea… I’ll have to have some of you guys come over sometime (or if I can get over there next week I’ll have to join you) because I’m still pretty much clueless… lmao
That’s easy, you are not far from where I am at. I ride to harbor freight all the time, I can stop by anytime.
I know nothing about bike suspension but I would like to get mine set up, it’s factory settings just feels a little stiff.
How much do you weight? 2010 675SE right?
I wouldn’t mind getting mine done as well I suppose.
165
2011 SE 675