Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

You're probably closer to the 9 stone weight of your average Japanese test rider than most around here.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Yep, the forks at least should be about right for you, I can't remember the details for the rear. But damping might be the issue rather than springs here.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Thanks for that Northwind, am i right in thinking damping is affected by different grade fork oil?

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Aye, that's right. But I'll be honest here, I really don't know what would be recommended for yourself. Front end will be more or less right, I imagine, rear I have no clue.

I've been riding around thinking "Hmm, is it just me or does my rear shock feel stiff?" Turns out I've lost nearly 2 stone since I had it built, so it's just a tad oversprung :)

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Now there's an idea, if i double my intake of pies and Mars bars should help the damping by next spring!

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

I'm 9 stone and i find standard stuff perfect, well upgraded standard stuff :D

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

HI ukhammy,
Just cos its a Sport you are not expected to be like Rossi.Your suspension is probably set too hard.I`ve had lots of experience of many different bikes over many years and I`ve read loads of tosh about suspension setups.I`m about your weight and this is what works for me on my K3 naked afer trying various settings with standard tyre pressures. Position 4 front and postion 2 rear (I use position 1 rear sometimes).I don`t carry pillion passengers very often.I`ve also fitted longer dog-bones (from Banditmania) to lower the back end.It handles well and is rock steady when ridden hard.These settings work for me and would work for lots other SV owners too I guess.Try softening it one setting at a time until you find one that suits you.


Cheers

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

The SV can't be "softened", that's preload adjustment not damping.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Hi northwind, Let`s try and keep it simple! I think most of us are in the picture.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

same here for my weight 10 stone ish i find standard factory settings ok.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Thanks for all the suggestions, have adjusted front and rear a notch today and feels a tad smoother. Was probably expecting a bit too much in the first place, would be better getting the highways agency to smooth out our roads a bit! (not that theres a hope in hell of that happening :-) )

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

I have the same bike K6 Sport can someone pease explain how chaging the settings helps1 I am newbie not had my bike that long and the Sv is my first big bike! I also weight 10 stone (65kg) I want to know if there is anything I can thing can to do to give more confidence on the bike, more comfort etc...I don't plan on taking pillions either.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Bluethunder, what you need is a guide to what is called sag- all the adjustment the SV has is preload adjustment, and this is for adjusting the sag- basically, how much suspension travel the bike uses up just sitting there with you on it. You want this to be set so that the forks can both compress (ie when you hit a bump) and extend (if you ride off an edge, ie, into a pothole or dip in the road, or the centre crown of a cambered road). So all you're doing is making sure the bike starts in the right place, you can't actually change what it does once it starts to bounce without changing parts.

There's a million guides to this, and unfortunately lots are b*****s :rolleyes: But this is OK, Thede is a little free with terminology like "firm" unfortunately but the actual article is good

http://www.triumphnet.com/st/acc/racetech/setup.htm

No offence, but I think it's more important to keep it accurate- remember that though you might well be in the picture a lot of people aren't, you'll get people reading these posts who don't know how to work the c-spanner never mind how to set the suspension up...

And as I think you probably do know, preload just doesn't adjust stiffness, it adjusts the starting point of travel. It can be used to trick the brain into thinking the bike is stiffer, by reducing the rider sag, but not without messing up the bike's handling- running wide in bumpy corners is no fun but that's a likely consequence of running too little sag, we nearly lost one of the SV Ecosse rideouts to this one day, he very nearly ended up under a car.

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

Hi northwind, Its interesting reading your latest post.It sounds as though you know what you`r talking about.But,what can you suggest to ukhammy and bluethunder to help with with their `problem" as per their original posts?

cheers

Re: Suspension for a Lightweight!
 

I'm not really good enough to say, not that familiar with the pointies either- I have a good idea of what works based on my own experience, but that was based on being an 11 and a half stone geezer on a curvy. And what I did was, I replaced every single suspension component bar the linkage, so really that's not too useful :)

But, if I was them, I would start by setting the sag, mainly because that's all the adjustment they have without replacing parts. Then I'd see how that works out, play with it a little in both directions. Then, if I was still unhappy, I'd look further into maybe swapping the shock, mucking about with oil, emulators perhaps. I don't buy the theory lots of people have that the SV suspension's rubbish, it's not great but when it's set up right it's functional and reasonably effective.