Adjusting rear suspension
 

My 02 SV60S has never been tampered with. My lover sometimes likes to join me on the bike and I reckon its a bit soft at the back with 2 of us. Anything I can do about it

Chris

yeah don't carry the lover on it :lol: :lol: :lol:
sorry i cant help not very good with the tech stuff :?

You'll certainly be wanting to up the preload on the back a bit.
On a K4 I think I have mine set at about 5. I would personally try about three quarters towards the hardest setting and see what that does, then fiddle back and forth from there.

Find a wobbly road, and ride backwards and forwards along it playing with the shock...

Or alternatively take the time to set the sag properly to ~32mm and note the setting, then do the same 2 up (might need a third person to help here) and use that as your starting point. While you are at it do the same for the front.

Do a search on sag and preload to see what the experts say.

You could do that, but I found I got far better results with less preload on the front and one more click on the rear... Since you get, what, 7 clicks of adjustability on an SV shock is it, and it's not almost certainly not going to be max or min, I'd say you're better to go for what feels right than what someone tells you is right- there's so little adjustability you're not going to go far wrong that way.

I'll be honest, I don't really accept that there's such a thing as "proper" sag on the stock SV units- since chances are the spring rate and damping are going to be off for you anyway, I'd say that most people will get a result they're happier with by feel than by rule- I'd also lay odds that practically everyone using this method will be within one click of the "proper" setting.

The majority of suspension guides will say to set up to static and rider sag as advised as a baseline then adjust from there to taste.

With a better shock, this approach doesn't work so well as you've got more variables to muck up :)

You need to spend a couple of hours with Elmer fud :twisted:

Not really... When i fitted the Ohlins I set it all up to recommended sag (and compression settings) and didn't like it much... Doing it by the book's fine for a setup but it doesn't suit everyone. I've tried it both ways, believe me. Elmer knows more about setting up suspension than I ever will, no doubt about it, but then I know more about how I want my suspension set up.

fair enuf. I always did it your way, but after fitting the Ohlins and getting 'elmered' I felt I had been missing out. I did try moving away from the settings but found they were spot on for me. Maybe you are just better at reading what you bike is doing that I am.