110 miles on MT09SP

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

Seeker, please feel free to tell me not to be so rude

I know I'm an idiot, the only thing that varies is the degree of idiocy on a daily basis. Anyway, I'm too ignorant to be insulted

Here's a page from the manual (sorry about the orientation).


The instruction for Slow compression says "Standard: 11 clicks in direction (b)."
Direction (b) is shown as anticlockwise.

It adds (clumsily, I thought) "With the adjusting bolt fully turned in direction (a)"
direction (a) is shown as clockwise.

My understanding is: I turn the adjuster fully clockwise and then count 11 clicks (anticlockwise) to get the Standard setting.

Preload is a threaded adjuster which you wind in/out and measure the height. At the softest setting, 19mm, it's fully out and won't turn any further.

[Red Herring]

I don't think anybody is suggesting you're an idiot, but I know lots of riders who have never touched their suspension because they're not sure what does what and worry they'll make it worse.....

Have you also adjusted the high speed compression to the soft setting (five and a half turns out) and the rebound (26 clicks out)?

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

I don't think anybody is suggesting you're an idiot

...when I was a kid my Dad would say: "don't be an idiot all your life, take today off".

Originally Posted by Red Herring

Have you also adjusted the high speed compression to the soft setting (five and a half turns out) and the rebound (26 clicks out)?

yes and yes. Currently though, I'm at 4.5 turns out (hsc) and 20 clicks rebound with today's plan being 5 turns out and 22 clicks. Now at 450 miles.

I dropped the front tyre pressure to 30 psi and that seemed to help (rear at 39). One weird note - on the SV if the tyre pressures are low the bike handles differently - cornering, following ridges etc. On the Yam, it softened the ride a little but nothing else changed.

[NedSVS]

Just an idea. I think you should try set the high and low speed compression damping to their softest and leave the rebound on standard to start with. My reasoning is you want the compression to be as compliant as possible but the springs haven't changed, and you are light, so the rebound still needs control and you may even have to increase the rebound. You just need to make sure that you don't increase the rebound to the point where it doesn't have time to recover after bumps.

[Bibio]

dampening is not hard or soft. its fast or slow. dampening is the thing that controls the rate at which the spring compresses and extends.


if the spring rate is too high for a rider then the suspension will not move properly, setting the dampening too fast to overcome the spring rate will cause the bike to wallow everywhere as the dampening plays catch up.


only play with tyre pressures to gain the correct heat, the PSI ratio IIR 10% from cold to hot for road use. lets say a tyre is 30psi cold and you go for a run of around 30 miles and pull over, the PSI should now be 33. if its under then you reduce the psi if its over then you increase the psi. doing this will ensure that the tyres are at the correct pressure for the bike and rider.

[NedSVS]

Originally Posted by Bibio

dampening is not hard or soft. its fast or slow. dampening is the thing that controls the rate at which the spring compresses and extends.

if the spring rate is too high for a rider then the suspension will not move properly, setting the dampening too fast to overcome the spring rate will cause the bike to wallow everywhere as the dampening plays catch up.

You are of course technically correct with your terminology, but you know what I mean. My suggestion is to try and make the most of a bad job for now. I suggested in my earlier post that Seeker was too light for the springs and that means it will never work properly. As I'm sure you know, if you ask a suspension specialist to help the first thing they will do is select the correct springs for your weight and riding style. There is a danger that if Seeker has suitable springs fitted for his weight that there may be insufficient adjustability to get the damping under control properly and then the damping will need modifying too. If that happens he will be getting into serious money.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by NedSVS

You are of course technically correct with you terminology, but you know what I mean. My suggestion is to try and make the most of a bad job for now. I suggested in my earlier post that Seeker was too light for the springs and that means it will never work properly. As I'm sure you know, if you ask a suspension specialist to help the first thing they will do is select the correct springs for your weight and riding style. There is a danger that if Seeker has suitable springs fitted for his weight that there may be insufficient adjustability to get the damping under control properly and then the damping will need modifying too. If that happens he will be getting into serious money.

you hit the nail on the head.


most of the time you can get away with just swapping spring rates but the odd occasion requires the shim stack/valving to be altered and people are not willing to spend the money.


most people have never ridden a fully fettled bike so have no idea just how much of a difference it is. most people think hard is better but nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to road bikes. its easy to set up a race bike its very difficult to do road bikes.

[Seeker]

Today, I retraced a route I took on the SV yesterday, I wore a backpack with filled water bottles to push my total weight to 75kg. The sag was now 30mm, the ride quality was still much worse than the SV.
I met up with an acquaintance who has multiple bikes - Aprilia RSV4, a tuned GSXR1000 race bike and a Kawasaki Z900RS. He offered to let me ride the Z900 so I asked him to ride the Yam. The Kawasaki was everything the Yam wasn't - good fueling, light gearbox and, bearing in mind it was set for 2 up riding, it was more comfortable than the MT09.

His comment after riding the Yam: "it was the worst bike he'd ever ridden - it feels like the front forks are solid". He was baffled because he could push down on the front end and the forks worked smoothly but they don't do that when riding.

I went back to the dealer and asked to trade the Yam against a Z900RS. None available in the UK (in green) and they want a further £2500 plus the Yam against their demo bike. It's a lot of money to have wasted but I'm not content with the Yamaha. I'm thinking about it...

[Adam Ef]

I've tried not to mention it but I do think you'd have been better off with the basic MT09 and the money saved spend on the Andreani fork internals etc. I've looked into getting one in the past but had decided I'd do just that as suspension is such and individual thing I figured even the upgraded stock suspension wouldn't necessarily suit me (informed by previous Street Triple R experiences). The throttle twitchiness is another issue that put me off too though, but apparently not so bad on newer models.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by Seeker

He was baffled because he could push down on the front end and the forks worked smoothly but they don't do that when riding.

thats to do with the fast part of the shim stack being too slow, the shim stack needs altered (some taken out of the fast shim stack). the 'clickers' that people like to turn are only a bypass for slow speed dampening, slow speed as in suspension movement and not road speed. that control such things as braking and cornering set up and not comfort which is the valving shims stacks purpose to react to sudden bumps etc.etc.


just hand the bike back if your not happy.