Suspension Set-up?

Hi guys, had a few dry spells (well still patchs of wet and windy as hell) and had a few chances to test out the sv's handling, feels great but wen pressing on to slower speed corners -60mph i notice the front feels very heavy and loads up alot of weigth? i tried of course moving more my weigth on the rear , pushing on the bars less etc etc , i just assumed its the bike style,i just prefer more pressure on the rear esp on damp roads more chance or control if any amount of slip (not that there was any)

I got off the bike after an hour and noticed there was still rear chicken strip?!?! around 4-8mm's i was miffed after grinding the ****e outta me alpinestars for an hour odd, i then looked at the front and noticed there was nothing left? this is worrying since generaly i've noticed on every bike i've owned or seen on the road is normaly the front has around twice or 1/3 the amount more strip of the rear, i just assumed this is how road bikes are tuned to of course take pressure of the front.i checked the tyre pressures and they where just a 2-3 psi low front and back, i put 36 front 42 rear, admitted it started raining after this and couldn't really test it as its been damp since then but it feels the same?

I thinking of few things

1.The first owner was a lady, and the bike does seems quite low(i know there low bike but still) maybe it has a lowering kit?this could mess stuff up?

2.The rear shock is not on the hardest setting(so former owner told me )

3.The rear is a new 020 bridgestone and the front is a older model of the same tyre i think , maybe this is messing it up?

4.This is just a weird thing about sv's and they naturaly put alot of pressure on the front?

Should i just wait till its dry and try it out with new tyre pressures?

I am sure the race guys will have an easy answer for me

[Red Herring]

Sorry Twinny, but at the risk of being incredibly boring are you sure you should be pushing that hard on a pubic road without at least going through the basics of checking your bike first?
Make sure you have suitable matched tyres ("the front is an older model of the same tyre I think" won't do) Is it the right profile?
Check the pressures. 42 rear sounds a bit hard for solo looning if you ask me.
Check the ride height and set the preload properly. There is another thread on here somewhere that will tell you how much want to try and get. Check the dog bones to make sure the rear hasn't been lowered.
Check the head and wheel bearings for play/tight spots.
Check the brakes are releasing properly.

Finally pick a day/somewhere where nobody else is around to test it. Ideally you want a 60/70 mph bend with a clear view across so you can be sure there is no oncoming traffic, and better still a good road surface but with a few bumps thrown in. Go back and forth a few times then change one thing only on the bike, and repeat the test. Do that a few times and you should end up with something half decent.

[G]

42psi is about 10psi to much....way to much infact.

Grinding the crap out of your boots is irrelevant, you may just have a penguin feet riding style, I used to grind my pegs for a good 15 seconds around a long sweeping bend regularly and still have a very slight chicken strip.

Maybe you are abit heavy for the bike or need to adjust everything to their hardest settings.

I used to get the feeling you describe until I played about with the suspension settings, I'm 13.7 stone and have adjusted everything to the maximum setting, its not perfect but its better.

I would certainly stop worrying about the size of your chicken strip, if you feel good around the corners quit thinking about them.

scroll down to the tyre pressures bit mate.........

http://www.sv650.org/sv_faq.htm#24/0...0Some%20truths

Originally Posted by Marksv

scroll down to the tyre pressures bit mate.........

http://www.sv650.org/sv_faq.htm#24/0...0Some%20truths

so i am correct 36/42 ? is the standard pressure? thats wat im running? it says 400 run 29/36? does sv run same as these?


Red Herring -

Yeah i'll check them things out mate,Btw i don't gunning it round high streets in central london mate i normaly head down west mailing where theres 100's of bikers every sunday round there as u proberly know, best area thats not miles away best we've got here tbh


graemepaterson -

lol Penguin feet, i suggest u've got a case of this as i've never grinded my sidi's as ur meant to stand on the balls/toes of ur feet kind of to avoid it, so i suggest u recheck ur postioning as ur going in lol , i meant alpinestars as in my one peice leathers and the sliders on ur knee's, im 12 stone if thats helps?And yes i don't care about chicken strips but thats the hole point if you read wat i said, i was rideing round for an hour and noticed the bikes feels like alot of pressure on the front... so i got of the bike and noticed the fronts almost maxed out with sligth rubber residue and the back still actual had almost a 1cm of untouched tyre , and this backed up wat i felt while rideing the bike....i was asking if this is the case on all Sv's?

Yeah the profile is correct, i'll get the exact details of the front tyre in a min,thx for advise guys

[G]

Originally Posted by Twinny

graemepaterson -

lol Penguin feet, i suggest u've got a case of this

My riding style is more than fine , i assumed you were touching toes down, hence penguin syndrome, if its your knee then fair enough.

You defo need to sort your tyre pressures out, they wont be helping at all, playing about with them makes a massive difference I have found. The rear should ne no where near 42psi thats for sure.

two different types of tyres could be your main suspect as they are likely to have different profiles.

Some are less 'pinched' than others iyswim

Originally Posted by Twinny

I got off the bike after an hour and noticed there was still rear chicken strip?!?! around 4-8mm's i was miffed after grinding the ****e outta me alpinestars for an hour odd, I thinking of few things

1.The first owner was a lady, and the bike does seems quite low(i know there low bike but still) maybe it has a lowering kit?this could mess stuff up?

Firstly are you riding with your toes on the pegs or heels? This does make a difference. Toes on help moving around and placing the bike and you won't wear out your nice boots.

I've only had one set of matched tyres that had the same wear strip front and back.

If your dog bones are standard, you should find under the grime (apologies if your linkage is sparkly) this stamping.

[G]

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

If your dog bones are standard, you should find under the grime (apologies if your linkage is sparkly) this stamping.

Pete is that the same for pointys?

My bike was a cancelled order for someone who was vertically challenged, and I always wondered if there was a way to check it had been converted back completely.

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

Pete is that the same for pointys?

My bike was a cancelled order for someone who was vertically challenged, and I always wondered if there was a way to check it had been converted back completely.

Sorry Graeme, I don't know about pointys . My gut instinct is no. Hopefully someone with the right info will come along soon.

Pete