That's my point! Surely the stock set up isn't designed for an 18 stone, 6"3' ape of a man!!! Now.....less mocking of my stature, and more productive and helpful comments please!! :oops: :oops:

Well, you can start by putting a little more air in the tyres, and setting the pre load on the rear shock harder.

You know that hook tool that comes with the tool kit? That's your man.
You will want to find out what the bike does under no pressure, and then sit on it, and see how much it sags. It shouldnt be more than a few cms. I forget how many. I think my sag is 2 cm which is ok, even a bit hard.

People like Northwind, 21_Quest and Sid Squid know about this. Do a search through their posts along with key word "Shock" | "suspension" | "preload".

You might also want to consider a new shock? I dont know, it might be worth looking into if you have a few quid flying around. I was driving a 1150GS yesterday. Incredible suspension set up on that bike, and the differance it makes when you are cornering is amazing. No chatter, no nothing, the surface of the road is almost irrelevant, its just planted.

You're right... SV shock is built for about a 9 and a half stone rider, likewise the springs. There's just no way to adjust either to suit you well with stock parts. Don't rightly know what to do about the shock- if it was a curvy I'd say fit a Hayabusa shock, it's heavily sprung, but for you I've no idea. Definately stiffer springs in the front though.

PhilipMac, I'll actually write that FAQ then :)

Be careful Marky actually.

I have just been thinking about that. I have bottomed out my suspension hard core a couple of times. Luckily I was ready for it up on the pegs. But, that's even with my puny weight. I would not like to see how it would react to a big lad like yourself haging on tbh.

According to racetech, you would be looking at soemthing around: 0.960 kg/mm.

At the moment your bike has .706 kg/mm springs.

...

Nice one Northwind. Although this months bike money is already booked for new tyres. :evil:

I've bottomed out a couple of times too but also been prepared for it. Cheers for figuring out what mine should be...but like I said I still don't understand the whole thing enough to even know how to put that information to good use.

I'll figure it out and with the help of my lovely biek man we'll sort it out!!