| Author | Message | ||
     Rpm4x4 |
Im 6 foot 4 inches and 230lbs with gear. I was having a hard time getting comfortable with the 1125 in the corners till I tried some out there settings. I am set up very soft for my size according to the manual. My main question is should I be setting the bike up to the manual and learn to ride it at those settings or should I set the bike up to settings that seem to work for me? My current settings that I seem to be doing well on are these. Front preload 5 comp and rebound 2 rear preload 2 comp 22 rebound 1 3/4 | ||
| Bueller4ever |
rear preload 2? Have you measured the sag of the suspension with you on the bike? That is the first thing you should do and don't change it once it's set. You'll see all sorts of recommendations for rider sag, but generally you want 30-35mm rear and 35-40mm front. My guess is you'll need to remove all preload from the front to get to 35mm or more and the rear should be a 3 or 4 for preload. | ||
| Nuts4mc |
I belong to club down heer in Sun Diego ...every month we strive to have a guest speaker - several times we have had Lee Parks speak on the subject of suspension set up - Lee has written (2) books: his first book was more pictures than technical "tuning" info - it basically showed how the components of the suspension worked. His second book was co-authored by Paul Thede - Paul owns Race Tech, he invented the "Gold Valve" which many people use in their "stock suspension" in a quest to get better performance and "tune-ability" - I am NOT suggestion that the Showa suspension on the 1125 needs any gold valves. If you want a good guide to suspension tuning - Lee and Paul's new book is very good - I had a chance to preview it last December- you can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Techs-Motorcycle-Suspension- Motorbooks-Workshop/dp/0760331405 a good value compared to the cost of a track day and a suspension specialist at the track to dial the bike in for that day at that track - what works at the track doesn't always work on the street. some of my tips: a) keep notes... a small note pad and a pen help keep you from going backwards b) ride the same section of road over and over making your changes (like at a track day) - eliminate unknown variables in your experiment c) all bikes have several springs - some mechanical, some pneumatic - the standard gas law applys as a gas is heated it expands ...start with known tire pressures and then go forward from there... when you become very comfortable with your settings the air column above the fork oil can also cause changes you didn't anticipate...especially in small sharp bumps. d) put a ty-wrap on a fork leg...up near the seal - go for a ride and see how far down the fork leg the ty wrap moved - a good indication as to pre-load and how much the suspension is being "worked" e) short wheelbase-light and stiff chassis bikes don't "ride" like a long wheelbase heavy bike - the 1125 ain't no Gold wing - don't expect it to ride like one. good luck | ||
| Ratbuell |
The 1125s tend to have firm settings in the manual. Lots of folks here (myself included) run the bike one or two weight ranges lighter (softer) than recommended just out of preference. The book settings tend to be "track hard" settings. +1 on sag. Set it correctly by measurement and LEAVE IT. Then you can make the other adjustments to taste, one at a time. | ||
| Xodot |
RPM - + 1 on setting sag and leaving it Some here have adjusted the fork height. Don't. Take the time to learn about suspension. I bought Techs-Motorcycle-Suspension- Motorbooks-Workshop (referred to above) over the winter and have read it over and over making notes as if in school. I found it a mystery until I learned: 1)the theory, 2)how to measure true rider sag 3)how to physically make the adjustments on the bike 4)to recognize the subtle changes suspension changes make to your ride-ability of your bike 5)the discipline required to make notes of changes made and the riding results Suspension is personal taste. You will easily find yours. I have my compression and rebound set to almost all the way to full soft for my 185 lbs body weight and it rides so much better than the book setting values. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
I had to change preload to 3 in the front to get 37mm and 4 rear to get 35mm. | ||
| Bueller4ever |
I had to change preload to 3 in the front to get 37mm and 4 rear to get 35mm That sounds about right. your rear must have been really low compared to the front. I've about driven myself crazy trying to balance the front and rear rebound/compression settings. If they aren't balanced, then it will feel like the bike is surging, but it's actually seezawing front to rear. Here are my current settings for the street for my 160lbs with gear. front preload=0 compression=2.75 rebound=1.5 rear preload=3 (that gets me about 30mm of sag) compression=26 rebound=1.25 Since I can't get anywhere near 35mm of front sag, i set the rear to 3 so turn in is quicker. (Message edited by bueller4ever on May 17, 2011) | ||
| Cataract2 |
What happened to the Buell videos on suspension setup? I would like to go back over those to relearn all about the finite details on it. | ||
| J_copeland |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv8DY5Prl5c&feature =youtube_gdata_player | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
After riding it I feel kinda dumb. I rode this bike with incorrect sag for 11,000 miles. Setting up the correct sag made the bike a whole new machine. Im in love all over again. The Sag setting is far more important than I realized. On a side note, In 4 days I only got one person to post up their settings. I did a search on the 1125 forum and only found a couple peoples settings. Why is it easier to get people to talk about their political views than give up their suspension settings? | ||
| Dannybuell |
Personal preferences are just that personal preferences. If the bike handles better now with softer settings wait until you grab the brakes and the nose dive scares you or when you hit that turn a little too fast and the suspension collapses so quickly you find yourself oversteering. Then you put more preload into the front because you don't want that collapsing out from under you feeling at speed. The rear preload will have to be increased at the same time or there will be too much understeer. At this point sag is the last thing on your mind and all you want is a suspension that doesn't collapse out from under you. A good sag setting will give you a bike that turns in great at 40-50mph. Increase preload front and rear, the sag goes away, as does that loose feeling entering a turn at greater speed. Its all a matter of personal preference. I will tolerate a suspension doesn't want to turn in at low speed to have a suspension that is more able at greater speeds. | ||
| Bueller4ever |
On a side note, In 4 days I only got one person to post up their settings. I did a search on the 1125 forum and only found a couple peoples settings. Why is it easier to get people to talk about their political views than give up their suspension settings? Because they are afraid to touch their suspension, they don't know what it's set at. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Or like me, they write it in the manual, which is out in the garage, and are too lazy to leave their TV, laptop, and beer to go get it  (and I always forget to look "next time" I'm out there...) | ||
| Jdugger |
> Then you put more preload into the front > because you don't want that collapsing out > from under you feeling at speed Instead of adding preload, try adding a couple of clicks (or a quarter-turn) of compression damping... | ||
| Jdugger |
> On a side note, In 4 days I only got one person to post up their settings. Well, you can have mine, but since I don't use stock springs or oil, and they are for AK-Gas/Penske on the race bike, I'm not sure what they are worth to you... Front Suspension (AK-Gas, .92 spring): * Compression: 2 turns from full hard * Rebound: 1.5 turns from full hard * Preload: 11 turns out from full hard * Height above triple: 17.5mm * Front axle center to top of triple: 692mm * (I use the Erik Buell Racing billet triple clamp...) Rear Suspension (Penske Triple Clicker, 550lb spring): * LS Compression: 8 clicks from full hard * HS Compression: 7 clicks from full hard * Rebound: 20 clicks from full hard * Shock Free Length: 328 O.C. of shock in hand Rider: * Clip-on Bar angle: 155.1 degrees | ||
| Dannybuell |
Jdugger"Instead of adding preload, try adding a couple of clicks (or a quarter-turn) of compression damping..." Good response, I have the compression set just below complete handlebar vibration. | ||
| Mcrbuelligan |
here is a good guide http://www.roadracemotorcycles.com/blog/?page_id=5 6 | ||
| Catalan42 |
Hi - I am about the same size/weight as the OP (6' 1", 230 lbs) and have the 2008 1125R (stiffer front springs). I found the manual settings were fine on the track, but nearly shook my eyeballs out on some of the local highways (I had such a hard time seeing at 85 mph I had to slow down!). I reset the compression/rebound damping 1-2 weight ranges softer based on the owners manual (left preload the same) and the bike is much nicer on public roads. In San Diego, a good place to test suspension settings is the 2-3 mile stretch of road between Valley Center and the Valley View casino. Lots of bumps & rough asphalt, straight & flat. You can adjust your damping settings and try it out right away for comparison. Heading up to Palomar Mountain right afterward did not reveal any problems in the curves. | ||
| Philp |
Here's my setup: At 155-160 + 15 lbs gear, I have the front PL 1/2 turn in with 2-1/2 turns on both compression and rebound. With that PL, I get ~23 mm sag. I have lowered the front forks flush with the trees,which made an incredible difference in handling as did minimizing the PL. In the rear, I bumped the spring up to the third notch to balance the geometry of flushing-up the front forks. When it was on one, I got about 32 mm sag. I don't know what it is now. I have the compression at 22 turns and rebound at 2-1/2. The dampings were set close by suspension guys but I tweaked them a little by going out for short rides with a screw driver one day. I thought what I need is softer springs in the front - something that gives a little more sag and helps the geometry; however, after checking RaceTech's spring calculator, the stock spring at .99 kg/? is what's recommended for my weight. A local shop here says maybe the preload spacer is incorrect for my body weight and that they would like to try that first. What do you guys think? Does that make sense? I know you can't change the spring rate - it is what it is. So can shortening the spacer in the tube get me more sag? It's $250-300 in labor (which seems high, BTW) but if I thought this would help, I would do it. Thoughts? Is this what us lighter riders should be doing instead of switching the springs? | ||
| Dannybuell |
gpsuspension.com. ask an expert. | ||
| Philp |
gpsuspension.com. ask an expert Thanks! | ||
| Bueller4ever |
Philp, are you sure you used the calculator correctly? I weigh 10 lbs less and enter 450lbs for the bike and it recommends .85 springs. Correction, it's showing .92 now. Have you checked your front sag again? I'm showing 31mm with no preload set. I'm sure it was 28mm the first time I checked it. 23mm doesn't sound right, unless you have 08 springs. I read the tap measure wrong, it's 27mm of sag (Message edited by bueller4ever on May 22, 2011) (Message edited by bueller4ever on May 22, 2011) | ||
| Bueller4ever |
So I have 28.5mm of rear sag with it set on 3 and 27mm of front sag. I assume that racetech springs are sold individually? So that's $210 for a set of front springs. Any cheaper alternatives? | ||
| Dannybuell |
Aren't race tech springs are sold in pairs? It's been a long time, I know they came as a set in one box for my s1. | ||
| Bueller4ever |
yes, they come in pairs. I just got done googling it. You can get them for $98 from kneedraggers.com. Racetechs email addresses are bouncing, are they still in business? | ||
| Pegasusrider |
For what its worth, at 175 lbs (w/o gear), 5'10", my suspension settings on my early(May) '08 R: Front preload: 2 from min. Front compression: 2 1/8 from max Front rebound: 1 3/4 from max Rear preload: 4 Rear compression: 20 from max Rear rebound: 1 1/2 from max still a work in progress...but I do have 30mm sag front & rear My question: I thought it was supposed to have 4 3/4" front travel, but when mine is on a front stand it shows 5 1/4" of front fork. Does it bottom before the casting? | ||
| Therealassmikeg |
2008R, 200 w/gear I rode mine set up "as built" for a month w/o messing with any settings. Then took the time to set it up to the 2008 specs. I couldn't even ride it! Ended up using the 2009 recommended settings and was damn near dead on. This is what I'm riding with now Front P) 7 C) 1 1/2 R) 1 1/2 Rear P) 3 C) 16 R) 1 1/16 IIRC the sag front/rear is around 3/4~1" | ||
| Bueller4ever |
I should have bought a street triple. It has almost no suspension adjustment, but the springs are setup for my weight! I'm going to swap my front springs to .85 per Erik Buell Racing's advice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZhoRuUoC3k | ||
| S21125r |
Hope this isn't a thread jack, but got a suspension tuning question for y'all. I originally started with the lowest setting in the book - although it felt taught, it was a bit too stiff. So I dropped my preload to get proper sag, but found the front end "dribbles" after hitting bumps. So I added .25 turn rebound in and the bouncing stopped. However... I still didn't feel like I had enough front weight transfer so I took another .25 turn out of the front compression. Transfer was better, but I found the front end bounce was back. So I put another .25 of rebound damping in and bounce is gone again. So my question is, do you guys think this is normal to be adjusting compression/rebound in different directions (from book baseline)? i.e. less compression, but more rebound? I know this is all subjective, but just curious if this fits the "normal" pattern. BTW - No adjustments out back yet other than preload. I'm getting kicked in the ass over bumps, so I at least see a reduction in compression in the near future for the rear after I get the front working well. | ||
| Dannybuell |
Bueller4ever "I should have bought a street triple. It has almost no suspension adjustment" The S1 is like that. The only way I could tune the S1's compression and rebound was to describe conditions to the guys at gpsuspension.com and they would tune the internals with my seasonal fork and shock oil service. Fairly long intervals for tuning purposes! Sag is like first gear a good place to start. Start with preload. If you have the feeling that the front end is going down too fast under braking or entering into a curve use more compression. If that doesn't do it increase preload F&R. If you just increased preload in the front the rear would be relatively weaker and may allow too much weight to transfer rearward. If you have the feeling that the front end is staying down use less rebound. In the front I want the suspension to rebound pretty fast. The rear suspension is another story sometimes slower is better. The CR was revalved and tuned by gpsuspension.com within weeks of delivery. It came back with his valving and sag for my weight. The CR is an amazing bike. |
