Just got back from having my suspension sorted and got to say I am very impressed, not done much other than ride home so will update later after some more varied riding.
Initial impressions are very good, the bike had the top of the range Wilburs shock fitted (3-way damping and remote pre-load adjustment) and I had the forks looked at. The shock was already built to spec from Wilburs, a couple of MM longer for about 5mm extra ride height to start with and sprung for my mix of solo and two-up use.
The forks took a bit of messing with, MCT reckoned it sat too high (too much pre-load built in to the setup) and the spring was a bit stiff as it quickly ends up on the stiffer part of the dual rate, so out went the Yamaha springs and in came a 0.90 linear spring with zero pre-load as installed. The watered down cooking oil Yamaha use as suspension fluid was swapped out for some top quality 10wt.
As soon as the forks went in the sag with me onboard was bang on 60mm (Perfect - rider sag should be 1/3rd of total travel) this meant the front was also sitting about 5-10mm lower as well which should aid steering.
As soon as I rode it the difference was obvious, both front and rear, starting with the rear:-
The back end now just seems sublime, I never found any problems with the OEM shock other than two-up, so was surprised to instantly notice a huge difference, hard to describe as it feels really plush, but also really nicely controlled and you can feel it tracking the road, and also sense exactly what the rear tyre is up too, it also seems to soak up bumps much better. With a stiffer (150nm) spring and a lot of pre-load and damping adjustment it should make an even bigger difference to the two-up experience. This setup is far nicer than the (almost identical) Wilburs felt on the GS - probably due the Yamaha's Rising rate over the GS' primitive direct bolted shock :question:
The forks are now MUCH better, I always found them a bit clunky and prone to diving, they still dive quite a bit, bit feel far more controlled, not surprisingly they also feel very linear, so the more you brake the more they dive, I reckon before they just crashed down to the stiffer rate and then stopped - now they feel really nice, especially when braking on bumps - but even in a straight line the soak up the bumps much nicer, it makes the OE setup feel as if there is a load of stiction, the difference really is night and day.
The combined effect is the bike just seems to float along the road, small imperfections are entirely eliminated and bigger bumps that once put a shock up the spine are now 90% absorbed. Feedback from both tyres is enhanced and cruising seems more relaxed.
I can't wait to get a day on some decent twisties to properly test the setup ::001::
