Suspension adjustment

toompine

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

I have found the biggest problem, to be the variables based on the loads we carry. I can ride it with panniers but empty and it is fine( I am 165 lbs) but loaded there is not enough preload. I really think it needs a heavier spring so unloaded it can feel like a spring fully "preloaded" and when we add load there is more preload to add. jaxon, do you have recommendations on aftermarket springs?
 

tubebender

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

toompine said:
I have found the biggest problem, to be the variables based on the loads we carry. I can ride it with panniers but empty and it is fine( I am 165 lbs) but loaded there is not enough preload. I really think it needs a heavier spring so unloaded it can feel like a spring fully "preloaded" and when we add load there is more preload to add. jaxon, do you have recommendations on aftermarket springs?
Yeah Bruce, I had the same problem. I found an Eibach 0800.225.800 spring and a 24 mm spacer worked for me. You're lighter than me by 45 lbs so a 750 lb spring may work for you.
I was able to dial in a rear sag range of 59 to 52 mm depending on load with this set up.
The heavier spring does show up some of the rear shock deficiencies (at least to me) but at least you can get your turn in and tracking more consistent.

 

Mzee

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

The proposed adjustments suggested at the the top of this thread seem to suit off-road riding, any comment on on-road effect?
 

tomatocity

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

tubebender said:
Yeah Bruce, I had the same problem. I found an Eibach 0800.225.800 spring and a 24 mm spacer worked for me. You're lighter than me by 45 lbs so a 750 lb spring may work for you.
I was able to dial in a rear sag range of 59 to 52 mm depending on load with this set up.
The heavier spring does show up some of the rear shock deficiencies (at least to me) but at least you can get your turn in and tracking more consistent.

Like your modification. I am 220 and went with what most others were using, Eibach 0800.225.0850 and a RideOnAdv 10 mm spacer. The 24 mm spacer probably would have given the correct sag. Where did you get your 24 mm spacer?

End result I couldn't get proper sag and eventually bought an Ohlins Y013 rear shock.
 

Bushyar15

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

SAG is super important. If you want to see it "in action" where improperly set causes "problems" just watch some of those Rnicky Mouse videos on Youtube of the "snake" in SoCal. They get into the corner, suspension is completely bottomed out and hit "the bump" and the suspension has nowhere to go, so the bike takes the bump, lightens enough to lose the front-end...

I'm not saying it happens in everyone of those cases in the videos. When I lived there and rode it long before it ever had a name other than "the section above the Rock Store", when my buddy crashed, when we helped people up, the majority of the "cause" was improperly set SAG…
 

tubebender

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

tomatocity said:
Where did you get your 24 mm spacer?
Really Tim? You have to ask? ::013:: I made it of course!
 

JMLUSA1

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

I quess Ill try raising the Forks in the triples for general street riding, canyon carving and TrackDays. Seems to me it would be best to put them back down for off roading, right?
 

Bushyar15

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

It depends. The goal of raising the forks is to "balance" the geometry of the bike to compensate for the "saggy" rear end. This should also translate into better handling off-road. But you have to consider a couple things about lowering the bike, which "raising" the forks does. Your bike is lower by 10mm or whatever you drop it. "Could" make a slight difference in ground clearance. Also its going to steer a little more quickly. So it may feel different to you in the dirt, a hair "twitchy". I hate to say that, but maybe a better word is "responsive" to forces like rocks and the like against it…

Personally, I'd leave it unless I had noticeable ground clearance issues…


JMLUSA1 said:
I quess Ill try raising the Forks in the triples for general street riding, canyon carving and TrackDays. Seems to me it would be best to put them back down for off reading, right?
 

JMLUSA1

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

Thanks Bushyar15, that sounds right. Ill try it and report back.
Joel
 

BHTENERE

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

Tubebender, I was just wondering if the preload adjuster works the same with the new Eibach 0800.225.800 spring and 24 mm spacer or is it a lot more difficult to adjust across the full range?
 

hodee

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

This site is awesome. I ride a lot of off road enduros on my KTM 300 and sag is set as "pre-sag" just the bike weight from after lifting the rear. Then "race sag" when the bike is on the ground with no rider, then measured again with rider and gear on the bike. So with the Tenere, is sag measured by putting the bike on the centerstand and counting that as a zero point? Or put the bike on the ground and count that as a zero point? Then load up with rider and gear. Want to set sag in the 50-55mm range front and rear. thx
 

tomatocity

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

tubebender said:
Really Tim? You have to ask? ::013:: I made it of course!
::008:: Just wanted everyone that you have a One Of A Kind spacer. A spacer that addresses the need of the Tenere and the Loads it carries. ::008::
 

cosmic

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.



hodee said:
This site is awesome. I ride a lot of off road enduros on my KTM 300 and sag is set as "pre-sag" just the bike weight from after lifting the rear. Then "race sag" when the bike is on the ground with no rider, then measured again with rider and gear on the bike. So with the Tenere, is sag measured by putting the bike on the centerstand and counting that as a zero point? Or put the bike on the ground and count that as a zero pointm? Then load up with rider and gear. Want to set sag in the 50-55mm range front and rear. thx
Static sag is w/o the rider, and race sag is with the rider. You measure it like on any other bike.



2 Bushyar 15
Thx for the write-up.
Funny thing is I did this first thing I took it from the dealer . Almost the same setting, and w/o any suspension tweaking experience. All closed then 5 out. It felt really good immediately and i never looked back. It just felt soft since I first set on it. :)
 

tubebender

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

BHTENERE said:
Tubebender, I was just wondering if the preload adjuster works the same with the new Eibach 0800.225.800 spring and 24 mm spacer or is it a lot more difficult to adjust across the full range?
Yes, it is slightly more difficult but I always made an adjustment with the bike on the center stand to minimize static load.

And there is 1 important difference. I use the billet aluminum adjustment knob from Eagle Mfg. The stock plastic knob is barely man enough for the stock spring.
http://www.eaglemike.com/Super-Tenere_c6.htm (Full disclosure - this is a shameless plug for a friend of mine)
 

Texasten

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

Oh em gee, Oh my gee, OH MY GOSH! Thank you Bushyar15 for these clear instructions in post #7. I weigh almost the same and tried these settings. The only downside I see is that I can no longer flat foot the ground like before. I am 6-2 with about 33" inseam and with my spanking new Seat Concepts seat (about 1" taller than stock), I now touch ball of feet, unless I "stretch" a bit. I did back off the shock from full hard to 1 line back, in the interest of losing some elevation. I also removed the rear cushions under the driver seat to get lower, and also take the little bit of forward slide out of the SC seat.

But, yes, the ride is just as near perfect as you can imagine with those settings. ::012:: ::008:: ::012::
 

Bushyar15

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

GREAT! I'm glad you guys are trying it and its making a difference!

I'm 5'10 with a 31" inseam… So you can imagine I'm on the balls of my feet or I lean it slightly to one side so I'm flat-footed…
 

cbreakin

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

I just set-up the suspension as recommended in this thread, however, I also raised the forks 5mm in the triples. I rode the bike in some canyons this morning and it handles awesome! I believe the suspension is sitting higher in the stroke adding the benefit of increased ground clearance when corning. I was much less prone to dragging the foot-pegs. Also, the front end feel was a little nicer. Steering effort increased, but turn-in was quicker and the front felt more planted with better feed-back. I ran a brisk pace with a few sport bikes and had no trouble hanging. Thanks for posting this great set-up tip!
 

bignick1972

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

Bushyar15 said:
I don't know how, when I got the ST, I suddenly forgot everything I knew about suspension.... 30 years of riding and roadracing, using everything from Ohlins, Penske, and even White Power, out the window.

I'm about 220 lbs nekked. I left the suspension at stock settings. While I originally thought I'd be doing maybe 80/20, I'm closer to 50/50. Got bounced around quite abit in the off-road sections and bashed my plate good. Then I took the advice of someone, and turned down all my preload because they said it would soften the ride and it'd handle better in the rough stuff, which I did. I then quickly nailed a rock which has a huge long gash the length of my skid plate cause I bottomed.

After communicating with Jaxon and Stoltec, who reassured me what I did know about suspension was correct and following some recommendations on this site, like cranking the rear preload all the way down and leaving 2 lines on the front, and 6 turns from full stiff on all other adjustments, the bike is totally transformed! Took it out on a quick dirt road by the house and intentionally hit washaboards potholes, sand and gravel.... In the word of George Takai, "oh my".... Night and day from stock settings. Felt almost like a completely different motorcycle. I wasn't bounced around and jarred. Where on this particular dirt road I was comfortable only doing 40ish with the stock settings, 60 was now comfortable

While there is still not enough preload in the rear, it's way better.

So do yourself a favor and adjust that stock suspension!!!!! Of course YMMV....
What do you mean "6 click from full stiff" ? Your rear rebound damping is 6 click in direction "b" ?
I m really Confuse
 

Texasten

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Re: Do Yourself a Favor and Adjust Your Suspension.

If you get out your owners manual and print off post #7 from this thread, it will be really obvious how to do this!!!! ::008::
 
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