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Need Some Help With Suspension


Guest rapsidy

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Woooooh!!

That sounds like a seriously radical adjustment there!!! How does she feel now?? I mean, he's really stiffened up the rear and big-time softened up the front!!! AND he's lowered the front??? By how much? I'm wondering whether your front end will bottom out now...

But if it feels right then... who am I to retort!!!

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Guest ronniek

All I can say is that i bought an FG Shock to replace the worn Fox shock on my '90 USA spec VFR and the difference was noticebly improved in all aspects - dramatic even. I weigh about the same as you and I wanted a more modern piece than the older Fox. The FG is very, very up to date and was used by MV Agusta and won Italian and world championships blah blah, but nobody knows much about them here. If anybody is still on a stock Honda shock, get rid of it as soon as you can. I didn't want to go some weird route of mounting a junkyard 954 RR shock and hope for the best, either. I got a FG model FQE11 which is the cheapest of 3 versions, but it's fantastic as is, without paying for extra adjustments. It's also rebuildable so it'll outlive my bike (which has 42k on it now, and i fully intend to run it to 100k and I refuse to spend those miles with crap suspension). I got mine at a place in Florida. Try; info@actionmotorsportsint.com

BTW, up front I have Racetech .90 (some 200 lb riders use .95) springs which are a big improvement over the .74 stock springs and even ride nicer somehow, with sharper steering (the slightly raised FG Shock helped A LOT with steering, too). Together, the front and rear improvements make it not only glass smooth on the highway, but so much better down back roads (bumpy or smooth), there's no comparison.

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  • 1 year later...

I live in Greece, where the roads are very bumpy!

I'm 1,80m height and 76kilos. I recently adjusted my suspension settings to the best setting I 've ever had. That is to say 4 lines to be shown in front (default is 2 plus 2 to softer). For the rear compression set to 5 scales starting from soft to hard. Rear rebound set to 1 and 2/4 turns from soft to hard (default is 1 and 1/4).

Notice that if you are using the stock suspension, take into consideration the condition of your suspension (e.g. the miles run so far). Mine has 16.000 miles.

The first thing to do is to get the proper sag, and then fine tune based on your personal riding style and tarmac conditions.

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  • 10 months later...

Revisiting this since I'm trying to adjust the rear preload on a 2002. and something is strange;

If I try to adjust more than 3 steps from zero preload, the adjuster snaps back to zero. Looking at the pix I can see there's a lot more than 3 settings. The previous owner had it at zero preload, and tire pressures at less than 20psi both, :pissed:

Does anyone know what may be causing this? I don't see any damage and I can't imagine how I can step up the adjuster to go over 3rd step.

Any help appreciated.

Edited by VFRSuperfreak
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Revisiting this since I'm trying to adjust the rear preload on a 2002. and something is strange;

If I try to adjust more than 3 steps from zero preload, the adjuster snaps back to zero. Looking at the pix I can see there's a lot more than 3 settings. The previous owner had it at zero preload, and tire pressures at less than 20psi both, :pissed:

Does anyone know what may be causing this? I don't see any damage and I can't imagine how I can step up the adjuster to go over 3rd step.

Any help appreciated.

Since you don't have a pic.... and you say it's in ok shape.... Then try notch 4....just to see if it WELL work..... I'm thinking that it's been sitting in that low setting for so long that when you try to move it , that it's not letting the spring slide ... and the spring is recoiling and moving everything back to notch #1.........Maybe put some WD-40 on the top and bottom of the spring.........

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I'll try to go to 4th notch, altho last 3 times, it just snapped back. Will check carefully for damage or stuck debris around the adjustment area and take pix.

It didn't help that we tried to do this by the side of a twisty road last time...

BTW, finally tried this 2002 model. very nice, light, flickable-lier than my 4th gen (except for the weavy rear but that's to be fixed as we speak).

And the 02 owner rode mine for a few minutes... "no lag!, I just blip the throttle the smallest bit and feel the shove immediately. how's this more powerful than my 02?

ummm, it isn't. -We'll have to check air filter and all else I guess, friendo.

HB

Revisiting this since I'm trying to adjust the rear preload on a 2002. and something is strange;

If I try to adjust more than 3 steps from zero preload, the adjuster snaps back to zero. Looking at the pix I can see there's a lot more than 3 settings. The previous owner had it at zero preload, and tire pressures at less than 20psi both, :pissed:

Does anyone know what may be causing this? I don't see any damage and I can't imagine how I can step up the adjuster to go over 3rd step.

Any help appreciated.

Since you don't have a pic.... and you say it's in ok shape.... Then try notch 4....just to see if it WELL work..... I'm thinking that it's been sitting in that low setting for so long that when you try to move it , that it's not letting the spring slide ... and the spring is recoiling and moving everything back to notch #1.........Maybe put some WD-40 on the top and bottom of the spring.........

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  • 1 month later...
  • Member Contributer

Somebody on this forum provided me this info when I did the 929 shock conversion. Use this for guidance AFTER you have properly set sag.

This is REALLY helpful, but for me it raises a question. Several actually! I ride a 1200 FD, and am trying to get more comfortable on it. I'll probably put myself in the hands of a suspension guru at some point soon, but before I do I'd like to be a more knowledgable consumer of their services.

You say not to fiddle with damping adjustments until after "properly" setting sag. But how do you "properly" set sag? Do you mean setting it to stock specs? or to the 25% to 33% of suspension travel I've seen as a rule of thumb? or something else? (I now how to measure sag, I just don't know how to decide what to set the measurements to.)

Sag settings -- along with other means of changing front and rear ride height -- also have an effect on steering geometry (rake and trail). Is there similar guidance anywhere on how to "properly" set steering geometry and feel?

And finally, how do you know if your spring rates are too hard or too soft? How do you decide whether spring rate is a problem and whether stiffer or softer springs are worth the effort and money?

Thanks, VFRD, for whatever light you can shine on these subjects for me...

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  • Member Contributer

Nevermind! ;-) I should have exhausted my own resources before I asked. In my "files" (a charitable word for how I store stuff), I found an article I copied several years ago from an old issue of Sport Rider magazine, and it's exactly what I need right now. "Five Steps to a Great Suspension Setup" by Andrew Trevitt. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to set up their suspension to suit their own preferences. If you're interested, you can find it online at My link.

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  • 3 months later...

I have my bike in the shop right now and they need to know some answers soon(asap).

I'm having Sonics 1.0 put in the front Jamie said 5w with honda oil but they don't have that, and will be using maxama oil, and he said to put less oil in it. My local guru said 10w keep the oil ht stock ............. I'm 260 plus gear......... and stock rear suspension(so far)..... also my local wants to know if to use static or free sag adjustment.......

Help Please.

I call Jamie but no answer.........Voice recording

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I have my bike in the shop right now and they need to know some answers soon(asap).

I'm having Sonics 1.0 put in the front Jamie said 5w with honda oil but they don't have that, and will be using maxama oil, and he said to put less oil in it. My local guru said 10w keep the oil ht stock ............. I'm 260 plus gear......... and stock rear suspension(so far)..... also my local wants to know if to use static or free sag adjustment.......

Help Please.

I call Jamie but no answer.........Voice recording

John, number one I would NOT install 1.0 kg fork springs and not change the rear spring also or IMO the bike will be worse off.

The rear is already too soft and installing 1.0's in the front will shift a LOT more weight to teh already too soft rear end.

Outside that, looking at just the forks: installing 1.0 springs will slow compression & speed up rebound, so IMO you would want lower weight oil on the comp. stroke and higher on the rebound side to slow down the bounce back of teh 1.0's.

On SAG IMO the only real way to know if the springs are right is to have correct FREE & Rider sag, not one or teh other.

BR

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Well I got no help and have to leave to get meds for my dad, so any answers come in now I won't be here........ Jamie I have my phone with me

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I have my bike in the shop right now and they need to know some answers soon(asap).

I'm having Sonics 1.0 put in the front Jamie said 5w with honda oil but they don't have that, and will be using maxama oil, and he said to put less oil in it. My local guru said 10w keep the oil ht stock ............. I'm 260 plus gear......... and stock rear suspension(so far)..... also my local wants to know if to use static or free sag adjustment.......

Help Please.

I call Jamie but no answer.........Voice recording

John, number one I would NOT install 1.0 kg fork springs and not change the rear spring also or IMO the bike will be worse off.

The rear is already too soft and installing 1.0's in the front will shift a LOT more weight to teh already too soft rear end.

Outside that, looking at just the forks: installing 1.0 springs will slow compression & speed up rebound, so IMO you would want lower weight oil on the comp. stroke and higher on the rebound side to slow down the bounce back of teh 1.0's.

On SAG IMO the only real way to know if the springs are right is to have correct FREE & Rider sag, not one or teh other.

BR

Thx BR, gotta go

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