Expensive suspension, disappointing results!

[SEBSPEED]

Have a read through here:

Lack Of Rebound, Fork

• The fork offers a supremely plush ride, especially when riding straight up. With higher speeds, however, the feeling of control is lost. The fork feels mushy, and traction feel is poor.

• After hitting bumps at speed, the front tire tends to chatter or bounce, and the fork has a wallowy, loose feel.

• When flicking the bike into a corner at speed, the front tire begins to chatter and lose traction. This translates into an unstable feel at the handlebar.

• As speed increases and steering inputs become more aggressive, a lack of control begins to appear. Chassis attitude (sudden changes in pitch) becomes a problem (front-end wallowing), with the front end refusing to stabilize after the bike is steered hard into a turn.

Too Much Rebound, Fork

• The ride is harsh. Rough pavement makes the fork feel as if it’s locking up with stiction and harshness.

• Under hard acceleration exiting bumpy corners, the front end feels like it wants to “wiggle” or “tankslap.” The tire feels as if it isn’t staying in contact with the pavement when on the gas.

• The harsh, unforgiving ride makes the bike hard to control when riding through dips and rolling bumps at speed. The suspension’s reluctance to maintain tire traction through these sections erodes rider confidence.

Lack Of Compression, Fork

• Front-end dive while on the brakes is excessive.

• Rear end of motorcycle wants to “come around” when using front brakes aggressively.

• Front suspension bottoms, with a solid hit under heavy braking and after hitting bumps. • Front end has a mushy and vague feeling, similar to lack of rebound damping.

Too Much Compression, Fork

• Harsh ride, especially when bumps and ripples are first contacted by the front wheel.

• Bumps and ripples are felt directly; the initial hit is routed through the chassis instantly, with big hits bouncing the tire off the pavement.

• The bike’s ride height is affected negatively; the front end rides too high in the corners; bike may want to drift wide in corners.

• Brake dive is reduced, though the chassis is upset significantly by bumps encountered during braking.

Lack Of Rebound, Shock

• The ride is plush at cruising speeds, but with increased speeds the chassis begins to wallow and weave through bumpy corners.

• Poor traction over bumps under hard acceleration; rear tire starts to chatter due to reduced wheel control.

• Excessive chassis pitch through large bumps and dips at speed; rear end rebounds too fast, upsetting chassis with pogo-stick action.

Too Much Rebound, Shock

• Harsh ride; rear suspension compliance is poor and “feel” is vague.

• Poor traction over bumps during hard acceleration due to lack of suspension compliance.

• Bike wants to run wide in corners since the rear end is packing down; this forces a nose-high chassis attitude, which slows steering.

• Rear end wants to hop and skip when the throttle is chopped during aggressive corner entries.

Lack Of Compression, Shock

• Too much rear end squat under acceleration; bike wants to steer wide exiting corners (since chassis is riding rear low/nose high).

• Hitting bumps at speed causes the rear to bottom, which upsets the chassis.

• Chassis attitude affected by large dips and G-outs; steering and control become difficult due to excessive suspension movement.

Too Much Compression, Shock

• Ride is harsh, though not quite as bad as the too-much-rebound situation; but the faster you go, the worse it gets.

• Harshness hurts rear tire traction over bumps, especially during deceleration. There’s very little rear-end squat under acceleration.

• Medium to large bumps are felt directly through the chassis; when these are hit at speed, the rear end kicks up.

[zRoYz]

If you wanted plushness for everyday type of riding ie. not particularly aggressive sport bike style riding you should have stayed with stock rear and just got the spring rates matched and correct. In your case stock spring rates are fine .

If you tune your shock for aggressive canyon rider with occasional track day rides you are going to have a stiff suspension when you commute and tour. However if you take your bike on the track or try and keep pace with dedicated sport bikes your stiffer suspension combined with proper riding technique will be more than worth the investment.

I went with an Elka shock and full race tech front. Compression and rebound valves plus matching springs and bushings. Bike is a little stiff but I got used to it because it will never let me down in the canyons and is still all day comfortable. If I were you I'd look at total revalve of the front to match the rear with emphasis on plushness. You can adjust your springs preload spacer to get the adjustability range you prefer too.

BTW I am not advocating for Race Tech. They are by no means the only qualified suspension tuners. Do some investigating on your own and you might find a better value.

I don't agree with the first part of you post at all, suspension can be adjusted to suit a riders need you just need to talk to the correct suspension tech, the problem is everybody is the same we all like to save $$ but buying shocks online you don't get the full service treatment with setup & after sales modification if needed, some online sellers don't even change out the spring if incorrect for your weight as there ball park off the shelf stock. My suspension tech when he sells you a shock will keep doing modifications to it for no extra charge if your not happy.

I ride track & canyon type roads but like a plush setup even on my CBR1000RR & in most cases don't do any further adjustments than the settings I like the most when at the track & if I do it is normally just a few clicks of compression my CBR has Ohlins forks & WP shock both have been valved to suit what I want. My VFR that I sold 2 years ago had R1 forks & Wilbers rear shock same deal. Both I run 40mm fork rider sag & 35mm shock rider sag but the plush feel comes from the valving, if your bike feels like a stiff pogo stick your valving isn't right & you may have a spring rate to stiff for what you actually want even if the book says correct for your weight because you can have a spring that has little less tension than needed & make up the difference with valving remember top level racers change spring rates all the time for different tracks for different feel they need & different surfaces so thinking one spring is the correct one on your bike is wrong you have to find the best ball park spring to suit the feel you require.

I have just bought another vtec because I have some major touring to do & that has on order a Penske shock & will be fitting my spare CBR standard forks but will be setup like all my bikes for the feel I want & that will be a plush ride (plush doesn't mean bounce it means soak up the bumps without the bike jumping everywhere. Believe me here in Australia our roads suck compared to the US we have pot holes & corrugation on all our roads except major freeways & suspension doesn't do squat on freeways.

[zRoYz]

I think that revalving suspensions and such are rather unknown operations here in Athens.

Having said that the suspension specialist I went to see today about the suspension was very helpful. He had a look at the bike, he bounced the bike around and tweaked it a bit.

His conclusion is that the front is not even remotely hard, but rather soft. He increased the preload to the max saying that with the preload all the way out the bike simply has too much static sag and the suspension cannot be expected to work.

He said that the oil is not so relevant at this moment and it seems to be working.

He also turned the Hi setting on the back all the way out to soft claiming that it would make the rear very soft etc.

I took the bike home but I am still rather disappointed. The front /seems/ to be marginally better (still rather hard for my taste), but now the back seems to be very stiff. Riding over some bumps it occasionally kicked me up off the seat; definitely not what I would expect from a soft suspension.

I think that the compression/rebound is set to be too fast.

I am sure that this suspension tweaked a bit will be a right laugh on track or on smooth tarmac, but I use the VFR for travelling extensively and I have come to appreciate very much the silky smooth ride it offers (or did at least).

Not happy at all. I will tweak the suspension a bit more but in all honesty I am leaning more and more towards on removing the damn thing and returning everything to stock.

I hear you but also think you need to adjust to better suspension, it is feeling strange even if not optimal setup for you at the moment because you were used to worn out standard suspension. Being a gen 4 the rear shock at about 25000kms rebound has mostly stopped working & your riding on the spring only, there is no compression. The forks the same the front springs have probably sagged a little & with the gen 4 the internal push rod which works the valving has a sealing bush that wears & bypasses oil so the rebound there also fades badly. Give your self some time with the different feel & do some reading like seb has posted & then experiment yourself with settings but the most important rule write down your settings & changes you make so you can keep track & if something goes wrong you can go back to a setting you sort of liked.