| Author | Message | ||
     Hippo888 |
I did a search, but didn't find what I was looking for. Hopefully, I'm not beating a dead horse. If so, apologies in advance. I'm just curious as to what exact settings people are using. Here are my observations: The factory-recommended pre-load settings for my weight are way off. To get 30mm of sag front and rear, I needed 4.5 lines front and setting 3 on the back. Buell recommends 5.5 lines front and 4 preload in the rear. I have the rebound set for the settings associated with the preload settings I'm using. Compression is 1/2 turn out from the associated settings. Ride height seems to make a huge difference in handling. As I decreased the front ride height (by lowering the pre-load up front), the steering effort got lighter, but there was a tendency to "tuck" at low speeds while turning. Also, there was a lot of "standing up" or "pushing back" from the front end -- it feels as if the bike is trying to standup or steer the opposite way I'm turning. Increasing front ride height (front set at 4.5 and I raised the bike 3mm in the triple clamps) has decreased the "standing up" by about 1/3 and there is no feeling of tucking during low speed turns. I weigh about 155 lbs, and carry about 20 lbs of gear for a total weight of 175 lbs. I ride in Michigan, with lots of potholes and my commute is 1/2 city 1/2 highway (80 mile roundtrip). What are your experiences? Any way to get rid of that "standing up" feeling in turns? thanks in advance, Paul in MI | ||
| Rsh |
A number of people here like the Shawn Higbee supplementry "aggressive" handling settings which were published awhile back in Battle2win magazine they are as follows:  | ||
| Apex1 |
I have had good luck using the recommendations in the above chart. I took the old issue of Battle2Win out to the track with me thinking I could do some adjusting if needed, but ended up using the same setup I use on the street. | ||
| Stoobr2 |
For what it worth,I adjusted the suspension on my XB9s to Shawn Higbee's settings about 2 days after picking it up,and I was amazed at the difference a few minutes & a coupla turns/clicks made to the 9s ! | ||
| Leeaw |
Does this mess with the high speed stability at all? I have mine set at stock, but never really had a bike set up exactly for me. | ||
| Darthane |
Leeaw, there's nothing short of completely @$#^*ing up the bike that will make a Firebolt anything but rock steady at highways speeds. I have mine at 4.5 front preload and 2 ramps on the rear. I'd have to check the compression/rebound. I'm pretty happy with it, although the front could still use some tweaking for lower-speed stuff. I'm 135lbs and maybe another 10-15 for average riding. Bryan | ||
| Stoobr2 |
Setting the suspension to Shawn Higbee's recomendation will only (my opinion) improve on Buells recomendations in the handbook,which was way to harsh,especially for our poorly maintained roads in the London Suburbs. I very much doubt you will "unbalance" the XB as it is built to be a pretty stable package anyway. | ||
| Kaudette |
Keep in mind that the S and R models have slightly difference suspension setting as the S has less weight over the front wheel - specifically in the corners... | ||
| Leeaw |
I just upped the preload on the rear to 4 and left everything else stock. I am 192lbs. Rain today, no play  | ||
| Kevinfromwebb |
Is the Higbee chart for Lightnings,Firebolts, or both??? Kevin | ||
| Darthane |
I believe the Higbee chart was from his experiences with a 9R. | ||
| Kevinfromwebb |
Cool... Thanks, Bryan... Kevin | ||
| M1combat |
Anyone know where to go to get good info on exactly how motorcycle suspension works?? I know about cars (A little anyway) and if anyone is interested in car suspension go to corner-carvers.com. edited by m1combat on September 29, 2003 | ||
| Hippo888 |
Thanks for the input guys. My experience with the XB9S is that, in turns, it really pushes back on the bars or wants to stand up. I noticed that most of the settings above are trying to put more weight on the front wheel or decrease the front ride height. When I tried this, steering effort during the turn seemed to increase -- I always needed to push harder against the bars to prevent the bike from standing up. I finally found an article in the Sport Rider, Oct.2002 issue, that confronts this. They increase front ride height immensely. Experimenting, I increased my front ride height a total of ~6.0mm (as measured on the fork tubes). The steering finally becomes neutral -- no more pushing back or standing up in corners, except if you get on the brakes or roughly chop the throttle and dive the front end. I'm really confused now. What I did was to basically increase rake and trail. Steering should have gotten heavier and the bike should want to return to center (stand up) more. Instead, steering stayed about the same (a little heavier to initiate a turn I think), but the bike no longer wants to stand up at all. It's neutral through the turn without having to add any steering pressure through a turn. Weird. Paul in MI | ||
| Bradj |
This thread has been dead for a while, but I thought I would add something for posterity's sake.... I have been riding my XB9SL a bit more aggressively lately...and the more aggressively I have been riding, the less I have been enjoying it. The bike's handling has been driving me nuts... it has been diving in curves and under braking, it has been hard to keep it down in the curves, and I have had a couple of incidences of front end jitter under hard braking. I was getting scared of the bike and had begun to shop for a replacement. The symptoms I was experiencing suggested that the suspension was too soft, but I had the suspension set up for 210-230 pounds per the manual, and I didn't think there was much more I could do. I spent a night searching through these threads and came across Shawn Higbee's aggressive suspension settings from Battle2win magazine. I changed the suspension settings this afternoon and went for a 100-120 mile ride that included in-town, rural straights, and mountain twisties...all on varying pavement. The results were amazing... it's like I have purchased another bike! I've given up some comfort, but it's a trade I'm more than happy to make, as I was ready to wash the bike, take a photo, and post it for sale...all based on the way it had been handling the last few times I had been on it. If you are experiencing some oddities with your XB's handling, try Higbee's settings as a baseline rather than the those in the manual. | ||
| Easyflier |
Bradj, if you haven't already done so a good set of tires really changes the feel of the bike too, for the better. |
