| Author | Message | ||
     Vospertw |
All, Attended a suspension clinic today where everyone had sag measurements taken/adjusted. I had my 09 Ss adjusted per the manual and my weight before arriving. Long story short, my sag was excessive front and rear. I'm 180 in my birthday suit, figure 190-195 in leathers, boots, helmet, etc. I'm 6'2" with a long torso as well, so that may change things from the normal guy - I probably have more weight distributed forward. Not sure if it's still available, but I see Buell has a suspension kit for the XB. I did some searching in the Tech section and found a reference to the stock fork spring rate of .85 kg/mm. Same post also mentioned that the suspension kit fork springs are .90 kg/mm. Questions: 1. I'm assuming the suspension kit would fit the Ss? Not sure if the rear shock is the same as the basic Lightning but I'm more interested in the fork springs anyway. 2. Do I have the right info on the fork spring rates? I also looked at the Race Tech spring rate calculator. Depending on what I use for "semi-wet" bike weight, I get recommended spring rates of .91 and .94 (using 450 lbs or 470 lbs - 471 being the wet weight listed by MCN for 06 Ss). Of course, the only data they have is for an 04 Firebolt, so no idea if it's an apples-to-apples comparison. | ||
| Froggy |
The 09 SS shares nothing about the suspension with the standard lightning. The kit will not fit. That said I honestly don't know the fork rates. | ||
| Vospertw |
Thanks Froggy. I guess I can pull mine out, check the free length and have the rate tested... and then start hunting for something a bit stiffer. My shock spring will do the trick as long as I don't get much fatter! | ||
| Rsh |
Could you not get your bike's suspension adjusted to the "suspension clinics" recommended sag numbers? There are no set in stone sag values. It is only a "known" starting point. Most "clinics" start off with the usual 35mm front, 25mm rear sag. True you may not be able to to achieve those sag numbers, but if you are in the ballpark without having your preload maxed out, you are good to go. On the street you want a bit more sag than you want for the track. The main thing is how does your suspension work for you? | ||
| Vospertw |
Rsh, I agree with you; here's the skinny... When I bought the bike, I set all suspension settings according to the manual for a 190lbs rider. First look at sag on Saturday gave me 45+mm on both ends. That seemed a bit excessive. I was shooting for 30mm, which would be a good compromise for aggressive street riding/track day. However, I could only get to 38mm on the front. The max preload setting on the rear shock gave me 32mm, the number "6" position gave me 37mm - so called it a day. Would like stiffer fork springs to allow reducing that even more so I can experiment with it at the track. However - it's probably close enough for most riding conditions and feels pretty good right now. | ||
| Rsh |
Depending how you look at it, the issue with the latest XB12Ss is that it has the long travel suspension that the XB12STT used to have. Softer springs were used to take advantage of the long travel, and with that combination come's more sag which works great for the street, especially on rough roads. The best you can do is balance the suspension as best you can, you do not want the front and rear fighting each other. Having the front and rear compress and rebound equally does wonders. You can adjust the geometry in front to effect turn in, unfortunately the rear does not have height adjustment, only preload, but it can be adjusted to aid in finishing a corner if the bike exits wide. You probably learned that at the suspension clinic. As Froggy said, I don't know of anyone making a kit for your bike. If you really want the suspension set up, you would have to talk with the suspension specialists. Just a side note. One of the worst things you could do would be make large geometry or radical suspension changes and head directly to a track or your favorite twisties and start riding aggressively, and finding out your bike doe's not react in a way you were previously in tune with. (Message edited by rsh on May 24, 2010) (Message edited by rsh on May 24, 2010) | ||
| Vospertw |
Rsh - Again, agree. I sent an email to Erik Buell Racing this weekend asking for a recommendation. As you note, the sag settings based on the manual came out to be almost exactly on the old 1/3 - 2/3 rule for long travel suspension (use it all the time on my dual sports). Maybe this will be a good compromise for the track and I can roll it back to manual specs for the street. Some of our back roads in San Diego county are not what I would call "smooth" - which is one reason I thought the Ss would be a great little bike for around here and the occasional track day as a bonus. |
