| Author | Message | ||
     Terribletim |
Ok gang, here's the deal. I've read some of the "suspension guides" and still need a little guidance. I put the XB through some pretty aggressive riding this weekend for me. I am not one of those knee-scraping guys, I'm just not brave enough yet. But, I did throw it in a few real hard, tight ones laying over enough to be proud of what I was doing. Here's the deal though. It feels like it kind of bounces over the bumps, washing out when it does. You can feel it sort of hit the bump and skip to the side if that makes sense. I don't like it. Should I go softer on the settings? If so, how? | ||
| M1combat |
Front or rear? I would start by setting rider sag. Do a search on that. | ||
| M1combat |
Also set the damping to the specs listed in the manual for your weight. The manual says how to do that. | ||
| Dentguy |
Not sure if you mean the suspension bounces and then looses tire contact,feeling spongy or if it is so stiff that it isn't moving enough to keep tire contact with the road. Check tire pressure first then as M1combat said start in the manual for your weight and set spring preload, compression and rebound then try it. Good luck. | ||
| Midknyte |
I weigh only about 150 lbs - the low end of the settings range. As I improved my form, my rear tire would skip/slide a little too. I've reduced the compression damping of the rear shock to fix - a half turn reduction from the recommended settings. Note - When you go making adjustments, do just one thing at a time so you know what made the difference... | ||
| Terribletim |
I was talking about both front and rear. It feels like the whole bike skips, not just one end. Relating to my racecar feelings, I would say it feels too stiff to keep contact with road. What pressures do you guys run? Most of my riding is city, commute to work type stuff. Once in a while I get to really get after it. What was it someone said? "These things provide more fun than allowed in city limits!" That's for sure! I've already gotten a couple "reminders" of that. I'm about 185 pounds. Couldn't tell ya' the settings on the bike as I'm not sure where to look. I haven't changed anything on it since purchase. It was the shop demo bike, so I would assume it's still at factory settings. I did put Pirelli Diablos on it. I'm also sure my form ain't the greatest. Like I said, I haven't fully overcome the "fear-factor" yet. Body work is expensive, and I'm not young any more! | ||
| Midknyte |
I have the OEM Dunlops on mine. I run at to a pound over on pressures. If you allow them to run low, the bike feels heavy in turns. I would not suggest reducing tire pressures to gain traction. I'd work on suspension settings first. | ||
| M1combat |
I WOULD suggest lowering pressure to get more traction but only if that's the thing that is "best" for what's going on. You NEED to set the suspension for your weight. Do it. Now. Read the manual. You either have one or you can find them on Buell.com. Set it then ride it. Once you've done that then we know where you're starting from and we can help you. If you prefer more aggressive settings that work do a search for "Shawn Higbee". Do it. Don't give us any excuses... As an aside... I run 30F/32R up to 32F/34R. I've found that at 30/32 I get better mileage out of my tires on long highway runs. I think it's because there's a wider strip on the road... On the track I move it to a one pound difference or I end up sliding the rear around a little more than I like. | ||
| Terribletim |
I have the repair manual, but not the owners manual. Are the adjustments covered in the repair manual or only the owners manual? | ||
| Xl1200r |
Tim, I'm not sure you're "problem" is really a problem. I would check the suspension settings as other suggested, but you have to remember that suspension on a bike only works like the suspension on a car when the bike isn't leaned over any. When you're going through a turn hot, there's a lot of force pushing you to the outside of the turn. When you hit something like a divot in the road surface, the bike is technically falling further than the hole is deep because it's traveling both sideways and downward. Now put the ineffectiveness of the suspesnion while leaned over into play. Jack your bike up and take off the rear shock. Push up on the wheel. It moves. Now push up, but push from a 45 degree angle off the side - not so easy anymore. In essence, the suspension settings get exponentially stiffer as the bike leans over. I have my bike setup correctly, but a bump in the road when you cranked over hard is still going unsettle the chassis. | ||
| Terribletim |
I have my bike setup correctly, but a bump in the road when you cranked over hard is still going unsettle the chassis. Seemed a bit "un-nerving" though. I'll tweak it some as soon as I figure out "where" to tweak. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Yeah - unnerving to one may not be to another. When you have those forces going on with the bike in that kind of condition, it's going to be pretty easy to upset the chassis. It only happens to me with some pretty serious changes in the road surface - things that will unsettle my car going through the same turn to some degree. | ||
| Cataract2 |
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| Rsh |
Looking at your profile it says you have a 2003 XB9R. The service manual lists settings for your weight and riding/road conditions table 1-10 for preload, table 1-11 for damping. | ||
| Terribletim |
Cool, thanks Rsh. I'll crack it open. Hopefully I will get some time this weekend to tweak it a bit. Then I need some time to "test" it a bit.  | ||
| Jraice |
First off has your front fork oil ever been changed? I think the service interval is 10,000 miles, might want to look into that. Next, before playing with the settings, as everybody has already stated, get to the baseline. Buells are known for needing well setup suspension to handle well. If you think you have stock settings and are 185 pounds then you are to far from a good starting place to start making changes... So set it up as recommended in the manual then use the guide to make changes to increase comfort, reduce turn in effort, etc... etc... Also I have heard the controls are very sensitive, 1/4 turn makes a huge difference. I was just looking through my manual for the first time, very helpful info, I dont think I ride (yet) hard enough to need much adjustment but I am going to insure that my bike is setup for my weight and also plan to play around with increasing rear preload one level (only difference between my weight bracket and the next one) to see how it rides with the reduced steering effort. |
