Can I ask all you owners of 1200s and 1260s Multistrada's how much front suspension travel you see in real world use. I'm having continuous problems with my 1260S which I won't bore you with suffice to say, after having a the BBS unit replaced with a used one I'm now seeing about 75mm of travel as oppose to 55mm with the old knackered BBS unit. The bike still feels really stiff and does not handle bumpy backroads anywhere near like it did and I'm getting knocked about a lot. I have tried the suspension in medium, soft and softer with little difference but even in softest, down the bumpiest road, I still have 100mm of travel left and it feels terrible, this can't be right. The front preload is on zero turns and I've even had the checked out by a suspension specialist who said the fork is working fine so it must be the electronics. No errors on the dash. Any help appreciated as I feel I'm going mad. Cheers Rob
When you say ‘zero turns’, where from? Preload is usually stated as turns back from full - ie anticlockwise from max. So if that’s where yours is, I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s behaving like a cast iron pogo stick!
Should have been more specific. I have zero preload i.e. fully anti-clockwise. It's with a suspension specialist. Looks like it is the solenoid in the active (left) leg. Two problems for the price of one. Still be interested to know how much fork leg movement you guys get mind for future reference.
With sky hook, it's not about the amount of travel you have available as the forks don't act like standard forks. What I mean by this is, the preload is only going to do so much, and with skyhook you can't just wind off all preload, hop on the bike for a ride and wonder why it's only using 40mm of travel. The compression and rebound are continuously adjusted for the riding mode you're in. For example, if you're in urban, the forks will be very soft and you'll see more travel used. In sport, it'll be the opposite (within reason and a large pinch of salt dependant on how you ride). Your original post is also confusing as you're saying you are seeing 75mm of travel yet you're being kicked all over. I'd suggest the following as a starting point - reset all values of the ride modes to default, wind the front preload to midday and go for a test ride on a repeatable road (NOT just a ride out, find a stretch of road you can run up and down for a couple of hours) and wind out and in the preload either way methodically until you find a spot you like. Then after that's done, fine tune the settings in the bikes menu to your liking - sport being hard, urban being very soft, touring two up having max rear preload etc. Here is a document I made eons ago that isn't very well setup, but gives an idea of how skyhook uses rear preload over the riding modes. Remember, front preload is it's own unit, not controlled by the bikes software, hence set all to default and then https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...DILY2v9rU1XqusM3o-431giTa1Q/edit?usp=drivesdk In the document, S is single rider, S+ is rider with luggage, D is two up D+ is 2 up with luggage Edit: I'd also suggest using the enduro mode as your 'development' profile if you want to change a bunch of settings and play around without impacting the main ride modes. Unless you use enduro that is, I use it for various track/fast riding options. If only ducati allowed relabelling.
Thanks for the info, it was very informative but I feel I have wasted your time. All I want to know is if anyone out there, for whatever reason, has looked at the amount of travel on the front forks? Before I had problems I'd see about 125mm (front suspension set at default/medium)-135mm (softest) of movement down bumpy back roads set up in enduro mode. I know I have a problem with my front suspension which is getting resolved but just got me curious to see if anyone else has taken the time to measure movement. I know how skyhook, preload and the different modes work but thanks again for the comprehensive reply.
Do a search on here for preload turns by weight. Lots of discussion and relative consensus about the right turns for each KG (it’s old threads). I can’t remember the values as it’s been a long time since I have one.
