...I'll swap data with you regarding where to put your tax disc! Ha....under your seat so it won't get nicked!
Lol not messed with mine yet, but struggled y'day with it in touring on dodgy uneven ground and wearing leathers not jeans. And thats without messing with settings!, lol I need mine set on urban or its not soft enough to 'bounce' when Inflip the bike from the side stand and hop to the other leg. Tbh makes me wonder if I can really mess with it too much, as I do find the rear feels low and squats when riding under power so needs more something....oh and did find again it hoiks the front easy so firmer rear would make wheelies even easier! Oh and dealer fitted my disc at PDI ;-)
The GT has the comfort/touring seat which is more padded hence taller. Higher loadouts increase the preload and rideheight. Don't forget, the GT has bigger lids, so they may have upped the preload even more. I usually switch back to solo when pillion getting off just in case. I know many posters simply increase loadout, but not knowing if the damping algorithms are also different, I decided to stick customise the loadouts than to switch them completely. It is clear after touring fully loaded with 3 piece luggage that the bike is optimised for loads and pillions. Or perhaps you could say its most comfortable when carrying stuff. Fuel economy's not even affected. Solo riding, its sportier and more motard-ish. Maybe the front preload needs to be reduced as well. The Solo Urban is most certainly off for most riders. I'm 75kg which is just under 12 stone. The rear is more planted when I up the preload from 1 to 7. The front I find is too firm on medium setting. Maybe it would be better if I could drop the preload. But anyway, I have switched to medium soft and is more comfortable and doesn't skip on bumps now. Better yet is that the forks compress more when throttling off, making it easier for tight turns and miniroundabouts in London. Not have the chance to go on open road since I thought about twiddling the suspension. Upped the preload to 12 which seems ok. May soften the front again and see what its like. As I said, just start with preload.
I'm picking up my DSS 2013 this week Does nobody here measure sag and adjust accordingly, or is it a matter of pressing buttons until it feels right? I'm hoping I can turn everything to lowest settings , measure sag, then adjust the rear to suit by adding preload via the display On the front I assume I can measure and adjust as per normal? Am I missing something or is this the right approach?
Have a play, best way Where I always set up front/rear sag on my spots bikes, I never have on the multi tbh.
I found this article useful (Suspension Setup) just to fill in some gaps on the theory of setting up your bike. Even as a longtime mechanic and ex-motocross racer, it helped with the approach to setting up your bike as a simple and effective process to follow (with added details on the effects of the changes as road bikes are obviously very different to the off road variety). After reading this I went through some tweaks and found that it was the damping and rebound settings that made more of a difference to the handling and overall confidence and feel the bike gave back. As an overview to my current (final?) set-up for Urban (Touring and Sport yet to conquer), I'll say that I weigh 85Kg and am running two Urban modes for single rider. Single rider load setting is medium soft front and soft rear with pre-load set to 3. The load setting rider with luggage is set to medium soft rear and medium front with the pre-load set to around 5. Ive found that these settings give me the ultimate balance between comfort at the slowest urban speeds (30 - 40mph) in rider only mode with the benefit of getting comfort and a little performance with confidence (30 - 60mph) with the rider and luggage setting. As for the load setting for rider with pillion and rider with pillion and luggage, these are currently set to default at present (medium - medium and high pre-load) as I'm not interested in setting lap times with a pillion and/or luggage. These two settings have significantly increased pre-load to address your sag issue and for the most part work for what I have carried thus far (you cant go higher than 24 and they are set to this level!). Hope this helps!
I'll try I really need a heavier spring when I can be bothered! Having only done 3500 and no long journeys it's not something that is essential yet. But it certainly does like a bit of a wallow at full track-pace and I don't like having the rear too hard as I found (ouch moment) that it unloads the rear and means very little traction when braking hard and turning
I obviously don't know you so I wont assume you know anything or everything or if you are heavy or light etc.... But, I'd like to say two things. One is that the article I posted on suspension setup really helped me with the dynamics of the bike setup and the felling (even without looking at Sport mode just yet!) and second, I'm seeing plenty of people doing amazing lap times on the Multi so imo the wallowing should be a fixable thing.. Curious to hear your thoughts on that..
I'm around 120kg right now, with only short inside leg so like it compliant for everyday riding. Only ride alone but still think spring is too light. I did Oulton, managed under 2'05 without going mental or risking me or bike but grinding my pegs and centr stand on most corners a bit. But I found if you up the preload and firm it too much, which I did on the original SH model and it worked brilliantly on track, the rear feels far looser and slides as the front just isn't as controlled as Gen1 SH imo. On the road, it's fine and doesn't as although I may be making progress I'm not heavy breaking etc. I do take roundabouts slower now, just in case..
It's also been discussed quite s bit that SH needs to operate in the right range of it over compensates elsewhere. So some, especially 2-up, find the ride a little harsh as they reduce the preload to make softer but electronics take over.
Thanks for the feedback. Seems everything you said fits with what I've currently read/seen/experienced. I'm 3,000 miles into owning my first road bike and I have to say I'm loving it. I've nothing to compare it to (unless you count my OR50 or RG125 from about 25 years go lol) so am really liking how the technology is helping me adjust to the 150HP it chucks out. I've also only ridden in winter so looking forward to feeling the beast in summer and hitting the touring routes.
