Suspension check

Has anyone played around with a cable tie on the front forks to get the right amount of travel ? I played around with mine and found i had
30 mm unused .Total amount of travel available is 130mm.I believe i should be aiming for 10mm unused so i'm going to unwind the preload.
I would be interested if anyone who has had their front suspension "professionally tuned "if they end up with 10mm unused.
If these numbers are wrong please let me know.Here is a pic of what mine looked like after a normal ride.Was wet though so i might have
to allow for that.

Gus, I would say that you use the preload adjustment to get the right amount of sag, 30 - 40 mm seems to be the consensus, and then select springs that control the amount of travel, which for your average 80Kg rider will be about 1.0 kg/mm. Then, finally select the damping to suit the springs, this will involve new/modified compression/rebound valves. Then top it all off with a quality fork brace as long 43mm right-side-up forks are a little flexy.

Springs + forkbrace + 5wt oil will be a good bang for buck solution.

Think you might be right .I set preload to get right amount of sag 30-40 mm but end up with to much unused travel.No easy fix.

If you have rider sag set to 30-40mm then don't worry yourself with how much travel you haven't used. The more important thing is that you are not topping out or bottoming out too often.


Going by the pic (which is a uber inaccurate way to tell) it looks like you are pretty much getting as much travel as it's guna get.
Did you take static/bike sag into account in your calculations, which can be anywhere between 5 and 15mm.

Pretty sure i did ,i'll check it again today. That's helpful to know the 30-40mm is the more important one. It was wet the other day so
there is no way i was braking as hard as normal.I leave it as it is and give it a hard run and measure again. Read some people thought
the front susp. was hard .i always thought it soft but i was comparing it to my Aprilia which is rock (read too ) hard.I been trying to
make it harder (bandit) so may have been going the wrong way.

Thing is Gus its hard too soft and too hard at the same time. The spring rate is soft, from memory its something like .75 mm/kg, but they compensate by having a lot of compression damping. This way they get a suspension which feels really plush especially over small sharp bumps like concrete highway expansion joints. Downside comes when you start to push on bumpy back roads, then the heavy compression damping takes over and starts kicking back and you bounce off things. This is why, to do it properly you need to revise springing and compression and rebound damping (which will be insufficient for the 25% heavier spring rate). Cheap improvement is 5wt oil with say 10-20mm more oil level.

Cheers

Ok got that. Now its starting to make sense.Have shy-ed away from the more power thing but keen on getting it set up right.
Overdue for fork oil so I'll try that since i'm changing it anyway.Getting close to being back at work so looking forward to a pay.
MPE who does raceteck and gold valves is not to far away so might pay him a visit . Thanks for everyone's help.

Plan on draining the fork oil tomorrow .

Manual says 472cc each leg, will a litre be enough with the extra 10-22mm i'm adding.?

Manual says 143 mm ,so if i make it 160mm i'll be o.k. ? (to the top of innertube,no spring,compressed )

Other way Gus, you want a higher oil level so that you get more 'air spring' effect as the volume of remaining air is compressed, so let's say 125 or 130 mm from the fork top. Probably take something like 490 - 500 ml per leg.

Cheers Peter

Sorry ,i'm adding oil so the air measurment is smaller.Thanks.

Did the fork oil change to 5w +17mm and feels good.Was a bit worried with 5w it might feel soft .Been either stinking hot or raining here
normally both at the same time.I'll reset preload and try again.Changing the fork oil was an easy job with no special tools needed
3 hands would have been good at times but a simple process. Oil that come out had done 33.ooo and looked pretty clean.
I'll put a cable tie around fork to see how it compares just for interest.

Gus I spoke to Paul at MPE a while ago about gold valves etc & he reckoned the standard componentry is of a decent quality but a bit mushy so gold valves aren't necessary just a rehashing of the shim stack & stiffer racetech springs, haven't got to it yet due to a chronic lack of funds but it's the next project on my agenda.

Have taken the bike for a decent spin ,front forks definitely feel better (5W-18mm extra ).Hard to say "how" but feel like they are
compressing and rebounding more smoothly as if they are not fighting each other.Thanks Dekenai and every one for their help.
Now to the rear which no feels a bit hard.