Sag settings

[locksmith]

After reading Pitternators tale of woe and subsiquent descriptions of his suspension behavior I was trying to understand mine yesterday.
My current conclusions are that the front seems to feel like it's jarring my arms when hitting a bump and the rear seems to ride a bump ok but tries to throw me out of the saddle a little after the initial bump.
When giving it the beans over a particulaly bumpy stretch the steering was everywhere and I wasn't in control. I was being thrown about all over the place and had to back off pretty quick befor being possibly thrown off.
I know static sag is my first port of call. I did stiffen the preload, both front and rear when I got the bike, so thats not standard.
What measurement of sag should I be aiming for and where should I start adjusting for my above findings?
 

[mcyoungy]

if it's jarring and kicking off bumps then your increasing the preload was probably a move in the wrong direction.

static sag is generally accepted as being set to 30 - 35% of suspension travel. setting sag is a useful starting point but is not an end in itself. it need not be that precise.

if it were me I'd set it to the handbook then ride it and adjust from there. from your description I'd back off the front compression by a couple of clicks and add a couple of clicks rear rebound then ride again on the same stretch of road. there is no golden rule - suspension setup is down to individual taste.

[ghostbiker]

Was allways told only alter one setting at a time, as such try adding some rear rebound first to stop it throwing you up affter a bump. There is a good walkthrough somewhere on here that was once linked. I would look but I am on the mobile and it hates multi pages.

[sadlonelygit]

how heavy are you and are you using standard springs?
before mike gets on here and tells you all about it.......the front springs are bi-rate(progressive) with @0.7kg/mm initial boing and then a beefy 1.2kg/mm secondary boing.
it does sound to me like you are using up the intial (soft part) travel with sag adjustment and leaving the heavier rated bit of the spring to do the majority of the work. the jarring/harshness may well be where the two rates meet mid stroke.
as for the back end, if it's standard it will probably be woefully undersprung and by now devoid of the majority of it's damping.
as has been said many times, there is a lot of room for improvement with Fazer suspension.

[mcyoungy]

I'd assumed the bike was a Gen 2 as per profile?

[locksmith]

Woops should have said, Gen2  2009 under 4000 miles on her and I'm now 14 stone in me undies !!

[Tmation]

Check out hot poop on here http://foc-u.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Suspension_setup_advice then look at the gostar racing link for more info http://www.gostar-racing.com/information/motorcycle_suspension_set-up.htm

[sadlonelygit]

oops........fookstix.

ok, possibly too much front compression damping or too much oil. come back 2 clicks at a time until it gets better/worse.
likewise the rear sounds like too much compression as well.

good luck

[pitternator]

Hi lock
What you describe is actually how my gen1 forks felt pre K tech service. They only change oil and any worn bits, so possibly thats what you could look at doing . I am much happier with my forks post service. I still get some feedback on bumps through the bars but its softer. However I do think if you have decent weight matched springs or stronger its possible we will always have this.I posed the question on my thread about thoughts on which way to go with damping adjustment on strong springs...my logic being that reducing damping could it make this worse as the springs can react more ? Maybe try putting in more comp damping just to see effect. If reducing comp damping is wrong way to go, by reducing it more, then its always gonna feel poor.KTech also reckoned not to reduce rebound damping at all btw.....at the moment I reckon my ride quality could be better,  it does take time to do all this experimenting, so a solution could be some time .... !
I remember my 06 FZ-1 had quite strong springs all round....but I did think they had softened them on later bikes.
Also try pm ing Dek - he is the guru for all things gen2.
cheers

[locksmith]

Cheers guys, I'll have to start trying things out. Main problem being lack of time and good weather.
Sundays ride was my first since last September     apart from getting it mot'd in March when it was 
Maybe thats why it felt wrong as I'm not used to it?

[mcyoungy]

before you do anything else check your tyre pressures

[Slaninar]