Hi Kebabus. I think most FZS1000 riders would recognise the feeling you're getting from the front fork. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) there are two problems - the forks have too much compression damping and the standard springs are not strong enough to support the weight of bike + hefty European rider (that's me, by the way!)
This means that the fork does not soak up small bumps or bumps that arrive very quickly because the compression damping doesn't give the fork time to react. Unfortunately, you also get a lot of fork dive because the springs aren't strong enough to support the weight. This means that owners tend to keep increasing the compression damping to stop it diving, but that only makes matters worse.
Increasing or decreasing preload doesn't work either as that only sets the ride height and has little, if any, effect on how the forks soak up bumps.
Fazers have a lot more fork travel than sports bikes which is great for council speed bumps but again, it does mean the forks dive quite heavily when you brake, and again, the temptation is to try and increase preload and compression to stop it happening.
Transverse ridges really make it kick, I've found. There's a bit of A road near me where there is a 90mph bend with stutter bumps and it clatters off those like a bastard. My Kawasaki feels completely different on that bend, much much smoother. If you can, get on a quiet bit of road, look down through the fairing and watch the fork legs and just see how much they're going up and down on small bumps. It's a dangerous thing to do, obviously, but you'll probably find that it's only really big bumps that make the fork leg move at all. The good news is that with all that travel, on properly bumpy roads you can ride faster than sports bikes! Nothing beats a Fazer down the Col de La Bonnette in France.The thing to do is install stiffer springs (around 80-100 quid), increase the amount of fork oil by half an inch or so, and then slacken off the compression a couple of clicks from the manual settings. The stiffer springs and smaller air gap help with the fork dive, so you can then run less compression damping. I'm still experimenting with the compression settings, but at present I have more controlled dive when braking and less kick over small bumps which is good.
This is what I have done because it's within my spannering abilities, but it's by no means a complete fix. For that you have to start spending serious money on a fork revalve or fit a front end from an R1. They're not brilliant options financially, either of them. Revalves seem to start at £500 and go up, and that's getting on for a fifth of the cost of the bike in the first place. There is also a chap called RavenRider on the USA forum who modified the springs and spacers on his Fazer with some success and for very little money.
http://www.yamahafz1oa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31941I didn't want to start hacking my springs around, so I just bought some help in shape of Ohlins.
Has anyone else got any tips?