28-04-17, 10:29 PM
I got the Fazer back from my mechanic today, apparently the fork oil was disgusting, it was full of water and had obviously never been changed. So after cleaning them out he decided to go to base settings and replaced the oil with 10w and the preload with 5 rings showing and 4 steps from minimum at the rear. The ride back home along some bloody awful roads convinced me that I needed to spend some proper money, it was still jarring and horrible. I was reluctant to wind the up preload cos when I did that before the oil change it was virtually unrideable. Anyway, I did a very rough sag reading with a cable tie from on the centrestand to me sat on it and it was over 2 inches so I wound it in to 3 rings showing and got it to around 30 mm and took it out again, it was a bit better but still not great and the back was harsh and bouncy so I wound that up to 4 from max and rode down the same road again. The bike was transformed, it's still not perfect but it feels controlled and so much smoother and steers properly now, it was understeering horribly in corners. It's certainly no worse than many other bikes I've owned. The biggest surprise is how much difference stiffening up the rear, makes to the feel of the front. I may still do some fiddling but I'm happy enough at the minute. I think if I do anything else to them soon, I'll replace the springs for linears and hold off on the emulators until I'm convinced I need them as per Tommy's advice. Thanks to everyone for their input :thumbup