Fazer 1000 Suspension woes and more

[kebab19]

Just a final say on my own FZS1000 front-end experience, which unfortunately has been considerable.
First FZS1000 owned 2009-2013

1. Ravenrider spring mod & 5w oil.  Too Harsh
   
2. Hyperpro springs and 2.5w oil. A bit of an improvement over standard, but not enough for me.
   
3. 4VX R1 fork conversion. Much better, but standard springs were soft.  Ordered linear springs.
   
4. 5JJ R1 forks with Ohlins internals & the linear springs. Popped up whilst I was flush so went for 'em.  Perfect, but I wasn't working for a while & ran out of money around 2012, so had to sell them again.
   
5. 5SL R6 forks. Very good compared to standard Fazer forks, but standard Japanese valving is never as good as aftermarket stuff.
   

Current FZS1000 2017-present.

1. Linear fork springs & 2.5w oil. Damping felt harsh.
   
2. Stripdown of forks, new bushes & seals then linear springs back in with 5w oil. Still felt harsh no matter what way I turned the dampers. Realised that the damping valves were the problem.
   
3. Racetech Compression & Rebound valves, along with 5w, then 7.5w oil. Rebound is perfect, still tinkering a bit with compression settings hence fork oil changes.
   

I'm probably a bit fussy over forks... but there is no getting away from the fact that on bumpy roads the standard valving is poor.  Different weight fork oils can mask this but cannot cure it.