Mr. Feejur is my weekend canyon carver and my long distance tour machine. Here in N. Cal we have thousands of miles of twisty roads. Some are nicely paved but many are rutted, potholed and pretty goaty, especially where I live. I like to ride aggressively. A B+ group street rider. I'm finding that I can't get the suspension dialed in the way I want it. If I tighten things up so its doesn't feel like it's hinged in the middle and won't wobble around, the ride is harsh and the bumps all feel like they're square. When I hit a bump mid corner, I want it to keep tracking and be predictable.
Mostly why a stock bike suspension makes bumps feel sharp us because they are in-compliant to fast impulse inputs. The reason is because people dial up their front compression damping to reduce fork dive and that causes the high speed damping to be too stiff. Ideally, you would want lots of slow speed compression damping to combat changes in pitch, but a very compliant high speed damping to soak up those high speed bump inputs. And that can be accomplished. All it takes is money.
The way it works is that the basic low speed damping is controlled by the size of the orifices that go past the compression damper adjusters. So, they can be dialed in to suit your needs. But adding more damping from those adjusters causes excessive high speed compression damping because that is not adjustable. The high speed damping is predetermined by the shim stack in the compression valve and the fork oil weight. Trying to guess what you need in the shim stack is near impossible. You need a suspension shop to help you set that up. The easiest way is to get them to build you new valves to install, or have them install them for you.
You can also put lower weight fork oil in, which will quicken both the high speed and low speed compression rate, but may cause the slow compression to be inadequate. And also, Yamaha fork oil is nearly the thinnest stuff available so you don’t have much range in that direction anyway.
Part of the reason that folks over-dial up the compression damping is because their bikes are undersprung for the weight it is carrying, so getting a more appropriate spring helps you back off that compression, which makes it more compliant over the bumps. Kind of counterintuitive that putting a stiffer spring in improves compliance, but it’s true in the long run.
Many folks have had good luck with replacement fork valves and springs from one of the big suspension places, and a good double adjustable shock like a Penske with appropriate spring. It made a world of difference on my first gen. Installing the valves in the forks myself cut the expense greatly. I think I only paid about $300 for the replacement fork valves (both compression and rebound) plus the cost of whatever shock you get.
