New suspension settings

[pensacolafjr]

what an awesome thread.....................just picked up a 2003 FJ......I'm about 220 lbs.......anyone have some road tested numbers to pass to me????

I'll start with what was suggested and work from there.................

many thanks.......................

 

[pensacolafjr]

what an awesome thread.....................just picked up a 2003 FJ......I'm about 220 lbs.......anyone have some road tested numbers to pass to me????I'll start with what was suggested and work from there.................

many thanks.......................

bump

 

[HaulinAshe]

There's more to it than just rider weight. Height, inseam and many other factors affect what makes the best settings for you personally.

Start with the original settings I posted early in this thread. They were based on a Gen-I/'05. Then go two(2) clicks less front compression (bottom clickers). Test it, ride it, record everything.

The less clicks of compression and rebound, the stiffer the ride. At 220 your weight is not that much different than mine.

Just don't forget, you have an '03 and it may need fork service or possibly a new rear shock.

 

[pensacolafjr]

got it...............many thanks....................learning everything I can.....................many thanks

 

[dll]

Silly question, when we refer to the # of lines of preload is a "2" with two silver rings showing, or is the nut itself counted as 1?

Dan

 

[dll]

I have an 06 AE model, am about 185 with full riding gear, 6'3, and am trying for a "comfortable" but still good handling combination. It feels like getting the bike to balance is going to be really difficult with so little adjustment available on the rear. I keep messing with the fronts, and can't seem to get it dialed in. I prefer a more upright riding style.

Any thoughts?

 

[Pepperell]

Bike (2004) has been feeling a little sloppy lately. :huh: I'd been blaming it on the PR2's (previously had Avon Azaros) although they're not obviously worn. Saw a reference to this topic on a tire rant, so I tried the settings way back at the beginning of the thread. Wow! :lol: What a difference. Unfortunatley, I see performance awards in my future because of the improvement...

Pepperell

 

[highcountry]

Silly question, when we refer to the # of lines of preload is a "2" with two silver rings showing, or is the nut itself counted as 1?
Dan

Your factory setting should be at three visible lines. You should see three lines if your bike is at factory settings; turn the nut clockwise if you desire two lines. Also, my manual shows the adjustment lines on pg 3-21.

 

[pmspaul]

My suspension settings from the previous owner were softer with less rebound and compression than stock configuration. I switched all my settings over to HaulinAshe's recommendations on page 1, but I left the rear preload on soft. I am 5'8" 215. These new settings made a dramatic change for the better. I went from a vague "wallowy" feel to very planted with a lot more feedback. I could see maybe backing off the compression a few clicks for long slab days, but otherwise these settings seem to be excellent for me so far.

 

[FeelinJustRight]

Alright, will keep this post going.

Made some suspension changes as follows:

Front

Preload 3 lines (same as original)

Rebound 8 clicks out (12 clicks original)

Compression 8 clicks out (12 clicks original)

Rear

SOFT

Rebound 6 clicks out (12 clicks original)

195lbs, no pillion, tire pressure 38/42

Rode 300+ miles today and shoulders and neck were extremely soar. Have not noticed this prior but this ride was ALL highway were as I have been riding nice twisty roads prior.

Will move front to 10 & 10 clicks and rear to 8 clicks and see what this does.

 

[cpsfjr]

Another satisfied customer here. Many thanks for the advice; it makes a substantial difference in the handling/cornering/ride. And, surprisingly, it also resulted in a noticeable reduction in bar vibration.

My initial settings: 2,13,13,12; revisions: 2,6,8,7 plus changed fork oil. Weight 180, no pillion, 40/42 psi.

So far the change feels great. The initial 50 mile ride was very stable and comfortable. Only one problem: a mile into the ride and couldn't get the stupid thing turned around. :lol:

Maybe some fine-tuning later. Much more "testing" tomorrow! :thumbsup:

 

[ducpilot]

Here are some notes from one of my suspension clinics from last year...

Suspension has two major jobs; first is to isolate the rider from the road, second is to keep the tire in contact with the road. Understanding your suspension allows you to ride within it’s limits, expand your abilities while exploring new limits, and know how to adjust and improve how it works. Learning advanced riding techniques will improve your suspensions ability to maintain traction more than any “upgrade” or adjustment. Often lack of riding technique will cause a bike to lose traction and fall down. When this happens riders frequently blame the tires, the road, or the suspension rather that the true cause... the rider!

Start with the basics:

• Ensure the wheels are balanced, if the wheels are out of balance, you may experience a vertical vibration and/or headshake.

• Set tire pressure (Use the tire manufactures recommendations not the sidewall pressure )

• Check steering head bearings and torque specifications (if too loose, there will be head shake at high speeds.)

• Inspect suspension components and suspension linkage for wear and condition

• Confirm correct spring rates with fork and shock sag set around 1/3 of its total travel

Formula for setting Static Spring Sag

Sag = L1 – [ (L2 + L3) / 2 ]

L1 = suspension free length – fully extended

L2 = rider, gear & bike, suspension raised and settled gently

L3 = rider, gear & bike, suspension compressed and released gently

• Note - you want around 1/3rd of the total suspension travel, if your preload adjustments are near max or min then you may need a different spring rate

Initial set-up

1. Set Static sag 35-42mm on the FJR and check for free sag (front 5-10 mm, rear 1-5mm)

2. Check for excess stiction (Front <10 mm good, >20mm bad, rear should be near 0)

3. Set rebound and compression settings on forks and shock to manufacture recommendations

4. Tune fork rebound

Front end should rebound and settle only a few mm, less for heavy rider, more for light riders (up to 15 mm)

For sport riding set as describe and then slowly tune out settling to 0mm

5. Tune fork compression (this is difficult to do static and is best done during test rides)

Softer = comfort

Harder = sport (Too much compression = headshake and reduced traction on bad roads or high speeds)

6. Tune shock rebound

• Press down hard, bike should return to full ride height in less that 1 second with a visible delay at the end of its travel

7. Tune shock compression (difficult to tune static… take it for a test ride)

Add more for sport riding or heavy loads

Less for Touring comfort, rough roads, or light weight riders.

www.pugetsoundsafety.com

 

[ducpilot]

If you decide to dive into suspension just remember there is not magic formula that will work for every rider... You have to learn how to ajust it to your riding style and need. The only way to find the "right" setting is to spend time learning your bike. BTW Racetech recently had some great deals on suspension component for the FJR. If you want to get the best deal and the sales guy isn't helpful ask for Matt Wiley (the GM) mention this forum and tell him Bret Tkacs from Puget Sound Safety recommended you give him a call to get your suspension set up. NO I don't work for them or get some a kick back.

Make sure if you decide to revalve the front forks that you do both the compression and rebound.. not just one!

Here is a little Tuning Guide to help you out, this assumes you have the correct spring rates and sag already

Front Suspension Tuning (Forks)

Lack of Rebound

• Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and traction

• The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting the turn causing fading traction and loss of control.

• When taking a corner at speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss of traction and control.

• Aggressive input at speed lesson control and chassis attitude suffers.

• Front end fails to recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces.

Too Much Rebound

• Front end feels harsh.

• Suspension packs causing the bike to skip over subsequent bumps and wants to tuck the front.

• Under hard acceleration, the front end may tank slap or shake violently due to lack of front wheel tire contact.

Lack of Compression

• Front-end dives severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or during aggressive breaking.

• Front feels soft or vague similar to lack of rebound.

• When suspension is compressed a clunk is heard due to bottoming the fork travel.

Too Much Compression

• Front end rides high through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide. It should maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering geometry to remain constant.

• Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to incorrect oil height and/or too much low speed compression damping.

• Bumps and ripples are felt directly in the triple clamps and through the chassis. This causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps.

• Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or entering turns.

Rear Suspension Tuning

Lack of Rebound

• The ride will feel soft or vague and as speed increases, the rear end will want to wallow and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers.

• Loss of traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock returning too fast on exiting a corner.

Too Much Rebound

• Ride is harsh, suspension control is limited and traction is lost.

• Rear end will pack, forcing the bike to run wide in corners due to rear squat. It will slow steer because front end is riding high.

• When chopping throttle, rear end will tend to skip or hop on entries.

Lack of Compression

• The bike will not want to turn in or feels heavy.

• Suspension may bottom causing a loss of control and traction.

• Excessive rear end squat, when accelerating out of corners, the bike will tend to steer wide.

Too Much Compression

• Ride is harsh, but not as bad as too much rebound. As speed increases, so does harshness.

• There is very little rear end squat. This will cause loss of traction/sliding.

• Rear end will want to kick out when going over medium to large bumps.

 

[TWILKIN650]

I read through this entire thread before posting my observations over the last few days and 500 miles of Texas Hill Country riding on an '05. I've put very few miles on this bike since i bought it in in '05 due to health problems, but am now back on track. The bike was bought new and I've ridden with the stock front and rear suspension settings for the last 12,000 miles. Not having found this thread before this past weekend's Hill Country riding, I was talking to one of the salesmen at Destination Cyclesports in Kerrville, Texas about my riding style and just generally kicking tires in the showroom. He mentioned that they had a tech who had been to a session on this at a Yamaha school, and had since set up a number of FJRs, and that suspension adjustments/setup was something they recommended and offered at the 600 mile checkup so that the rider would be able to better help them to make "before" and "after" comparisons and fine tune the adjustments.

I'd just spend the whole day riding over a wide variety of roads; everything from straight line runs to switchbacks, and planned similar riding the next day. I signed up for the adjustment, and answered a number of questions the tech had about my riding style, weight, how I kept my bags loaded, tire pressures, etc. After about an hour, I got the bike back with changes to settings similar to those that have been listed in this thread and had about 4mm of the fork tubes showing above the clamps. The tech told me to take it easy for a while and gradually work my way up to riding the same types of roads I had the day before and to bring it back for any fine tuning I felt it needed later in the day.

I'm not as savvy as many of you are about describing the symptoms of poor suspension setup but since new, my '05 seemed to require a lot of effort to keep it on a set line in sweepers from 40-80 mph, and a lot of trouble in making transitions from one corner to the next. I found myself worn out after more than a few houurs of wrestling the bike around corners. I found myself being uneasy entering corners at what I thought were reasonable entry speeds when following the lines of experienced riders in front of me. I also had a lot of trouble keeping the bike from wandering on the freeway and attributed this to either handling abnormalities caused by tires or my crappy riding skills.

The adjustments made by the tech in Kerrville made such a profound difference that I felt as if I were riding a completely different bike. And after a few hours I felt all of the problems I recounted above were completely eliminated. To summarize; the bike now fell into corners wherever I pointed my head, and tracked through through both sweepers and tight corners with no corrections needed. If I did need to change my line in mid-corner, it was easily accomplished. I was able to increase my entry speed by at least 10 mph and feel completely comfortable in comparison to the previous day's corner speeds. Even straight line tracking at all speeds was vastly improved. I felt much less fatigued after a day's riding, because I wasn't having to wrestle the bike in corners. My perception is that the bike feels about 100# lighter in corners after the adjustments than before. BIG difference in every way.

So, I'd mirror the comments of all the posters in this long and interesting thread. First, if you are unsatisfied with the compliance, handling or "feel" of the bike, don't be afraid to either ask for help or tackle suspension ajustments yourself. Second, based on the comments of all of the posters in this thread, one size doesn't fit all. Even what seem like minor changes have the possibility of making major improvements in your enjoyment of this or any other bike.

With less than 15,000 miles on this '05, I'm going to stick with the stock suspension for a while until I my skill level exceeds the equipment or the existing stock suspenders wear out as many of you have reported. Just wanted to let the world know how thrilled I am that I have a bike that responds to me as this one does now. I washed off the accumulated collection of 1000 miles of bugs this evening with new found admiration for this fine piece of equipment. Just wish I had had the adjustments done 12,000 miles ago!

As usual, I have no connection with the dealer mentioned above other than having been a satisifed customer of their service department on several occasions.

 

[painman]

I read through this entire thread before posting my observations over the last few days and 500 miles of Texas Hill Country riding on an '05. I've put very few miles on this bike since i bought it in in '05 due to health problems, but am now back on track. The bike was bought new and I've ridden with the stock front and rear suspension settings for the last 12,000 miles. Not having found this thread before this past weekend's Hill Country riding, I was talking to one of the salesmen at Destination Cyclesports in Kerrville, Texas about my riding style and just generally kicking tires in the showroom. He mentioned that they had a tech who had been to a session on this at a Yamaha school, and had since set up a number of FJRs, and that suspension adjustments/setup was something they recommended and offered at the 600 mile checkup so that the rider would be able to better help them to make "before" and "after" comparisons and fine tune the adjustments. I'd just spend the whole day riding over a wide variety of roads; everything from straight line runs to switchbacks, and planned similar riding the next day. I signed up for the adjustment, and answered a number of questions the tech had about my riding style, weight, how I kept my bags loaded, tire pressures, etc. After about an hour, I got the bike back with changes to settings similar to those that have been listed in this thread and had about 4mm of the fork tubes showing above the clamps. The tech told me to take it easy for a while and gradually work my way up to riding the same types of roads I had the day before and to bring it back for any fine tuning I felt it needed later in the day.

I'm not as savvy as many of you are about describing the symptoms of poor suspension setup but since new, my '05 seemed to require a lot of effort to keep it on a set line in sweepers from 40-80 mph, and a lot of trouble in making transitions from one corner to the next. I found myself worn out after more than a few houurs of wrestling the bike around corners. I found myself being uneasy entering corners at what I thought were reasonable entry speeds when following the lines of experienced riders in front of me. I also had a lot of trouble keeping the bike from wandering on the freeway and attributed this to either handling abnormalities caused by tires or my crappy riding skills.

The adjustments made by the tech in Kerrville made such a profound difference that I felt as if I were riding a completely different bike. And after a few hours I felt all of the problems I recounted above were completely eliminated. To summarize; the bike now fell into corners wherever I pointed my head, and tracked through through both sweepers and tight corners with no corrections needed. If I did need to change my line in mid-corner, it was easily accomplished. I was able to increase my entry speed by at least 10 mph and feel completely comfortable in comparison to the previous day's corner speeds. Even straight line tracking at all speeds was vastly improved. I felt much less fatigued after a day's riding, because I wasn't having to wrestle the bike in corners. My perception is that the bike feels about 100# lighter in corners after the adjustments than before. BIG difference in every way.

So, I'd mirror the comments of all the posters in this long and interesting thread. First, if you are unsatisfied with the compliance, handling or "feel" of the bike, don't be afraid to either ask for help or tackle suspension ajustments yourself. Second, based on the comments of all of the posters in this thread, one size doesn't fit all. Even what seem like minor changes have the possibility of making major improvements in your enjoyment of this or any other bike.

With less than 15,000 miles on this '05, I'm going to stick with the stock suspension for a while until I my skill level exceeds the equipment or the existing stock suspenders wear out as many of you have reported. Just wanted to let the world know how thrilled I am that I have a bike that responds to me as this one does now. I washed off the accumulated collection of 1000 miles of bugs this evening with new found admiration for this fine piece of equipment. Just wish I had had the adjustments done 12,000 miles ago!

As usual, I have no connection with the dealer mentioned above other than having been a satisifed customer of their service department on several occasions.

TWK600 glad you have a new found enjoyment in the bike. I too had a similar experience with "Jeff's" settings and then played around and fine tuned them to suit me. I might add that to keep the info recorded somewhere if possible on what changes were made to your suspension settings for future reference is not a bad idea. Also not a bad idea to keep "all" the changes made to your bike, farkles, tires, services, changes etc., logged not only for your own info but heaven forbid if incase you decide to sell or something happens to the bike. Enjoy the "new" bike and take care when doing so. Painman. ><>

 

[SVTNate]

I set mine on my new '09 today. It's already been said in this thread, but to anyone on the fence... this is incredibly easy to do.

I set my preload at 2 lines showing... the second or "bottom" line nearly flush with the adjuster, just barely able to be seen. Rebound and compression both at 8 clicks out from hard.

The rear I left at full soft (stock setting), and set the rebound at 8 clicks out to start. I may change to 6 later on.

I only got a short ride in this afternoon, but I did some corners, hard starts/stops, and a freeway run.

I noticed the bike feels more planted on the freeway. I ran it out to... well let's just say I would have gone to jail if I got caught, but it feels solid at very high speeds.

It feels lighter/tighter in corners, easier to lean the bike over and I felt like I didn't have to countersteer as much.

Front end is tighter, but still comfortable. The transitions from gear changes, braking, and accelerating are far smoother and nearly unnoticeable now. That "rocking" or "diving" is all but gone.

I need a longer ride and some real twisties to really evaluate the changes, but so far so good.

FWIW I weigh about 270 pounds, never ride 2-up, no top case, and rarely carry anything of substantial weight in the bags.

 

[Grumpy]

what an awesome thread.....................just picked up a 2003 FJ......I'm about 220 lbs.......anyone have some road tested numbers to pass to me????I'll start with what was suggested and work from there.................

many thanks.......................

The '03's were wildly underspring in the front and the rear shock isn't too wonderful either. I gave up and put an aftermarket rear shock on the rear and had Traxxion Dynamics redo the front forks. While it's an expensive approach, but works out very well.

At a minimum move the stock shock to full hard and buy aftermarket front fork springs. You may need to up the thickness of the front fork oil.

 

[Lododenver]

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

 

[jekirby]

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

Should be able to download the owners manual from the yamaha site. Downloaded a 2005 r6 manual from them last year.

 

[Lododenver]

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

Here's a link to the 2007 Owner's Manual online. Suspension settings are Pages 39-41.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING CHANGES TO THEIR SUSPENSION.

2007 FJR1300 Owner's Manual

Anyone know if the 2005 manual online too?

Should be able to download the owners manual from the yamaha site. Downloaded a 2005 r6 manual from them last year.

Thanks Buddy.

I have the factory manuals but it would be nice to get a [searchable] electronic version.