Suspension setup

[Leskid]

I should have thought of this earlier. I'm leaving in an hour to go to my buddy's garage, where we're going to remove mirrors, tape-up lights etc.. & basically set the scoots up for track day tomorrow.

My buddy is far more experienced than I am for track day and canyon-carving in general. After riding my FJR, he said "we're just gonna increase everything to hardest settings for the track'

we're riding a tight short track tomorrow so to all the more experienced FJR riders out there..... does "MAX EVERYTHING" sound right? (only for the track)

in case it's useful:

-bike is bone-stock

-I'm 200lbs

 

[r1byker]

Personally, I think that would be exactly the wrong thing to do. You will end up with an ill-handling beast that will beat you up over the slightest bumps and dips, your tires won't have the grip you want because the suspension isn't doing what it's designed to do, and you'll be wandering all over the track not able to hold a precise line. I started off a track day with a suspension that was too stiff and I was miserable. Once I paid a suspension guy to tune it (set the sag, adjust it for my lap times), I went faster with less effort and enjoyed myself and the bike. After a few laps I would check in with him and tell him what the bike was doing, he would look at the tires, and then make some fine adjustments and send me off again. A couple times like that and I ended up with a sweet handling bike that I haven't had to adjust since.

I would find someone at the track who knows how to do suspension tuning, preferably someone who does it for money. I definitely wouldn't let your friend touch the bike.

 

[Leskid]

I would find someone at the track who knows how to do suspension tuning, preferably someone who does it for money. I definitely wouldn't let your friend touch the bike.

Point taken. you're confirming what I was thinking except with me, there was no experience to back my feeling.

thanks r1byker

 

[johnny80s]

We really need to teach you how to search the board. This has been discussed before and already figured out for you.

Search google like this: suspension site:fjrforum.com

That should get you to the thread Haulin Ashe posted about suspension.

 

[mattster31]

Hang off as far as you can, to avert draggin' things. Have fun

 

[r1byker]

I would find someone at the track who knows how to do suspension tuning, preferably someone who does it for money. I definitely wouldn't let your friend touch the bike.

Point taken. you're confirming what I was thinking except with me, there was no experience to back my feeling.

thanks r1byker

You're welcome. Here's hoping you have a great track day.

 

[FJRPierre]

I don't know anything except I've got a 03 and took it to the track when new (now 87,000km later.) Tires were nothing special (stones if i remember) and the 03 suspension was deemed to be soft out of the box. I was quite a bit heavier than you and put the hard/soft setting at hard and did not initially change anything else from the average settings in the user manual. After the track day I ended up putting a spacer on the stock shock and later upgraded to a Wilbers shock. All that to say that out of the box she'd not a great sport bike on the track and to attempts to improve it by adjusting the stock settings probably made little difference compared to a newshock and different tires. She will be better than an Aspencade but still abit heavy. I hardly ever got it out of 3rd gear and hit the rev limiter many times. Get used to the braking at speed cause she stops awfully quickly going slowish but still needs a good pull to slow her down at warp on the stretches. She touches pegs easily unless you hangoff quite a bite esp with soft stock suspension. Take the bags off eh? To turn off the headlights there is a connector that you can unplug ifrc rather than taping hot headlights. Have fun and use the day to learn about your bike! If the track is rough like Shannonville, and any other Laurentian road, she'll eat it up!!! Let us know how it turns out. :clapping:

 

[Fencer]

+1

let a track tuner do it. price is typ $50-$80

The FJ is fun on the track

 

[dcarver]

..and let us know how it went?

I too see a track day in my future...

 

[Leskid]

thanks to all

I'll 'try' to post pics of the naked FJR at the track tomorrow (since I can't seem to get any pics to show up on this bloody site)

If I do manage to post some pics, I'm just worried that if dcarver sees me not hanging far enough off the seat or something, I'll be called a ******** or even worse.

leaving in 4 hrs so I gotta TRY and get some sleep

what's worse than a ******** anyway?

 

[RadioHowie]

what's worse than a ******** anyway?

Haven't met odot, have ya?

 

[dcarver]

Get some sleep, jeesh!

Photos must be hosted by another site, like Photobucket, for example.

To post a foto on this forum, you have to 'link' to site hosting the foto.

I think this is done to keep the storage on the fjrforum site as small as possible.

Good luck and hope you have a great ride!