As mentioned in another post, I got my suspension set up by Colin of 100% Suspension whilst at Cadwell yesterday. Learnt a lot about how it should all work, and I jsut wanted to pass on some snippets for your information.
It seems that one some (earlier?) 749 bikes the rear Showa was not brilliant. Seems this is acknowledged in the trade (at lease he said it was). The problem seems to be that on some the oil gets too hot under "track conditions" and then the damping characterstics change. Whilst setting the rear compression damping he did point out that it was within .5 turn of "running out of adjustment", which is not a good sign.
How to tell: the "not so good" ones have an allen key adjuster for the damping, compression at the top on the remote cylinder and rebound at the bottom under the srping. The "better version" has a flat screw adjuster for these.
I was a bit disappointed to find that my 2003 749S has the "wrong damper" and my mate's 2003 749 has the better one. B**ger.
Colin's recommendation was to fit Ohlins and be done with it. Price was £600. Anyone had any experience with changing to Ohlins on 749s? Not doing it this year, too expensive, but I like to keep in mind future mods!