Rear suspension settings for touring
 

Hi all,

well, it would seem my questions concerning ground clearance before I brought my ST4S were not totally unfounded.
We went for a brief ride this evening, and on a slowish (1st gear) left hand bend I touched the stand down !!
This was 2 up, with no luggage on board, but with the pannier brackets fitted.

So. a few questions spring to mind.
1) If I raise the cans off the lowest setting and use the same mounting holes to hang the exhausts off that the pannier brackets attach to, will the cans rub the bottom of the panniers ??

2) do you lot use the standard ride height setting, or have you jacked it up at all ?

3) what setting have you got your preload set to ?
I had mine on minimum, but have now wound it up by around 5mm.

If I can't get this sorted I may have to remove the centre stand, as I don't want to be worrying about the stand clearance all the time...:o

Thanks in advance,
John.

1. Yes. A definite no no unless you enjoy the smell of burning panniers.
2. Yes...oh yes! Mine is increased to give about 5mm of air between the bottom of the tyre & the ground when on the centre stand...much better.
3. Difficult one this.....dependant on weight of both of you etc... I see to remember now that the settings given in MCN for the 4S had the preload backed off 7 turns of the adjuster from full...mine is not quite that hard - Ithink its about 10 in from soft but I don't ride 2 up.
No doubt there are some on here who do & can give a pointer on that.
Cheers
Andy

As far as i know the ride height on mine is standard, i would guess at a 10mm gap under the back tyre with it on the centre stand.
With a full tank bag, two full panniers, me at 15 stone and Lynn at 9 stone, nothing touched down and the bike handled fine.


I have noticed that on some bikes the exhausts push the main stand down a little bit when they are in the lower position. From memory i dont think it is possible to get the cans any heigher with the panniers on, mine are not far of touching.

Rear preload on mine is at max, i still havent got around to changing it after our france trip last year.

Thanks guys.

I've just been out and checked. I have around 20 to 25mm between pavement & rear tyre when on the stand. Best adjust some of that out then...

Also, I have 11 clicks clockwise on the damping (out of 25 clicks) which was a little soggy two-up.
I also wound 6mm on the spring preload last night when we got home.


Paul, are your cans on the lowest mounting hole (bottom of pannier bracket), or on the middle hole (top of pannier bracket / bottom of footrest hanger) ?
Reason I ask is that there is a 20ish mm gap between my panniers and pipes on their current setting. If I raise them then they nearly touch (maybe a gap of 5mm max). I think my panniers have a metalised heat sheild on the bottom of them.
If they don't then I'll slap some on there.

FYI the centre stand stop is actually on the left silencer pipe, so if you drop the cans you drop the stand height too, hence my wish to raise the pipes.

I think I'll try winding up the ride height and possibly lifting the pipes, then go for a blast down the same road with the hard & soft luggage fitted (panniers & missus :lol: ) and see what happens.

Btw, I'm around 15stone, and the wife about 10ish. This was a slow sharp left hander with no bump in the road. Just tipped it in briefly to get a nice grinding noise. Only time I could get the vfr to touch its stand was on well cranked over high speed bends with a bump in the middle, or being very silly on my own. ;)

Cheers for the posts guys, any more ideas keep 'em coming, else I'll just report back how I get on.

Cheers,
John.

[Edited on 15-4-2004 by John W]

John
Re mounting points.
The bike was only designed with two - either the normal position - top hole of 2 on footrest hanger or low- hole in pannier frame.
You MAY be able to utilise the centre option, however this is meant only as the mounting point for the pannier frame to the footrest hanger.
The problems you may encounter using this option are firstly, the centre of this hole to the eye at least, seems to be at a different radius from the exhaust collector than the two mounting points ( although if you loosen your silencer brackets, there is about 20mm fore & aft adjustment on them so that may sort that out. ) and secondly, check the amount of mounting bolt sticking out at the back of this centre hole if you use it as there is not a great deal of clearance for the swingarm, especially for two up work where you will be using more of the suspension travel.
Let us know the results!
Andy

Thanks Andy.

I accept what your saying about the mounting points.

I did have a go at fitting the pipes in the centre hole when I put them on, but thought I'd try the proper place first.

My pannier brackets don't fit spot on, having to put one bolt in and then apply pressure to get one of the other holes to line up.
I want to address this anyway, so will have a play around at the weekend with them (big hammer no doubt :D ).
If the bolts aren't long enough I'll have to wait until I can get some longer ones. I doubt they'll be too long.

As for the alignment, I had to slide the mounts around anyway just to swap from the original mounting to the new pannier frame location, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem either.

All great advice though mate.
I will report back my findings :)

Cheers,
John.

p.s. Wife didn't look too happy when we got home last night. On asking what was wrong she said "That bike is just too damn loud, and it makes my head vibrate when you stop at junctions..." :lol:
Just wait until its run in and I can use all of its revs :sing:

A Black Art
 

John
Rushjob is correct in all that he has said re the fitment position viz a vie the cans and the pannier frames. Re the ground clearance under the back wheel with bike on the centre stand - mines set at 5mm.

Now having taken note of your weight, plus that of dear lady and luggage you will need to adjustr absolutely everything in the rich cocktail of the suspension department to get it absolutely spot on. Now this is indeed a black art. I had angst with my bike until itwas just right - this was done with the help of the guys at my favourite UK dealer and with the help of a guy at OLins in Sweden who sent me a couple of file attachments on the subject. If you U2U me your email address I'll glady sent you the Olin Files.

Thanks Athelstan,

A U2U will be winging its way to you shortly.

I adjusted the ride height last night (boy were those locknuts tight !).
Most noticeable difference is just how much more the bike leans over on its side stand now. It seems to have made the bike steer a little better too (no surprise there then).

I checked the length of the exhaust mounting bolts and they should be long enough to do the mounting point move.

I checked the manual too. Apparently standard settings for compression & rebound is 14 clicks out (anticlockwise), so I'm set on standard at present. Be interesting to hear what the ohlins info says.

Cheers,
John.

I wouldn't mind a copy of the Ohlins files either Athelstan.
JohnW, I have mine set up so that the back tyre just touches the ground when on the centrestand. For 2 up I crank a few turns on the rear pre-load but then I am only 11.5 stone and Jo is less than 8 stone. Bike handles a dream, but as you found it does lean over a LONG way on the sidestand. For track use I usually add 1click extra compression on the front to reduce dive on the brakes.

John

I tried taking some pics but they didnt come out that well. As normal (without the panniers the cans look like this pic..

When i have the panniers on then i drop the can down to its lowest position which is the hole in the pannier frame, not the hole where the frame mounts to the footrest.

The gap between the tyre and the garage floor - looks like a bit more than the 10mm i thought it was!

Get your spanners out man!
:lol:

Looks like i might have to!!

Cheers guys.

I did try the cans on the centre position, but while there is a small clearance between cans and panniers, it is pretty difficult to fit them so put the cans back to the lower position.

I should appologise too. I was wrong about the stand. The rubber bung on the left exhaust pipe is not actually the stop as I thought it was, so raising the pipes doesn't lift the stand by much.

Now, raising the ride height. I did my adjustment using the rear linkage rod. I think I should have really wound the height up using the C spanner on the shocker though, so might correct this one evening this week.

Cheers guys.
John.
p.s. side pod bag turned up on Satyurday, so stashed all the tie wraps, spare bulbs, tape etc in there already.:D

No you were right John..the ride height is adjusted by the tie rod...the twin locking collets on the shock body ( which I've never touched ) I think are for major changes to spring preload - they will move the hydraulic preload adjuster body up or down - then you can use the hydraulic knob for fine adjustment.
( Changing the rear preload will affect rear ride height somewhat as it is reducing or increasing the amount of static sag in the suspension )

John, sorry to join this thread late. I got my suspension set up by John Hackett, its probably the same as Monty's settings as JH used his bike originally.

If you want these settings to try let me know. The increased ride height is the most important as it greatly improves ground clearance and improves the steering no end.

I've recently had mine resprung and revalved, more because it was due for a service than being hugely unhappy (and trying to improve it further).