After my recent trip to Kais Suspension I thought I'd post up their settings for anyone that wants to tinker. Front Preload is set at 5.5 turns from fully soft or full Anti clock (Don't know why, but Honda use base settings from a start off point of Full Soft/Anti Clock on this setting only, everything else is based from Full hard/Clock) Compression is 7.5 turns out from fully stiff or full Clock (I've now altered mine to 5.5 turns now as it dived too much IMHO when hard braking) Rebound is 3 turns out from fully stiff or full Clock Rear Preload is set at 5 out of 10 (Mines now on 8/10 to compensate for my Honda Hugger which keeps getting Twatted by the ABS housing! ) Compression is set at 3 turns out from full stiff or full Clock Rebound is set at 2 turns out from full stiff or full Clock I'm between 15.5 & 16 St depending on what the Mrs has spent in Sainsbury's that week. Hope that's useful to someone anyways!
Seems a few peeps asking about suspension setups today although none have stated what year their bikes are? Anyway here's a bump of this info for anyone that's interested.
I just CBA. Too many variables for my liking. And I don't want the screws to have screwdriver marks in them.
The screwdriver that comes in the Honda tool kit should fit by rights - just make sure you use the correct size screwdriver if not - the screws are not tight. I just carry the bit from a multibit screwdriver kit you can turn the screws easily (2012 suspension). If you don't fiddle you'll never know if you could have improved the ride and suspension from stock that's why the screws are there.
Really?? Knowledge is power, mate... Might as well buy some shite tyres for your bike cuz there are too many to choose from...
Not bad but still not perfect, I have some other settings to try from another source, these being FRONT--- Prelaod 5 out from fully soft. rebound 2.5 out from fully HARD. Compression 3.6 from fully Hard. REAR- Rebound 2.25 out from Fully HARD. Compression 2.5 from fully HARD. I shall give these a try and report back.
These settings are the same as on this website. Bottom of the page. Honda Sport Bike Motorcycle Suspension Settings - Honda Sport Bike Review - Sport Rider Magazine The Kais settings are interesting though. I had FTR suspension look at mine and they reckoned that with the standard front preload it gave too much static sag so incrased the preload to 10 turns in, they didn't quote what it was before and after though. Do you know what static sag you have with 5.5 turns? The rear was left at position 4 and 12mm static sag. I am approx 13 stone with riding gear. Compression and rebound front and rear are almost the same as yours.
With 5.5 turns I am only getting around 18-20mm of sag which really is not enough for road use, obviously the front springs may also be to heavy which is what I had to change on my 2009 model, I used 9.5nm springs which were ideal for my weight which is also 13 stone with gear on.
So are the standard Road springs better for Heavier Riders which I spose makes sense as Honda have to allow for Pillions as well in their setups?
I agree - just fitted some 9.5 Nm springs supplied by K-Tech . They recommended these for my weight around 75 Kg without gear on. I was originally getting around 25mm static sag and 35mm loaded sag. With the new springs I'm getting 32mm static sag and 46mm loaded sag. This on the face of it looks like too much but if you read enough about these forks it isn't. What's most important is that you don't put too much preload on and stop the top out spring working - this is a no no. You are aiming to use all of the suspension without bottoming out (road use not track). If you use a tie strap on the fork leg you can see how much of the suspension you are actually using. The aim is to leave about 10-12mm below the tie. Once your sag is right you can start adjusting your compression and rebound. I'm using compression 4 out from full stiff and rebound 4.5 turns out from full stiff. I spotted some other settings in an American mag so might try these. For road work compression 5 turns from stiff & rebound 3.5 turns from stiff. For the track compression 3.75 from stiff & rebound 2.5 turns from stiff. The advice from a Aussie suspension guy on YouTube is to get the rebound correct first then sort out the compression. He also mentioned there is a relationship between adjusting the rebound and it affecting the compression and visa versa. So it looks like if you adjust just one you will have to adjust the other. This is because the rebound and compression shims are fitted either side of the piston - see the attached article on the differences between BPF and cartridge forks - http://www.efnetmoto.com/suspension.pdf There are plenty of videos on YouTube to demonstrate what you are looking for when setting rebound and compression - remember to warm up the forks with a short ride so that the oil is up to normal temperature before deciding on the settings. Even with all the fiddling they are miles better than the 2008 -2011 forks so stick with it. Steve.
These are what I am using. Had a great fast run out yesterday with this setting and it worked a treat with any road surfaces. Tyre pressure are 34 front and 38 rear.
The front settings are very close to the track setting I noted in an American mag. Do you find you are out of your seat much on a bumpy road?
