Suspension Settings

Afternoon denizens of the forum!
I'm wondering about suspension set up for my '08 blade. It's currently fully standard, both in terms of suspension components and set up, for preload, rebound and compression.
As some of you may recall, I'm off to Portugal tomorrow (whoop!) and have a tailpack on the back (Kriega 30L). It's not particularly heavy, maybe 10kg max., and a tank bag as well.
My question is - is it worth changing any of the settings or shall I leave it as is? I've never changed any of the settings before other than making sure they were standard when I bought the bike...

 

How much do you weigh, if I may be so rude?

 

Head over to your local suspension shop (in full travel trim) and have it tuned. It is fairly inexpensive and makes a world of difference. -

 

Before or after supper? Haha, I'm 6ft2 and about 82kg.

Ah I should've looked into doing that. Bit late now I must admit, as I leave tomorrow lunchtime!

 

Now I'm no expert, but my take is that one adjusts preload for unusual or heavy loads on the bike (like pillion or luggage) and the rest is a fine balancing act depending on your weight, riding style, the conditions (wet/dry) and mostly for optimisation on track.

In the absence of taking the bike to a specialist I'd be tempted just to knock the preload up one notch and you'll be good.

 

That's my inclination as well. I figure if I take the pin spanner with me I can always change it to see how it feels (though i need to find the pin spanner first!)

 

This is what i had on my 2009 and similar weight however i suggest you dont use the below until after your trip if your happy with standard or get it done properly for £40

As said earlier crank the rear spring to 5 or even 6 but 6 is firm and you will need to adjust frt with that much movement. Up to 5 will be ok

2009 Fireblade Susp -Road
Front
Preload +2 turns from standard 40mm
Rebound -2 (standard)
Compression -2 (standard)

Rear
Preload +2 to 6 clicks 32mm
Rebound -1 from standard
Compression -1/2 from standard

 

as dmc mentioned for extra weight carrying, adjust the preload. You can click it back to original once the load is off.
If you are looking at changing the bike's day to day handling, then a suspension tuner

 

Sort when you get back as presumably time isn't on your side now.
Have fun in the trip

 

Thanks chaps. Can't find the sodding pin spanner for the rear pre-load anyway so may have to live with it