Suspension Setup

[Rikosintie]

Scott from Progressive suspension contacted me and wanted to borrow my FTR 1200s for a couple of days. They wanted to take measurements and play with settings to see what they could do to improve it.

I had done some changes with preload but they made several changes that I think worked much better.

I have a blog post about it Progressive Suspension setup if anyone is interested.

I weigh about 200lbs without gear and here are the settings they came up with:
Shock
17mm preload
Compression - all the way out
Rebound - 5 clicks out

Fork
Preload - All the way in
Compression - All the way out
Rebound - 8 clicks out

I have ridden it to the mountains a couple of times and have done about 1500 miles of commuting on California's miserable roads with the new settings and they work pretty well.

I plan to experiment with different viscosity fork oil so that I have some adjustment left on compression.

 

[Blue1]

I've been sneaking up on that to try and tame the brutal ride of the FTR1200S and was about one click away from full out.

I was two from full out on the fork compression. Look forward to riding it to see if this helped suspension compliance. Given the results from Sunday's ride, I hope there is enough "full out" in the adjustment range, especially in the rear.

Indian's damping suggestions in the manual are ludicrous. My vision was being jarred by the rough ride.

 

[Rikosintie]

Yeah, the manual's settings are odd, to say the least! But at least there are a lot of clicks to work with.

I hope to find a parts diagram soon and swap out the fork fluid. I will post back and let you know if lighter fluid in the left fork fixes the compression damping.

If I can't find a manual I'll just pull it apart and measure the amount that comes. I was hoping to know the factory viscosity, but it really doesn't matter. Tuning forks is an iterative process and I'll just start with Maxima 85-150 (similar to 5W) and see how it works.

On my Ducati, I swapped oil weight, height, spring rate, and preload and got it working great.

A lot of guys on the forum went out and spent $1200 on Ohlins cartridges! I think I had more fun and learned a lot more my way.

There is a great book by Andrew Trevitt called Sportbike Suspension Tuning. I can't recommend it enough, I have even used the knowledge on my motocross bikes.

 

[Blue1]

To accurately refill fork oil, measure the distance from the top of the tube to the fork level prior to draining.

 

[Rikosintie]

Blue1,
Good idea! I use a Motion Pro syringe to set the height on refill, it will work perfect to measure before I dump it.