Any change their suspension settings yet?

[Ash Tekka]

I've been trying (and failing) to make my stock rear shock a few notches stiffer for when the wife rides with me.

I can't seem to get the preload adjuster to turn AT ALL.  I've tried it with the bike on side stand and center stand and it doesn't even budge.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried changing theres or if mines just really stiff.

[Ash Tekka]

Well I managed to get it to move finally.
I moved it up to setting 5.  Theres a really noticable difference between 4 and 5.

Does anyone else ride at different suspension settings or is everyone basically just leaving it at the factory settings.

Any setting recommendations for certain weight brackets for the 1250?

[billincentraljersey]

The preload adjustment sets the ride height by putting in extra "space" into the top of the spring.  Your weight plus passenger plus gears will compress the spring the same amount.  It is the starting height set by the different notches.  The suspension should be set to compress 1/4 or 1/3 of the total full movement range, let's say 1/3  .....  That way, you'll have 2/3 left to compress when you hit a bump and 1/3 of the movement downward when you ride over a big deep pothole.  Add a passenger and gear, the weight may compress the movement to 1/2 and 1/2 and you may bottom out when hitting a big bump ... not enough compression movement range.  You'll need to set the preload to "stiffer" (wrong word to use) to get the ride height back to it's rightful place.

Once the ride height is set correctly, then you pay attention to the damping.  Compression damping and rebound damping. Not all suspensions have setting for both.

I am 165-170 pounds.  The B1250 would kick me in my ass when I ride over a sharp bump.  It literally launch me into the air.  When I have a passenger or 150 pounds of gear, the compression damping is perfect.  I ride over that sharp bump without a notice.  Unfortunately, the B1250 have no compression damping adjustment, only rebound damping (in the rear).

On rebound, stock setting was fine.  I ride over a big drop, a step downward on the road, or a big pot hole, the wheel comes down fast enough to meet the road so it is not like the rear wheel "crash" down to the road.  So, the damping was not too much.  If too little, AFTER hitting a bump, you get shot upward by the extending spring with too little damping to slow down the extension process.

There is lot more good stuff to read on this topic.  Search the web.  One article gives examples of what the compromises are for each type of adjustments.  It is all about compromises.  It is not a case of "If adjust this way is better, then more would be even better".  There is always a price.

BTW, seems like you figured it out on how to get the adjustment done.  I had to remove a bracket on the left side.  I spray some white lithium grease onto the cam on the adjuster to get a smoother action. 

[Down Under]

I made the mistake of trying to adjust rear shock pre-load compression on the centre stand.  The bike has to be on the side stand as recommended in the owners manual.  It is quite stiff to move and you don't have a lot of space to work in but it can be adjusted.

For my wife and I, I find the rear pre-load suspension setting of "6" and the rebound setting to about 1/4 turn toward hard to be right for us.  I weigh 90 kgs, the wife 60 kgs plus about 10 kgs of luggage.

The stiffer rear suspension setting when two up makes a huge difference to the way the bike handles and the way it turns into corners.  I also experimented with a variety of front suspension pre-load settings and found there was no real advantage over the factory setting.

[Ash Tekka]

yeah theres a huge difference when two up.
i find 5 works good for with rebound stock works good for the two of us.  I added luggage the other day and noticed that it needs to go another step to 6.


the stock setting for the front seems pretty good for all settings, not too much nose dive on hard braking.  I was entertaining the idea of seeing what it was like set stiffer but if you don't notice a difference then I probably wont bother.

[Down Under]

I'm certainly no guru when it comes to suspension settings but I did muck around a fair bit measuring sag with a heap of different settings and loads and just kept test riding until the bike felt right.

One thing I did find unusual was that there was not much difference in handling or sag when the rear shock compression pre-load was set on either No.6 or 7.  So I just leave it on 6 for two up riding and knock it down a notch or two when riding solo.

I've done about 26000 k on my bike now and I've noticed the suspension is beggining to soften up, especially the front end.  I've heard that there are good handling performance gains to be made with stiffer fork springs and heavier oil and a better quality after market rear shocky, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. 
   

[Ash Tekka]

I've heard the same.  I figure when the bike hits the 5-7year mark or when I pay it off (whichever comes first) I'll probably sock some money into the suspension upgrades as I expect that I'll be needing them by then.