Fao jsheps
Fractions of a turn on the adjusters make a huge difference when you are near to the best attainable setting. Don't forget that you will be adjusting the bike while stationary (I hope
) so the suspension performance you will get while merely compressing the bike is really just an indicator of how close you are likely to be getting to the performance you need while riding in the real world.
Lets face it, there is absolutely no point in setting the suspension for just sitting on a stationary bike in a workshop. What we need are settings that deal with both high speed and low speed compression and extension of the forks & rear shock while riding.
For example when I had arrived at the best possible setting as per Rogers advice, I took my bike out onto some of Devons bumpiest black top and gave it a damn good thrashing to see how it coped. What I found was that I needed to back off the front pre-load slightly, and wind-on the rear rebound a fraction just to fine-tune it to suit me & my local roads. It's still not quite right so I will continue to twiddle until I get no further benefit, but it is clear that this will only ever be a compromise, and I'll just have to live with that until I can find some way of upgrading.
You are quite a big bloke at 17 stone, and you will also have to consider the weight of your riding gear (wet?) as well, so I doubt that reducing the rear pre-load would be a good idea for you. Setting the rear sag is relatively straightforward, but you will need one other person to do it as follows (or at least another two if you follow most other methods).
First off wind out your rebound to fully soft and then with the bike on its side stand pull the machine towards you until the rear wheel clears the floor. Don't worry the front wheel will remain on the deck and the bikes weight will be supported between this and the side stand. V.IMPORTANT pull the bike towards you and make sure that you don't push it forwards at the same time, 'cos if the side stand flips up you will be lying under 194 kilos of Firestorm!
Anyway with the bike balanced in this way the rear suspension is completely unloaded, and this is where your assistant comes in. Get someone to measure between a set point on the rear axle nut, and a fixed point on the seat or subframe immediately above the axle (I found that there was a flat plastic section under the seat). Write your measurement down, then return the bike to a normal upright position, make sure you don't inadvertently compress the suspension at all, so just support the bike with your fingertips and get your helper to make the same measurements again and write this measurement down too. The difference between the two figures is your static sag, and if your bike is anything like mine there will be bugger-all difference between the two (3-5 mm max!).
Next comes the most important measurement. Put your riding gear on and sit in a riding position on the bike (this is where a third helper can be handy to support the bike while you get your feet on the pegs. I just positioned the bike close to a wall and balanced myself with an extended elbow).
Your assistant now measures the same two points again, and the difference between this and your very first measurement when the bike suspension was fully unloaded is your laden sag. Ideally you should be aiming for a figure in the range of 30 - 35 mm laden sag to get the spring operating in it's optimum range. Because of your weight I suspect that you may have to wind on a bit of pre-load because your sag will be greater that 35mm, but I can't imagine that you will have to go any higher than position 3 as the spring is so bloody stiff to start with.
Good luck
Granty
im starting to think honda have wombles up on the suspention of the fire storm it could be such a great real time road bike but no bad forks and a cheap rear shock, well im not rich and cant afford ohlins forks and shock.
