My suspension setup adventure

Since I have my 2007 SD I'm working on my suspension setup. I made this thread to keep the general "my suspension setup (merged with SAG)" topic free of my personal adventure/troubles. My main goal is an awesome setup for both fast road and trackdays. I'm currently on Pirelli Rosso Corsa tyres, first road tyres after years of Metzeler Race-tecs. I'm affraid I don't really like the harder carcass on the Rosso Corsa's but I can't say this for sure until my suspension is sorted. I run them on 2,3bar front and rear.

My SAG numbers should be right now with stock springs:
Front preload 1mm (static 27mm, rider 39mm)
Rear preload 12,5mm (static 6mm, rider 30mm)

Front comp 13 clicks
Front reb 6 clicks

Rear comp low 17 clicks
Rear comp high 1,5 turns
Rear rebound 12 clicks

At the moment I adjusted the damping a little to get better bump absorption and eliminate a light pogo-feeling. The front feels OK now so I'm leaving that for now. It uses most of it's travel but doesn't completely bottom out under heavy braking.

The rear started way too hard. I felt every bump and in corners every imperfection in the road surface made it step out a bit. In small steps I gave it 3 clicks more compression (so softer) and it felt a lot better. Also a little extra rebound to eliminate the pogo effect here as well.


Now comes the current biggest problem: lack of feel in the rear.
I don't feel the rear is really biting the tarmac like it should and I feel like the rear tyre can lose grip any second. This holds me back from putting my knee down since I don't know if I could trust the grip even though the roads are in good condition.
Today it even looked like it stepped sideways a few times but since this was in just 1 corner this could also been dirt.

Does anybody know where to start from here?

I increased my sag a little in the rear. probably around 35mm now compared to 30mm earlier. The bike seems to be happier with this setup I think. It used to feel like it was on it's toes in the rear...more planted now.

I thought of that but I didn't really want to sacrifice rear ride height.

It looks like I sorted it today with some help from a friend. I rode 250km (most twisty stuff) and told my friend the things I noticed with the rear. We switched bikes for a few kilometers and he experienced the same as I do, slightly sliding rear tyre when hard on the gas in the corner. Front was fine. Back at his place he checked the balance in the bike and noticed the rear was coming back up slightly faster than the front.
We gave the rear rebound 2 clicks more damping and after dinner went for another ride. The rear felt like it was gripping the tarmac better but I noticed the rear going down a bit more then I wanted and the bike running a bit wide after a few corners after each other: stacking. My friend rode it as well and he thought the same so I gave it a click less rebound: spot on!

I'm very sensitive for changes in the bike or these single clicks make some big changes but the bike feels more stable and gives a lot more confidence

Today I went for another ride in the twisties. Rear feels good now but the increased speed because the confidence in the rear showed another 'problem'. The front felt like it didn't really grip all that much and could loose it's grip when pushing a bit more. Not really that bad but kind of the same feeling I used to have at the rear. When standing next to the bike the front looked like it would come back up a bit too far and a little faster then the rear did. Therefor I increased the rebound damping a click at the front.
Ride back felt better and the front felt like gripping a bit more and it was easier to hold my line or correcting my line mid-turn.

When I wrote this down on my setup-sheet I noticed a trend in the numbers and I changed every damping screw after the basic setup except for the high-speed damping of the shock.

Clicks from closed, latest number is my current setting:
Front compression 12 + 1 = 13
Front rebound 7 - 1 - 1 = 5
Rear compression 14 + 2 + 1 = 17
Rear rebound 13 - 1 - 2 + 1 = 11
Rear comp high speed 1,5 turns

I only changed one type of damping at a time and with small steps to feel exactly what effect it has on the handling. This was my first time fiddling with the suspension setup myself every small change so far has been an improvement on the overall handling of the bike! So if you didn't setup your suspension yet, give it a try

Great write up, I'm having some issues myself. Getting a nice high speed wobble under power in a straight but settles itself going into a corner. Can I ask what you weigh?