What did you do to your bike today ??

[D6Nutz]

MV are paying for the clutch basket. It's just an upgrade which is quieter than the original one.

That's cool, good service there. At least you won't sound broken like those ducati's

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[duke63]

[Blade]

Is it just me??? I think the Ducati dry clutch sounds ace

[duke63]

Its proper race bike.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmOeqPkOgy8[/video]

[Stonesie]

Sod all, same as most of the week really as we're having a new kitchen and the guy's van fills the drive so I can't even get into the garage where the bike is kept.

[Frankie]

Getting out for a quick run out in the Surrey this morning, I was working in Crawley yesterday and wanted to avoid the motorways on the way back, so planned a really "as the crow flies route" and found some amazing roads, which in fairness need a little two wheel action lol.... plus is stage two of trying to get the suspension set up completed

[Frankie]

Well that did not go to plan..... almost went over the bars..... lol, slight exaggeration 1/2 a mile up the road, overt taking two push bikes, the front brake decided to stick on, so! not so much of a back wheel flying in the air moment, but a sudden stop and not being able to move.

I am now in the middle of my lane on an A road, not able to move..... hazzards on, a few grumpy looks from drivers trying to get past me, FFS!!! Do you not think given the option to be at the side of the road I would have taken it!!!

Anyway, lad in van pulls over, we muscle it to the side of the road. Stuck solid, i manage to remove the lever (yes the new one ) cant see anything, put it back on, ride up the road (towards home - as I want to check this out) jams again, this time I had the forsight to go slow and close to the curb.

Had to take it off again, and left it off, weird feeling reach for a brake and not one there. Anyway, mess about a bit to find the pin had not located correctly into the brass bush so went around the block with original lever, screw driver and spanner in pocket, all is well, so went off on my little trip.

The roads I mentioned before, were great fun, i cant believe I have not ridden them before.
The new levers Yes they are short or long, you decide, had them before, the dog leg brings them closer to the bars, much easier all round.
L2B by Frankie Art, on Flickr

L1C by Frankie Art, on Flickr

[duke63]

Went out early this morning to try and reach the magic 1000 miles but dark clouds put paid to that.

Didn't actually rain for long but spent the rest of the morning fitting the tank ring.

So pleased with the bike. Not one moment where i wished i still had the Multi.

[Blade]

What you doing with the suspension Frankie? I thought the suspension was active?

[Frankie]

Its is active, within two different settings, dynamic and road. However this works from what ever the base setting is, i must have fiddled with the previous bike when i first got it, as it was just right. However this one is not right for me. So i am adjusting the damping and rebounding so that it is not to hard in road. back is sorted i think, just need to tweak the front a little. Only just found the tool that covers the nut on top of the forks for when you are adjusting it. keeps the nut looking all nice and clean - well it would of if i had found it sooner, that was along with the fuse puller tool, which i did not see, when my fuse went on the old bike! trying to pull it with long nose pliers

You can really feel the difference, even sitting static with the engine running, i flip the switch from road to dynamic, and you can feel the whole lots tense up. It works well. As I say need to firm up the front a tad more and we are good to go, well I will be after the first service

[Blade]

So do you adjust comp and rebound on the dash and the nut you talk about is for adjusting preload I assume?

[Rossgo]

Bloody hell Frankie that sounds dangerous. Glad you and the bike are alright though, could of been a totally different story.

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[Frankie]

So do you adjust comp and rebound on the dash and the nut you talk about is for adjusting preload I assume?

DDC is the dynamic damping - ROAD: Normal damping characteristic -DYNAMIC: Sporty damping characteristic, this is by means of the switch on the handle bars to select one or the other. I have already with the help of the garage adjusted for my weight, what I am doing is the fine tuning, comfort mode to be fair. I dont want it rock hard on the road, but I dont want it bouncing around like a kangaroo.

The nut on the right fork is purely for compression, increasing or decreasing the compression, The Nut on the rear spring is the same, turn to reduce negative spring displacement (i.e. to increase spring preload) i turn in a clockwise direction. or to decrease the other way.

The DDC when riding along is continuously adapting the system for the conditions, in fairness its all the same that was on the bike back in 2014, the difference here is that they have removed one setting (soft) as there used to be three. Soft / med / hard, now just road and dynamic, and the dynamic is really for good smooth roads/track, as I am finding out.
I am no expert so it is trial and error, in short if my arse is hurting after being in the saddle then I need to soften up road mode. Each time I do this, there is a marked change in modes from road to dynamic, which is great, I just dont want to get to that point where dynamic gets compromised and ends up being too soft. This is where I am at now, with small changes each time, basically counting the rings left at the top of the fork leg.

If none of that makes sense, forgive me, as I said I am no expert, if I was I think I could be making a lot of money like Dave Moss, i have watched a lot of his video's and he really knows how to get the suspension right. Its amazing looking at the tyre wear on the bikes after he has set them up, spot on, no tears and marks, just nice clean sticky tyres

[D6Nutz]

Cheers fur writing that up Frankie. I might have to have a chat with you when I get my bike back as I wouldn't mind having road mode a little softer.

Dynamic is awesome, it feels like the bike is on rails round corners.

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[Blade]

Sorry for late reply Frankie, I'm in work today. Interesting read as I always like the technical side of suspension.

If it's of any use I usually start with setting the static and rider sag. If you cant get both in the required range you need to look at weaker or stronger springs, but weighing the typical design weight of 80kg in riding kit I'm normally good with spring rate tbh.

As a rule of thumb for road use, aim to use 1/3 of the total suspension free travel as rider sag as this will get the geometry in the ball park of manufacturers design specification and allow the suspension adequate travel to extend on bumpy roads and provide good grip and a good ride. If you need to make adjustments to achieve the setting its preload you adjust here. You can tweak geometry from here to adapt the bike to any negative handling traits you may experience later, we've just set a good base setting for geometry.

The next think to do is set the rebound damping and this can also be done in the comfort of the garage to get a good base setting. Aim to compress the spring and for it to return to its rest postion from the compressed postion in a controlled uniform manor taking approximately 1 second duration. Again you can tweak to adapt the bike to any negative handling traits you may experience later, but its a good starting point.

Next is time to set the compression damping. I always start with manufacturer base setting here and my aim is to have it as soft as possible to gain maximum grip, so you could increase or decrease damping basically depending on what you experience when riding. Obviously its a compromise here as you have to have enough compression damping to control the spring during weight transfer and lateral loads as well as provide maximum grip.

Always trial and error but with a good base setting you have some where to start from. Never use internet settings, as they are specific to an individual rider and his riding style and pace. Suspension is individual and also a compromise so you have to see it as a dynamic entity and find what works for you.

My understanding of the Sachs electronic suspension on BMW bikes is its fully active in that it use telemetry feed back to react to real time conditions. This sounds perfection, but where people like Maxton will tell you it fails is it's obviously built to a price and it suffers in reacting quicker enough, to the first event before being required to react to the second event which is happening in milliseconds.

Where the Ohlins kit differs on Yamaha and Ducati bikes is its semi active. This basically means it is not reacting to real time loads its using algorithms to control the suspension damping rates. Basically the software receives information to say the bike is at a certain pitch, yaw and lean angle, with X amount of throttle, wheel speed differential, Y brake pressure, Z revs and gear #, etc..... it then uses these parameters to say ok we need to have this damping setting. I've used the Ohlins semi active on my zx10r and it was amazing. If you speak to suspension tuners most if not all will say the Ohlins semi active is superior to the Sachs fully active suspension as the Sachs cannot react quickly enough, but on paper the technology of fully active suspension should be better than semi active. Ohlins is now on version 2 of their software which is supposedly a big leap from version 1 which is what I was using on a zx10r.

Hope the info is useful and enjoy playing around and finding your own individual set up.

Remembered to write all you changes down (a short pencil is better than a long memory ) and dont be afraid to go the wrong way. It's good to know what's wrong to reinforce where the right position is.

[Kwacky]

Yeah, so that new bike your bought, it needs the suspension replacing

[Blade]

Yeah, so that new bike your bought, it needs the suspension replacing

No it needs setting up for me, did you listen to nothing

[StMarks]

You know that trackday you were saying about for next year, will Blade be coming along to set up all our suspensions for us.?

[Frankie]

Thanks for that Blade, all good now, as you say the suspension on the beemer is fully active and does the job very well, 35,000 miles in on the old machine I have no complaints, stuck to the road like glue, never let me down, road or track.

Now I have turned the screws a few clicks on the front and rear (trial and error) of the new bikee its all good. Just back from a good 200 mile test ride..... so that's, that done. As for keeping the setting info, I just take a photo, before and after as it were. The DDC is doing its job.

All I need to do now is flip the switch on dynamic or road, two riders or one.... the bike will do the rest.

Now I cant wait until its first service, having restricted rev range is now not funny..... i want access to the lot now

[D41]

Is it just me??? I think the Ducati dry clutch sounds ace

It sounds a little unnerving....even though you know it's supposed to sound like that, it feels as if something is broken and/or needs oil or lube. Spackers at red lights giving you funny looks don't help.