spring preload adjustment tips?

[miguel_costello]

hello helpful people,

i am about to have a pillion on my bandit 600 GSF for the first time, need to jack my rear suspension up a tad but had problems trying it earlier...

any tips for doing this? like should i have the bike on the side or centre stand.... also the crappy C spanner i'm using came with the bike's kit, is it easier with something else?

i'm not sure its ever been adjusted before and seems stiff as hell.... so any tips to help this procedure would be muchly appreciated....

anything else i might have to do to the bike, other than stick some more air in the rear tyre? the chain seems slacker with the extra weight, im guessing adjusting the rear suspension will fix this more or less though?

thanks all....

[CaNsA]

Depends if its worth doing in the first place.

How long a journey are you going to be on?
How heavy is the person?
How often are they going to be on the back?

Admittedly i take my missus to and from work every day, but i havent changed my shock at all.

[Noxious89123]

Try riding with pillion before you make any adjustments; you might find you don't need to.

I'm not a particularly heavy bloke, so the weight of an extra person makes loads of difference i find, so i usually jack the preload up from 3 to 5. If I don't, the steering can get pretty heavy, and it makes the bike feel a bit like it wants to wander about at very low speed. Also makes it run a bit wide powering out of corners, as I once discovered when i caught me out and i ended up on th other side of the road O_o

If your reducing the preload, do it on the side stand or whatever. If your increasing the preload, it's made easier by putting the bike on the main stand, as this takes the load off the spring. The C spanner in my tool kit was a bit shit, so i bought a better one on eBay. It still takes a bit of muscle to get it to go though.

If it's just a short journey I won't bother, but anything that'll take more than 15 minutes, and I'll adjust it to suit.

Don't change tyre pressures at all.
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[lonner]

hi
tyre pressure standard

try more rebound first (half a turn at a time) as this will stiffen the rear up a bit and stop the rear bouncing like a pogo stick

as for preload as above dont bother unless its going to be an every day thing.

hth

[miguel_costello]

thanks guys most helpful...

took them out the other day, totally felt the old pogo stick effect on the rear.... theyre probably about the same weight as me, about 12 stone or so. its going to be an everyday thing for the next couple of weeks.

i'll give it a go, thanks for the tips!
m