MarJay
But it's British!
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha
World Chat Champion
Joined: 22 Nov 2012
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MarJay
But it's British!
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
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MarJay
But it's British!
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
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 Posted: 09:35 - 16 Nov 2018  Post subject: |
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| trevor saxe-coburg-gotha wrote: | Fwiw I've got three totally different bikes - weight wise, height wise, engine wise - and they all do that sir. Filtering on even slightly poor surfaces is usually a bit of a handful to say the least. There's the white paint to contend with, the poor surface, and - more often than not - a weird mini cambering effect where the weight of vehicles has impressed a dished concave curvature. It's a right bastard when you're trickling at walking speed - throw in a bit of greasy damp plus a pillion and fuck me, my visor's soon steaming up with the effort of it all. New-ish tyres are about the only thing that alleviate it ime. |
Just to add to this, and to update the thread, I received and fitted my Nitron NTR-R1 shock last week. I went to work on the bike Monday and Tuesday and it was 'meh it's ok, a bit better than it was'. So on Tuesday night I got the GF to help me measure the static sag and it was far too high. I adjusted so with me on the bike the sag both ends is 32mm ( the reccomended amount for the VFR it seems) and I added three clicks of generic damping to the rear end. The bike is now rock solid but comfortable, confidence inspiring but not harsh. I rode over the broken surfaces on the M4 this morning, and it was like any other road surface to my newly fettled bike. For non suspension related reasons I took the Street Triple to work yesterday, and while it was better than the unadjusted VFR, it's far more twitchy than the current VFR setup. Not dangerous in any way, just a bit more 'exciting'. The VFR forks feel decent, and I used their damping to gauge the correct level of damping on the rear. This seems like a good choice.
Riding the Street Triple back to back with the VFR, I also noticed that the gearing on the Street is REALLY low. In top gear at 70mph the Street still pulls all the way to the top of the rev range as the VFR does in third. This means that motorway riding the Street is revving its nuts off, but the VFR is just about 4500rpm. The Street also encourages some, err, "spirited" filtering, which I don't really feel the need to do on the VFR. Don't get me wrong, it will do it if I want to now, I just don't feel encouraged to do so by the bike, if that makes sense.
So, the long and the short of it is, if you have a bike that tramlines, or is unstable or seems wayward, you can and should sort the suspension setup out. My bike is more relaxing, more confidence inspiring and overall a lot safer on my commute. I had my doubts about spending the money on the Nitron, but if even 10% of the improvement I've found is down to the quality of the shock, it was worth every penny.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another. |
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