Had my new pikes peak set up by Neil Freeman at Ducati Aylesbury on Saturday. If had a go myself and he said it wasn't bad but he transformed it. He was only the Ducati technician for the team that won the pikes peak races. Best £99 I've spent. He explains everything and he's a magician. Even gives you a chart with all the settings on. Saturday mornings are best for him.
I weigh 85kg in my gear and I tried the full turn for every 15kg. I would it in 5.5 turns. I always rode in sport mode. It felt shite even with the rear adjusted. I eventually arrived at 2.5 turns in until it felt great. So that worked out for me to be about 1/2 turn for every 15kg.
It's not a certain mathematical equation I 've found, it works different for different folk, this was just to highlight to people that the manual adjustment exists on the Skyhook bike.
Remember sport mode is form all round if you haven't softened any settings. I think a lot of this will be how you expect and want the ride to feel. Being a multi, slightly softer is probably quite common so no surprise people are going for less rather than more.
I get the impression that some people think that "Skyhook Suspension" is some kind of magical throbbing brain that will adjust for your weight and give you the perfect ride as soon as you sit on the bike. They dont realise or tinker enough to know that in most cases the bike is delivered with hardly any pre-load on the front and you have to get it in the ball park for the Skyhook to do its stuff. The rear seems to get a reasonable default through the display. Its no wonder that you see threads on here complaining about the front handling if there is hardly any pre-load on the front at delivery. As I said in a previous post, the dealers could do better in this respect.
EE...Sorry I only partly get your point. The 1200s is electronically set to pre-defined profiles (sport, touring, rider only etc) but all of these are a compromise that won't necessarily match rider weights, riding styles, preferences in terms of firmness of ride etc. Hence a professional expert can set up each profile to exactly match the rider's requirements. The fact that it is set via the dash (1200S) instead of an Allen key (Ohlins) doesn't logically make any difference, other than there are no preset profiles for the Pikes Peak at all. The fact that it's it's a turn of Pre-load per 15kg rider weight for one and a turn per 10kg of rider weight for the Ohlins is also no reason not to have a pro set it up.
There is a slight difference though, the skyhook automatically adjusts from these set parameters, but with manual boingy bits, once set, the pre-load ,compression and rebound are not adjusting.
Me too, I started with 1/3 of one turn in and it was too light at front. I took it to 6.5 turns in (I weight 90kg + say 5kg for jacket/lid). Rode last night and it is too much, shall back it off over the weekend and get the tape measure out and do it more scientifically 2015 DVT 1200S
I'm 90kg also and started at 6.25 turns, but I've backed it off twice now to 5 turns and it seems pretty good now?
Being a pikes peak kind of guy with manual suspension, what does the sky hook actually do that's clever? Is it semi active and if so what does it do? Don't need the science explaining, just the function :- )
Well to give you an idea. I have not set any preload on the front. Its outa the box. I ride fast road & sports mode seems to give me the front dive pretty much bang on. I also ride rough twisty over the moors roads & the urban & enduro modes soften the suspension like your riding on air. Its amazing. The Touring mode gives a softer than sports mode ride for long journeys. I have not played with the preload yet & will be talking to the dealers about it to get there opinion, some on here seem to think the Ducati main dealers don,t have a clue.
More like they aren't interested, rather than clueless? It's your bike, so set it as you want it. There is no mileage in it for them to fiddle with the front preload, just to have repeat visits of "it's too hard, now it's too soft" etc. Some people don't know one end of a 19mm socket from the other remember. I'm still adjusting mine (at about 5.25 turns atm), but it does make a significant difference to the default 0.25 turns in.
According to the marketing the semi active suspension is adjusting the rebound/compression within the shocks regardless of road condition to ensure that it achieves the setting you request through the dash. It will do that regardless of preload setting.
