Hi all, Has anyone swapped out their front springs? It would seem that the standard items are far too stiff and even with the preload wound right out I still can't get into the 25-30mm sag range that I should be getting. I'm getting more like 10mm! I weigh about 12.5 stone so it's not I'm a total featherweight! I've spoken to MH Racing who are a suspension specialists in Wiltshire who have confirmed they have swapped out a few sets of springs and they find they are too stiffly sprung for the average road rider and they can fit correctly rated K-tech springs pretty easily. Just wondered if anyone else has done this and how it affected the bike?
I might not be understanding the way it all works correctly but I'm surprised they find them too stiff as I've always noticed how the front gets bottomed out on the Panigale? I have cable ties on the fork to keep an eye on it and they are always right at the bottom on street or track.
Is yours a base model? I've only recently stuck a cable tie on mine but my fork travel after my last spirited ride didn't go over half way, I'm missing a whole load of suspension travel which I'm hoping was because I had my compression set too hard, but the sag settings are worrying me too that something is amiss and my forks are way too hard!
This is what I'm talking about. This is with the preload wound out completely and compression settings almost at their softest, I think I dialled in half a turn from full out. I went out for half and hour earlier and gave the bike a bit of stick when I could and did some hard-ish braking. You can see I'm nowhere near using full suspension travel at the front...
Just a word of warning mate, different forks have different length bump stops, so for example on my Daytona I was told that the bottom 10mm of the fork leg was bottom out Spring so I needed another 10 or so mm working range under hard braking, so about 20mm off the bottom of the slider. Obv the Ohlins may be totally different so worth speaking to an expert. Also, the marzochi are some sort of super big piston design aren't they? So maybe designed to travel less for more oil movement, that is obv the idea of bpf forks. I am no expert and hence not commenting before but I've had suspension work done and had both Ohlins and normal BPF's on various bikes. I would say though based on my springs being 9.5nm when I was 14stone that perhaps u would benefit from a lighter spring with more preload to keep the working range of the forks acceptable but give u the feel you are looking for. Speak to an expert in short ;-) JHS For example gave me loads of advise before taking my money
You're right, basically if someone turns round and says this is normal then that's great. The bike certainly feels good to me, but I don't know any better! What I don't want to be doing is going round in ignorant bliss and not making the most out of the suspension. I've emailed 6 suspension company's this afternoon to see what kind of responses I get. JHS was one of them and I'm hoping for good things from them as they're just down the road from me
Ah, okay mate, heard recently they haven't been so hot on email but of course it's a crappy time of year. I had them rebuild my Daytona forks and they set up my Ohlins shock and set up the suspension on my 848 Evo to a fashion... Ie told me the rear shock should immediately be taken out and used to prob the shed door open... They couldn't get more than 5mm static sag into it. The various panigale's I've ridden have been much much better. Best of luck and keep us posted
Will do! The rear should be sorted soon hopefully. I'm not messing about with that and have a nice new Nitron shock on order, obviously built to my spec. The front will be a bit more of a challenge though methinks...
So JHS just called :smiley: Basically they want to do a standard suspension setup first but they're of the opinion that I am going to need some softer springs. They're going to get some prices put together for me for the options I have and then email them across.
Sweet! They are really good! And James' wife is very lovely lady indeed ;-) hopefully a chat f2f will get you on the right path.
When they ask you about your riding though, be careful as in my experience they always lean towards stiffer setups
I'm sure I read somewhere that the Marzocchis will not use all there travel on the slider due to the internal arrangement with the pressurized bladder and bump stop. I think it was Richard at Maxton who told me when I was talking with him about a potential cartridge upgrade. Give him a call to confirm.
Ok cool, this is the exact thing I need confirmed but I don't believe though that what I'm showing in my picture as unused travel is using all the available shock travel, but I guess it might not be as far off as I think?
I've just had this response from Steve Jordan motorcycles who are a suspension specialists. It confirms that these Marzocchi forks do indeed halt their travel at around 30mm which is really useful to know. But they do go on to say that the settings I currently have would indicate that I need to swap out the springs for a pair of 9.5nm ones and then getting the fork setup properly. Interesting stuff and hopefully useful to others! The design of these forks has two things that will affect the amount of travel within the fork. They are sprung with a 10nm spring which is on the side of being too firm for most road riders and therefore will affect the sag figures and also reduce the travel used during road use. They also within their design have a pressurised bladder which halts travel at around 30mm from the bottom of the fork. Going by your picture you are possibly not too far off that maximum. One thing that can happen when using a travel indicator is that it will only indicate the maximum amount of travel during any ride, which can happen once such as heavy braking or hitting a large bump in the road or the fork could be sat at that point for a lot of the time. Your settings and sag measurement would possibly indicate that you are only using the travel indicated not very often. I would therefore suggest fitting some lighter rate springs, such as 9.5nm and then setting up the rest of the fork to suit.
Interesting findings,i have just had my Ohlins fork springs changed and they were 10n and have been changed to 9.5,so it seems quite a common spring rate change,i am no lightweight at 15 stone in the summer and 15.5 with my winter coat on,was told 10n is ok for track only but 9.5 would be better for road use with the odd track day thrown in.
I guess this would explain why the bikes always feel like they need riding hard before the chassis starts to feel like it's working well.
Interesting read on suspension here. Its an 899 and focuses on the shock rather than forks but still worth reading. The Panigale papers: Shock therapy | Stuff.co.nz
