Hi! So I have a monster 695. As does my girlfriend so I don’t feel too bad saying, it’s a bike targeted at those smaller in stature but I’m about normal gent stature. As such, I find the suspension to be very soft and I’ve come from a street triple RX so I’m finding it a bit odd. I’m looking at options for the rear but in the mean time, fork seals needed changing so I got some hyperpro springs to go in. I had them on an XSR700 and they were great however on the 695, they seem a bit on the firm side. Rider sag is at 30mm and static is 10mm. The front of the bike sits quite high too. It seems comfy to ride but I’m worried about topping out and associated fiery death. I’ve just been for a short ride with a cable tie on and noted when I got home that I’d only used 50-60% of the travel. I’m almost at the point of opening it back up and putting stock springs back in with a heavier oil but before doing so, wondered as these springs are new, whether they’re likely to settle/sag much over the coming weeks. Does anyone know how likely that is?? I remember putting coil overs on a car and it settled quite a lot over the first week and had to readjust the height to compensate. If these will do something similar, I could be on to a winner. Separately, I’m considering hyperpro’s rear spring. It’s circa £85 so not as painful as an ohlins shock but they don’t list one for the 695. They do however for the 620 and so far as I can see, the Ducati P/N for the rear shock on these two bikes is the same and they’re very similar bikes so presumably that spring will be suitable for the 695. I tend to find that because the 695 was only made for a year and the run on the 620 was much longer there is often parts listed for the 620 which are perfectly suitable for the 695. Are there any other recommended options?
My wife also has a 695 and I ride it occasionally as there are often long gaps between the times she uses it. It has standard suspension but I never find it to be too soft. I appreciate we all have different riding styles , routes and definitions of comfort but I wonder if it is worth you taking your bike to a suspension specialist before splashing out on new parts ? There is one local to me I have used a couple of times and the improvements can be massive and at very low cost. Happy to recommend them but you may be far away. The one I use is in Stevenage http://www.fasterbikes.com/
Did you source the Hyperpro springs for the 695 for your weight? If so, they just need static sag setting (+ normal damping adjustments). If not, they're the wrong rate springs.... As for springs settling or whatever; they'll only do that if made from shit material that shouldn't have got anywhere near your forks in the first place. They're heat-treated spring steel so they don't creep, or gradually degrade over time...
Thanks for the replies. There’s no adjustment on the 695 forks unfortunately (aside from playing with oil level or cutting the preload spacer to length which I didn’t want to do because if I went too far, replacements are only available as part of the damper assembly - muchos £££). I’ve just returned the OE springs to the forks and been out for a ride. There’s a more acceptable level of travel and sag now so I’ll stick with the standard setup. Sometimes you don’t realise what you’ve got until you don’t Interesting that the internals of my forks are somewhat different to the parts diagram from Duc. The diagram shows a cup that sits at the top of the spring between a lock nut and the top cap. Mine didn’t have this! The top cap looks ‘deeper’ and the spring sits directly against it.
