Last year I bought a 696 as a every day hack. I found the fork setup to be very hard, in particular with the deterioration of the roads near me. I read some of the test reports and it seems I'm not the only one. As I'm naturally tight with deep pockets and short arms I wasn't going to spend any money but just live with it. I did plan on changing the fork oil from a W7.5 to W5.0 but I haven't got round to it. Recently it needed some new tyres and the front is a 120/60. A size that doesn't give a awful lot of options when compared to a 120/70. As I said, I'm tight so I decided to go for a pair of Pirelli diablos, which can be had for a mere £160 for the pair but with the 120/70 front. The difference in radius is 12mm but the mudguard has got enough clearance. I pushed the forks through the triple trees by the required 12mm so I'm back where I was before with regards to ride height. Well, not only do I like the handling better, it also made the ride much more supple. It's only the harshest of potholes and bumps that still come through fairly unfiltered but otherwise it's much improved. I felt this was worth sharing.
