Well that is interesting. Rule number 1 applied here: 'when all else fails read instructions'. So I did, again... and it still says the same as the last time I looked. The manual says 'P' is for 'two-ups'. You read it, that's what it says, 'The PROGRESSIVE position (P) is recommended when two-ups'. Page 191. My bike is set standard to 'F' which presumably means for 1-ups? I have no rear footrests on it and have no intention of taking the lovely Mrs 2-ups on it anyways. Interesting that you find it better on that setting though. We need to know more. Anybody else played around with this and what were the results?
I've tried it in both positions solo and both positions two up. I couldn't tell any difference between the setting two up but it did seem softer and more controlled when solo.
When sitting on the bike straight afterwards it didn't feel any softer and I thought that it was all nonsense however on the road the difference was huge. In the F setting the back wheel felt like it was skipping over jumps and was kicking me out of the seat. Once I had changed it to P then this all went away and the bike felt far more settled both braking into corners and through them.
The opposite for me bradders. In theory, flat should give you a longer stroke length overall. Progressive should be softer at the beginning and then ramp up. So small bumps softer than flat, but large bumps harder (generalising). Forgetting the theory, flat seems softer for me.
Likewise, I find the Panigale very stiff at the rear. It actually felt like there was no sag at all however when measured, all was fine. I still feel it very stiff (only ride on track) but haven't had the opportunity to really muck about with it yet. My question is, all who posted above saying that it was firm at the back and moved from F to P....have you tried to eliminate the stiffness by reducing the compression damping ?, or does this not help the situation ? My intention when next on track is to soften the compression and rebound by quite a bit and then progressively increase them until I'm happy but would be interested to know if it has been tried and there was a difference or is it beyond just backing damping off.
i basically use p setting, so theres less chance of bottoming out. on flat setting, big yumps can compress the spring too much. 2 up could be dangerous. even at 13 stone, i needed to remove 1 full turn of preload off the rear shock to get decent sag. I have use my 'race' setting, with 'road' display but with compression and rebound based only slightly more damped than wet settings, power is set at 195hi, and my sport setting is wet damping settings (but two notches up on damping and rebound on rear shock), but with 195lo, these give me the best settings for average, and good surfaced roads. Standard sport and race settings are far too harsh for road riding. but im still playing, u need to until your happy.
