Hey, I have cheated on my hyper939 today with a 2016 multi 1200 pikes peak. The one with the ohlins. Soooooooo..... Me and the Mrs saddle up and head out on the test ride, steady away and get to the first roundabout, i'm heading for the third exit and on the bend the front spushes out and feels weird. Onto the next one and same thing again, quite unnerving tbh. We stop in a layby up the road and I ask LadyBigsack what she is thinking so far; she replies with "its nice, better looking and much more comfortable but.. What happened at the roundabouts." So i apply some preload from the adjuster and set off again, its a wee, tidgy bit better but it might just be a placebo. We stop again after another 10mins and I wind a bit more preload on. Again, i think it felt better but not sure. my questions are: is this normal? Do all multi's have a vague/light front end? Can it be dialled out with suspension settings? Should i be looking at something else? if its something else, my shopping list for Hyper replacement is: Better tank range, better headlight, a comfier seat/ride and finally: to be almost as much fun as the hyper. If you have read this far, thanks for taking the time.
So can you clarify if you actually adjusted the rear preload for the passenger first? if you did not then yes the front end will feel vague given that the rear squatted a lot more and took weight from the front giving you a vague feeling. It is not as forgiving as the regular versions with the active Sachs systems which adjust weight evenly for luggage and such like. The PP is more of a single rider machine which once set up is sublime. A normal s version is ideal between swapping from single rider to pillion a lot easier
The imagery of Lady Bigsack.... I laughed at the Avatar name then spat out my coffee at LADY bigsack....
as PeterT said, sounds likely that rear end not yet set up for pillion rather than front being far out.
In addition to what has been commented, you may want to have your suspension components serviced and tuned. Ohlins suggests servicing the forks and the rear shock about every 15,000 miles. That's a great thing about Ohlins. There's easily serviceable. Multiple customizable parts are also available.
I've had this on my Multi once before. The front felt awful, in fact splushy is the right word. It turned out that the front tyre was under inflated by about 30 percent
Took me a while to come to terms with mine doing this, and it is a 1200s. They seem to be quite sensitive to setup, even with the skyhook setup. But I had a combination of, incorrect rear preload(rider ignorance), front tyre worn slightly scalloped and the rear tyre looked like it had been ridden underinflated. My opinion tho, and a combination of, new steering head bearings, new tyres and setting the suspension to rider only made a huge difference.
I personally didnt adjust the preload before setting off, i'm guessing the dealer hadnt either, even though I had asked. I'll mainly be riding solo with only occasionally 2 up which is how i was thinking the PP would be a more grown up hyper!
I went from a hyper 939SP to the 1200DVT PP and found the PP handles fantasticly even when fully loaded with outback trekker side cases, top box and my daughter riding pillion. All I did was wind the rear preload up one click
Had the very same feeling, bike felt like it was going to tip over mid corner.....low tire pressure was to blame
