Likely front too soft and rear ok ime for that weight. One thing I, not sure that’s been said explicitly is, set the static sag, then Rider, then check static again. If it’s not in the same ballpark it was, spiring are too light/heavy.
Ime as a 105 to 130kg rider, the rear in most Ducati’s is ok ish for the road, but fronts at least 3 weights too soft. The 848 was perfect for 120kg At the rear
It was on one of the forums - possibly this one! There are several similar ones out there on the interweb. I googled something like “Ducati 996 suspension settings”. There seem to be a lot of people over the years struggling to get these bikes set up correctly - not helped by the extreme riding position! There is a chap called Shazam who used to post some very informative material on topics such as this. He may have been the originator of this chart. For years I believed “soft springs = soft ride”, but if you want the correct sag, then often a harder spring will give a better ride. There is a very good book called “The Racing Motorcyle” by John Bradley that is really for engineers and not thickos like me, but it explains sag and spring rates beautifully. It really opened my eyes. Hope this helps.
Spot on, yes, the front does feel soft I started on the rear, which triggered this thread, and will look at the front as soon as I get the right spanner to adjust the forks - it’s a bit fiddly getting at them under the handlebars. Useful info re the quick check as to whether the spring is too soft/hard
Is it the standard rear 80 N/mm spring on an ohlins shock with standard linkage? If so, I would suggest the spring is way too soft, and it needs a lot of preload. I am about 90 - 95 kg leathered up and I fitted a 90 N/mm spring to my 1098s - the full length one as there are two lengths of spring that can be used. This, with a touch of pre-load, gave me a fantastically compliant ride.
so Paul, that's a 130 N/mm spring, which is pretty hefty (although it depends slightly on the linkage, length of swinging arm etc). But ] if you compare a standard monoposto spring on a 748/916/996/998, that rating will be significantly lower at around 64 N/mm (although the linkage is completely different of course). We can do a lot with preload to get the right laden sag, but if preload was effective and didn't compromise other factors, we would only ever need one spring rate for everyone
Dont know, but the showa stuff was ok. I bought a tax, ex race bike, for mine which already had a .95 spring IIRC (but that may have been the front...) and it was OK for setting 15mm staff and 25mm rider, which is the area I liked it to be in
Maybe talking shit here, you only really can set a bike up when riding at speed. Who really gives a shit how a sports bike handles at 30mph or 60mph. Tracks recommended, don't encourage speeding on the roads The most important thing I believe, is that a good rider can feel whats wrong and explain it so either he or his mechanic can change the set up. So, it's experience. Playing around with suspension settings usually won't kill ya, so small changes and you will find the sweet spot.
Yes - at the limits of performance, I agree. Since paying attention to getting the suspension right, and for my bodyweight, this involves some spring and invasive damping changes, I have found that you can achieve an acceptable level of comfort on the road at low(ish) speeds and yet still retain compusure on trackdays. I had my RSV4 Factory set up by MCT and it feels great on road and track - the limitation is yours truly! OK, it's a more modern architecture and has suspension components that are more advanced than the 748/916 era that we were talking about earlier, but still quite impressive. Darren from MCT says it could run at the sharp end of the fast group beofre needing any changes: well I'm definitely nowehere near that pace, but have no reason to doubt it based on how it feels to me.
Yes, stock suspension has its limits and as speed comes, time to spend a lot on suspension. Or rather, time to start spending on everything for a complete package. But relating to suspension, stock adjustable is usually fairly good for a lot of riders. Racers probably all think stock is junk
