765 My 765 R Suspension Adjustments

I'm creating this thread as a means to keep track of my suspension adjustments. I am no expert and am very forgetful, that's why I need a log for my work. I'll be following instructions in the owner's manual when making changes to my bike.

Below are suspension settings taken from the 2018 Street Triple Owner's Handbook. All settings are for the 2018 765 R (regular seat height).

Stock Front suspension

Code:

              Preload       Rebound (TEN)         Compression (COM)
Track           5                  1                1.5
Sport           5                  1                2
Road            5                  2.5              5
Comfort         5                  5.5              7

Stock Rear Suspension

Code:

              Preload       Rebound (TEN)         Compression (COM)
Track          N/A                 1.25             1.5
Sport          N/A                 1.5              2
Road           N/A                 2.5              2
Comfort        N/A                 3                2.75

 

Date: 06-04-2018
Rider weight: 150 lbs
Riding style: Street

Front and rear suspension settings were set to be in-between road & sport settings.

Code:

              Preload       Rebound (TEN)         Compression (COM)
Front          5                  1.75               3.5
Rear           N/A                2                  2

 

Thanks for your suggestion, Bad Billy. I applied the rear TEN change, from 1.5 to 2, and I updated the details of my post.

 

Yeah, the main issue I found was with the front rebound setting. The compression setting was on ROAD mode, but rebound was set too soft.

Setting the front and rear suspension made a difference in exiting corners this morning. Less bouncing. I had more confidence trailing off the front brake and getting on the gas. We'll see this afternoon when the temperature is warmer.

My riding will change as I get more familiar with the combination of braking and rev-matching my down-shifts with respect to what the slipper clutch is doing. I also need to refine my throttle input which I'm finding out is harder to do on a triple vs. an inline-4, or maybe it's the ECU-managed throttle-by-wire that is so precise and allows for very little slack.

I'll keep this setting for a month, I think.

 

Your experience with a new bike is indeed strange. I'm glad you got the settings sorted out for your riding style.

I bought mine used with 2098 miles. Before changing settings on my bike, I verified that all settings were on ROAD mode, except for the front rebound.

 

Good to know. If you don't mind, can you also let us know your riding style and a ballpark # of your weight in lbs?

 

Thanks. I think @Bad Billy and your input confirm that my current settings, which are set to be between road and sport mode, is good for now. I do feel that my bike is more planted in corners now.

 

Nice video. It looks like you could benefit from learning to set you suspension yourself since you do both gymkhana and racetrack sessions. Lucky you!

Perhaps you can watch the guys at the motorcycle place you mentioned to setup the suspension and ask them for pointers so you can feel confident adjusting them on your own.

The hardest part for me was to make sure I start dialing in from the correct side...either from full clock-wise or full-counterclockwise position. I don't know why Showa had to make this different between preload and COM&TEN.

 

Ah, got it.

In this case, it would really be good to get comfortable with adjusting the suspension yourself since the shop would probably not get it right the first time.

To start tinkering with the forks, perhaps leave preload alone until you’ve figured out COM and TEN settings for the kind of riding you’re setting up for. Then soften up or harden preload to fine-tune. I know this is kind of reverse, but it's what I did with mine because I didn't have anyone to help me measure sag.

For the rear, the R doesn’t have adjustablity for preload...just saw in the manual that the R LRH does have preload adjustment for the shock. Good to know, but I wonder why this left that out for the R.

 

Thanks for the link.

I just got done trying to set my fork preload while in full riding gear.

With the fork in the air, the wife measured 22.5 cm from the bottom of the ziptie that's underneath the fork seal to the top of the axle shaft. With me on the bike and lightly leaning on the wall with my pointer finger, the measurement was 18.25 cm. This is with preload set to factory setting (5), and COM & TEN set between road and sport mode.

The problem we encountered is she can't get a steady decrease in reading the sag when I turn the preload screw. Her reading just kept bouncing between 18 cm and 18.5 cm as I go from 5 to 4, or from 5 to 6/7.

I'll try again tomorrow.. I'll set all settings back to stock and go from there.