Check-up results

Trundled the old 859 Heritage Service Centre Suzuki down to Phil Douglas at Aftershocks today for a "setup". I showed him what was going on with my tires, he put me on the bike, measured a few things, turned a few screws and got it all figured out.

We wound up raising the rear end of the bike a little, and I have a prescription to lower the front by about 4mm. Should make it much more stable on the brakes and turn in better. Some tweaks to damping in both the rear shock and the forks, and Bob's your uncle.

One of the nice things you get from a real suspension expert is a setup sheet, which shows all the settings. My bike has compression and rebound damping adjusters on both the shock and the front forks, in addition to spring preload and ride height adjustments. Now, thanks to Phil, I have a baseline of those settings, so we can always start from a known place should I need to change anything.

I also got the story about the tearing on my rear tires. In Phil's expert opinion, it's caused more by too low pressures than suspension hop, because it's only occuring in a narrow band. The Michelin tires I'm using this year are a new construction that the tire guys say can run at really low pressure because they hold their profile better. But a couple more pounds above what the tire guys say (24psi rather than 22) should do the trick.

We shall see. Next weekend is race weekend at Thunderhill. I'm hoping to make it up for practice on Saturday and see what the bike feels like with this new setup, but Sunday races are out of the question due to having to work in the afternoon and evening.

Stay tuned for some on-track updates.

Cheers...