Hi there,
I went and paid $40 today to let a suspension guy have a look at my bike and he came up with the following

1) he reckoned that the zx14 comes with front spring rated 0.9 (whatever that is), the sort of springs that he would put on a 600cc track bike. He reckons the standard bike is well undersprung with a measured sag of 40mm, twice what he would recommend. and this is before I put my 6'2" 275 pound frame on it.

2) he increased the rebound dampening on the front and increased the compression (little screw near the front wheel hub) telling me that this will help the bike dive a little less under brake and the adjustment to the rebound dampning will keep the front wheel on the ground if the going gets a bit bumpy in the corners.

so apart from being undersprung, he reckoned the front of the bike wasnt too bad. A quick ride and I agreed, the front of the bike did indeed dive less and Im no expert, but the front of the bike felt somehow more secure and 'planted' than it did before

He said that the ZX14 had a good range of setting and adjustment for the front.

He told me he was expecting to have more trouble improving the front suspension than the back, but this was not the case.

He told me the back had almost no rebound dampening at all. he bounced on it to show me what he meant. He then screwed the adjustment all the way in in an effort to improve the damping but to no avail. He told me he could improve the handling marginally by increasing the preload on the back but it would take sometime to do because of the positioning of the suspension unit in the frame. He also told me that if he increased the preload too much that it would make the problem worse by increasing the rate at which the bike rebounded after it hit a bump, so we decided it would be better to leave well enough alone for the time being.

He told me it would cost $500 to revalve the existing rear suspension unit and fit a properly rated spring. He also said it would cost me $600 for the same treatment for the forks.

But after this I would have a bike that had the suspension set up for my weight and inceasingly (gradually) aggressive riding style :)

It was interesting and educational, the guy seemed quite knowlegable and does quite a bit of work on race bikes, road bikes and dirties too, but I thought I should ask you hub to see what you think.

good advice or is the guy talking shit ?

I await your input master hub :)

OZ

* Last updated by: ozjohnno on 10/16/2009 @ 2:48 AM *

There must be something different about your bike than mine. I'm about 235 lbs with gear on, and I used the "mine" settings in the first message in this thread. Both front and rear feel great.

The back of the bike is very solid when you push down on it. There is no bounce at all.

For what it's worth... -bg

My rear suspension is too tight, I think. Back seems to jump when i hit a big bump. Perfect for two up however and that would be about 280 lbs of payload on the bike.

* Last updated by: Rook on 10/16/2009 @ 1:21 PM *

Hey Rook-ever adjusted your rear preload?If not,I'd leave it.You can slow the action of the rebound by turnin that screw "in".Same with the compression-slow that down the same way...just an idea.Your rear preload is probably set just about right if you haven't changed it any.(I know,the book says"150 lb rider").It should be moving WITH the frontend-the same speed and height.Get someone to watch you hold the bike upright,then push forcefully down at the center.Both ends ought to rise and stop equally(at the same time).Hope that helps!!

* Last updated by: blue07 on 10/16/2009 @ 10:35 PM *

Thanks for the input guys. BG, I dunno what the difference is between your bike and mine, perhaps a different spec, but mine has a few miles on it, I have had it l0 months now and have done 26000km (a shade over 16000 miles), so it has been used quite a bit.

We screwed the dampening all the way in to try and correct the prob but no joy, it still bounces back as hard as before :(

I asked if I could get a new suspension unit under warrenty...... but was told that with that sort of minlage on the clock they would probably laugh at me.

So its time to get the original unit revalved and fitted with a stiffer spring

*sigh*

thanks again

OZ

ozjohnno:

I heard somewhere (I think in a video with a suspension tuning guy -- I can find a link to it if you want it) that the oil in the forks should be changed every 5,000 miles. Have you ever changed this oil? Might want to consider that... -bg