Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Since installing the timing advancer when I give my bike the berries in first its got enough grunt to get the weight off the front but still be skimming the road resulting in a little headshake. Not enough to worry about on a good road but could get nasty over unseen bumps. Time for a steering damper?

Yep I reckon. That is exactly where I get most of my headshake from. That, and missing the 2nd-3rd gearshift on hard acceleration.

Pity they cost so damn much.

If you want to save a few bucks, you could try riding with a little more weight over the front, or possibly raising the rear ride height a little (acts to transfer weight onto the front) ; dropping the forks would do the same thing, but it would reduce ground clearance.

Cheers,
Brian

Mate,

when I went down a tooth on the front, the extra grunt had me doing some really good slappers every time I gave it a bit of wrist. (The accelerator, you idiots)

Softened the rear suspension a bit and she was perfect.

Hope this helps.

cheers

PC

greenman43 wrote:If you want to save a few bucks, you could try riding with a little more weight over the front, or possibly raising the rear ride height a little (acts to transfer weight onto the front) ; dropping the forks would do the same thing, but it would reduce ground clearance.

Cheers,
Brian

ummmm, if you raise the rear ride height (or drop the forks) it will sharpen the steering angle. Basically if you do this you WILL need a steering damper, even if you may not have before.

and how often do you accelerate out of a corner in 1st gear ? me, not very often.

then again i've got the best bike in the world so ner ner ne ner ner

As per Performance Bikes set-up guide my scoot is 3mm on the forks and 10mm up at the back. I'll take out a little rear pre-load and see how I go.

Aussie Ninja wrote:As per Performance Bikes set-up guide my scoot is 3mm on the forks and 10mm up at the back. I'll take out a little rear pre-load and see how I go.

PB's setups are notoriously track biased, for road use that may be a little extreme.

as far as 3mm on the forks and 10mm on the rear ride height goes - that is why your bike is "flighty"

Phil wrote: if you raise the rear ride height (or drop the forks) it will sharpen the steering angle. Basically if you do this you WILL need a steering damper, even if you may not have before.

You may well be right, but it seems to me that as the headshake is arising from weight transfer to the rear (front wheel lifting) and not reduced trail, trying to put weight back onto the front should assist.

Cheers,
Brian

I've taken out a couple mm of ride height and a little rear spring pre-load. Once the missus gets home from work I'll give it a test ride and see how it is. I guess I'll have to get a damper sooner or later though because the next thing on the list is a 520 conversion and three extra teeth at the back.

i ride a 900 that lifts in 1,2 and 3 gear....yet i dont need a damper...on road or track...mate i think its more abt the loud handle, powering out of say a 2nd gear corner and not cracking it til nearly upright helps..then again u gotta rev ur bike harder than me, and have less torque....personally i think dampers are overrated on most bikes, if u set em up right, u wont need one...

Phils on the money steeper rake increases headshake, as your pushing down into as opposed to along the road surface.
First thing JB & Rossi did to the yamaha was Flatten it sus back out to make it more ridable.
hth
Cheers Brett

I tried all that dropping through the clamps and stuff and in the end i added more rebound to the front and it turned in like a beuty, tried all those setup guides too wouldnt go that way again either.

Best bet is too setup the preload to suit you then adjust the compression to suit braking effort so it doesnt dive too much then adjust the rebound till it turns in nice might take a whie to get it right but you will know when its right and it will be way easier the next time.

looked in the factory manual the other day out of interest and they gave me the suposed correct settings for a 68kg rider and not much else on suspension adjustment.

These big bore riders dont understand you have to be right on the throttle asap on a 600 do they.

Nar ya dont need one, get used to it slappin. Light on the bars and heavy on the gas works wonders

hammer wrote:Nar ya dont need one, get used to it slappin. Light on the bars and heavy on the gas works wonders

hehe yeah, if it starts slappin' grab more throttle and hang the fark on ya wusses

If ya cant hold the bars when it needs it wtf get a cruiser

Here ya go my bestest site for when ya confused scroll down 3/4 page, people have their own differing opinion because everyone has different preferences - ok.

This morning I took out a bit of rear preload which helped some as the bike squats a little more. After reading scotty's link I took out some front preload to balance the front to the back, and a click of rebound. Results: The bike feels nicer on the road, still drops into a corner just fine and under full throttle the front still gets light but doesn't twitch anymore. Thanks guys.