Hi all. Took the trumpet R out for its first real blast since I bought her. The ride is quite harsh and definitely needs setting up for me as it had a real tendency to skip and bounce over the bumpy bits rather than soak them up. Would this be normal for a factory preset up? Thanks
the Ohlins is very responsive to adjustment. it is not a plush ride it strongly leans toward track type firmness. take it to someone who understands suspension and have them adjust it to your weight.
I guess the suspension on a bike comes out of the factory at a standard average setting, for rider weight road conditions and riding style, I guess for a 12 stone person riding solo,so has to be adjusted accordingly. As cafecruzin says take it to someone or tinker with it yourself until you feel, can afford, an upgrade is necessary and take it to someone then
the r comes with top line ohlins so i don't think an upgrade is necessary(except possibly a different rate rear spring) only adjustment
luckily I have the original owners manual and does specify the factory settings and how to adjust. I need to check what the settings are currently on the bike and start from there. thanks.
Lovely bike, it's a dead ringer for mine, if you have the correct factory manual for the "r" there should be three or four options for set up that Ohlins/Triumph recommend and as said they are very responsive to adjustments much more so than the std bike. If I'm planning on doing more than 300 miles on a run I adjust it to the comfort setting and it helps a lot. Just touching on a comment in your other thread, you can flip the mirrors 180 degrees and have them over your hands that narrows up the bars quite a bit (you don't have to remove them just twist)
I only have the customer handbook that gives one set of settings. Greatly appreciated if anyone has the other setup options though? The preload will need to be set for my weight though so I'll end up grabbing my brother in-law for lifting and balancing the bike!
YouTube "Dave Moss Suspension", he has some very user friendly advise on setting up a bikes suspension, Rebound, Compression, Preload etc, also goes into tyre pressures and how each factor affects your bike and in what way
The way I set up suspension is as follows: Spring pre-load : the springs need to be set-up in stages - Stage 1: this is called setting up the "sag" and is the stage where the suspension is set up to take into account the weight of the bike ONLY. Stage 1 - the bike must be lifted such that both wheels are off the ground at the same time. The way I measure sag is to install zip ties onto the chromed piston rod so they are at the base of the cylinder, in other words as high as they can be. Now place the bike on the ground. You should now see that the zip tie has been pressed down the piston rod a little. Measure how far it has been pushed down. It should be about 10-15mm. If it is less there is too much spring pre-load, if it is more there is not enough pre-load. Stage 2 - Now we need to know how much more depressed the zip ties become when the rider is aboard with feet on the pegs. Now the rider off the bike again, measure how much further down the zip ties have been moved. 25mm would be an average amount of deflection with an average weight rider. If it's more you need more pre-load. The purpose of all of this is to ensure that when riding the bike the springs have been set up to ensure they are fully capable of carrying the bike and it's load, without using up the full travel of the suspension.
This is the table from my manual You can download the manual from Triumph here... http://www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/services/manuals?bike=0b70a8f0-4f23-4dc7-a166-bcf8feda1f82
all the ifo given is good BUT if you want you suspension set for YOUR WEIGHT and RIDING STYLE go to a suspension professional it is in my opinion well worth the money.there is a reason why gp riders and race teams use suspension experts. if your happy with pretty close then do it yourself i use to for years and thought i was pretty good.i was wrong .
Thanks all. I'll preset to one of these and see what it's like. At the end of the season I'll book it into BSD down the road from me and see how close I was.
Right so I checked and the existing setup as purchased was Harley on a bouncy castle setting! Way beyond the comfort setting which would explain why it bounced over the bumps and wouldn't go round a corner. I've set it to the middle of the range sport settings and went out tonight and bingo. Rides nice, soaks up the bumps and even managed to get round a corner or two. I'll still take it for a proper setup over winter but for now it's a million times better. Thanks again for the information chaps.
Here's the info from Ohlins on setting up your bike's suspension, Part 2 is preload (sag)... https://www.ohlins.eu/en/motorcycle/technics/
Hi Bud, check your manual for the pre set factory clicks, if not happy take to performance shop to be weighed up and matched. Keep meaning to do it my self but what sunny days we have I spend riding. I do hear that it makes a big noticeable difference if your not quite comfortable or you have generally messed up adjusting, its hard to measure the ride against previous clicks as your ride and the road conditions change so let the techs do the maths and Physics's as your datum.
