how does yours handle

[Austin]

Mine is sh!te.

I have a conti road attack front with about 6k under it and a trail attack on the rear with about 1K on it. Not an ideally matched combo I know but the rear Road Attack wore out in under 5k and except when brand new was horrible. The OE trailwings were loads better.

my problems
- any sudden bumps in the road (even just a cats eye)cause the bars to shake and the bike to loose tracking requiring considerable input to keep it straight or even feeling like a tank slapper wpuld develop.
- Longer pitched uneveness in the road (the sort you would just normally feel the forks doing their stuff on) feels like it is going to turn into a weave or the bike feeling like it is hinged in the middle.
- The tyres pick up white lines or lines in the road badly, even changing lanes on the motorway can cause the bike to react badly - it even shakes its head when I cross the ruts caused by lorries in lane 1.
- A tankslapper instantly starts if I take my hands of the bars at any speed - normally I might expect one as slow to about 40-30mph and with poorly inflated tyres.
- higher speed corners feel like a weave is about to set in at any moment.

All in all it feels horrible and when I got on my TA today it's handling felt just fantastic, just smoothly eating up any uneveness in the road, big bumps etc and I could confidently lean it as far as I wanted.

rear shock iss +20 clicks preload and standard damping. Forks are standard. No top box, tyre pressures are standard. I have a MRA Vario screen +25mm bar risers. head bearings and swing arm have no play nor are they over-tight.

Any suggestions... tyres? Screen? Bar risers? Fork oil?

Apart from the basic checks I haven't done anything yet.

[PHILinFRANCE]

Not wanting to be personal how heavy/tall are you i,m 5ft 8in & 13ST ish and never had any of those problems i,m running on Anakees and fell great(for me) i did play with the suspension adjuster a few times to get her just right!!!
No dout some one who knows what they are talking about will come along soon after all i,m only a bricky
Phil

[Austin]

Not wanting to be personal how heavy/tall are you i,m 5ft 8in & 13ST ish and never had any of those problems i,m running on Anakees and fell great(for me) i did play with the suspension adjuster a few times to get her just right!!!
No dout some one who knows what they are talking about will come along soon after all i,m only a bricky
Phil

6 foot 2" and 16 ish stones.

I think its forks or tyres

[Paul-S]

Hi Austin

Just saw the post

I have sent you an e-mail with a suspension set up guide, there may be some bits in the troubleshooting that might help

Sounds like the rear and front are not complementing each other - this can lead to the weaving / tracking you are descibing

Have you booked the ferries yet !!!!

Regards

Paul

[Boris]

I would get things checked out pronto. I know I've said the trailwings were poor but they were nowhere that bad. They did track a bit and the bars did wobble a tiny bit when taking my hands of them but it was at worst a shimmy and nowhere a tank slapper.

On the advice of the tyre manufacture I always run the tyres at 36f 42r solo or two up and am 15 stone and 6 foot. That way they don't get too hot and square off to quickly.

Other things worth checking is the engine mounts are done up properly. This is worth checking especially if you have engine bars or centrestand fitted as the engine is a stressed member and supplies a lot of frame rigidity. Loose mounts apperently cause some of the symptoms you describe.

if it's as bad as you say there is definitely something a bit rum. It's no fireblade but it should be able to hustle along with confidence on all but the worst surfaces.

Oh and get a matching pair of tyres.

[AncientAndy]

6 foot 2" and 16 ish stones.

I think its forks or tyres

Try inflating the rear to 41 psi and see if that helps. With your gear on, you will be considerably heavier than 16 stone.

The hand book says rider plus pillion 36 front and 41 rear. I am definitely, geared up, the weight of two normal Japanese men.

I left the dealers with two tyres at 33 psi (his meter was out) and the ride home was a weaving death run.

The rear up to 41 psi and the bike was much better.

[Freerangestormer]

I had a mismatched set not unlike yours, horrible but the rear shock was past it. That replaced with a Hagon made a big difference but confirmed my fears that the tyre set up was not good.

Changed to Anakee's like Philinfrance, huge difference, rebuilt the forks with Hagon springs, much more confidence inspiring now. Think I need to up the rear rebound/compression a touch, preload sent from Hagon was perfect for my weight & loading, 75 kg out of the shower running 2.5 front / 2.7 rear.

I can still feel the road irregularities but she no longer jumps like a scalded cat

[Snaphappy]

I have the Conti Road attacks fitted front and rear, more than happy with performance but reckon the compound is too soft for my normal bolt upright motorway mile munching so will change them for a touring rubber when they are knackered (wont take long)
By no means do I claim to know better than anyone else but I have found on the dero that that the suspension takes some setting to get it right. I have heavier fork oil on standard springs, the rear I reset everytime I change the bikes weight, if it is set too weak and you let go of the bars at 30-40 you will see the bars wobble like buggery, keep turning the shock adjuster and you get to the point where it dissapears, even an empty topbox makes a hell of a difference.
and for the books I am a very nimble athlectic model with perfect mesurements for the catwalk 5'9" 14 stone (ish)

PS I have dropped the forks through the yolk 15mm hardly enough to feel a difference but try it for yourself

[Muzz]

Well, I've got exactly the same tyre combo on my VA6, with similar wear (front Road Attack about 4k, rear Trail Attack about 1k), and I wouldn't say they were mismatched - in fact, I have no handling issues to speak of - certainly nothing on the scale of yours Austin. I've got bar risers, and although I have some heavier weight fork oil on the list of Things To Do (mainly to reduce front end dive under braking), it's not that urgent. I played around with the rear suspension settings a bit until it all settled down a long time ago, and all is well. I did have a noticeable weave over the ton mark, but I eventually traced that to the topbox doing its very best impression of a F1 rear wing, and I'm living with it...

[Dee Duble Yuh]

Have you checked the wheel bearings too? You'd probably hear whining noises before they get too bad, but you never know.