LMAO now thats enough, back on topic please, does anybody own a 1125r and a newish jap sports and could they compare the damping/ride please, i'm sure im not the only one who has noticed the difference.

with the exception of the POS 500 I passed my test on I have never ridden anything other than Buell, so I can't really help on that bit.

I spent ages setting up my suspension on the 1125R. I've backed everything off and it's still a little hard on rough roads. I'm around 12 stone mind, so probably don't figure on the average U.S. set of scales - I'm now way below the Manual settings on pre-load and compression damping. I've come from Ducati and had a Yam before. Best feel on the road comes from BMW telelever front-ends.

Start with pre-load. Front then rear. For the front it's useful to put a cable tie around the forks. Push it up the slider at rest with no weight on the front and see how far it's been pushed down after a good varied ride (including wheelies if you do 'em). From memory there's 120mm of travel available at the front - you should be using up 110mm of that on the road (and maybe 100mm on track), but if you want it firmer go for less obviously, just beware potholes and late braking into corners! This tells you more than just the 'sag' setting, which you can measure easily using the cable tie approach.

Then do compression damping, and finally rebound. Do each setting at a time, gently does it. If it still all feels too soft then you really need to get it checked out - most of the journo's say it's too hard (for the road)! Pre-load is your most important setting.

I've set the suspension for my weight and find it far to hard.
I,ve only been out on one ride but compared to the XB it feels a lot stiffer and reckon I'm going to have to soften it a fair bit.

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Norrie.

Just had a thought and no offence but you have got it set to max and not min?

Oh and you shouldn't be doing wheelies on public roads you twat.

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Norrie.

Shouldn't J walk either will have an update by end of the weekend, im going to set the bike up as per manual/buell site and then tinker this weekend. Going down to get the IC looked at first thing Saturday morning then its suspension for the rest of the weekend.

I've found that the 'built to a price' rear shock looses a fair bit of damping when it's worked hard and gets hot. On the bumpy back roads of N.Wales I have to wind up the Compression damping a lot more than if I set it up cold from the book to compensate. It makes the ride less than ideal for the first 25 miles but I use that time to limber up my mind and get in the groove
The '08 forks are supposed to be over sprung, I'm a tad under 13 stone and find the spring rate pretty ideal

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

Adam, I've been thinking about the rear shock - I also thought that it seems to fade once the bike heats up - I wonder if there's any point in putting a heat barrier around the shock - if it's at all possible, as I wondered if it was engine heat that was the culprit.

Dunno really but it does get a bit warm down there. I suspect it's a quality issue. One day, I'll get an AST
For the time being, cranking up the damping when it's cold seems to do the trick.

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

Well the dealers are going to put in the order for a new IC on Monday and as for the suspension, im getting there.

Set it up using the factory settings for my weight and have been tweaking all day, much much better now, some of the adjusters had seized slighty and i didn't force them as presumed it was wound fully in/out but turns out it wasn't.

With everything set properly on max it was solid as a rock and awful to ride.

I also found that the long ball end allen key to adjust the rear shock compression was faulty, the shaft and the end that goes into the handle are seperate. The splins which keep the 2 parts from turning were smoothed off so when i had been adjusting it before, i actually wasn't doing anything.

I still love this bike, even out in the freezing conditions with salty roads i still had a blast Also popped in to a local Aprilla dealer and got them to cross reference the part number for the oil filter. £5 and a few pennies, thats about 75% cheaper than the Buell one. My dealer also recommended the 20/50 mineral oil they sell. That cant be right ??? I ended up getting some Silkolene 15w/50 synthetic oil from the aprillia dealers £45 but its gotta be worth the extra cash, beats paying for a rebuild.

If you want to try changing the fork springs -

here

or here