Superduke 990 suspension settings?

[Jug]

This one is just to my fellow SD 990 owners, I think there's a couple on here?

When I bought mine the guy in the shop told me "this one rides really well as the suspension has been set-up" - whether that means proper work carried out or just someone has just adjusted the clickers... I dunno.
He often has 990's in so I guess he knows them, and I'd already bought the bike so no need to BS me.

Current damping settings are between the Basic & the Sport settings. I have them recorded now so can go back if I want to.
Is there any point in resetting them to basic, or comfort even (for our crappy potholed roads), or should I just get use to her how she is and then tweak from there if necessary?

[billinom8s]

Set them to neutral and then start to ride the thing.

Without seeing you and your riding it would be hard to give you a click or mm setting over a forum.

[pieeater]

When I wanted to get my suspension set up, and I didn't know enough about it to do it myself I went riding with a mate who was an ex-racer along the roads I like to ride at the speeds I like to ride and every couple of miles we'd stop and he'd make a tweak to the damping but I'd look away so I didn't know what he'd done. We'd stop after I knew from my perspective whether the changes he'd made felt better or worse and he'd tell me what he'd changed. After a couple of hours we'd got the bike sorted for how it felt best to me and I'd learned to recognise the effects that compression and rebound damping had at the front and rear.

[Jug]

Set them to neutral and then start to ride the thing.

Yeh, that was my thought too.
I'm not sure I'd notice the difference anyway.

every couple of miles we'd stop and he'd make a tweak to the damping but I'd look away so I didn't know what he'd done. We'd stop after I knew from my perspective whether the changes he'd made felt better or worse and he'd tell me what he'd changed.

That sounds like an interesting idea. I might try that with my mate on his VFR800 VTEC, I can adjust his at the sametime as he hasn't touched it since buying it 2 years ago.

[billinom8s]

Do you know what you are doing though? I.e what the tweaks and clicks are actually adjusting?

[Jug]

Yes and no...

Yes I know what each adjuster does, and the effect this should have on its movement.
No I don't really know how that will impact on handling.
I've got pdf's that explain how to setup suspension so I should read them a few times now I guess so I at least have some idea of what I'm shooting for...

[billinom8s]

Have fun

[menzies3032]

If I may suggest. You really do not want to cock about with something you do not understand. Suspention set up is a fine art and get it wrong and your bike will feel terrible and you probably will not be able to dial it out as you will not know what you should be changing.

For track riding this is vital for road riding it can make a real differant. Problem is you will not really know you have got it wrong until something very bad happens.

Might I suggest that it is worth paying a small amount to get a base setting sorted.

There are a couple of people locally that will do it for you
Hell Performance - Steve - is a garenteed amazing set up
Colin Groom ( think hi is CRM Motors ) also on this forum can help
And never to forget our own Billinom8s who is k-Tec trained and I can speak from personal experience will sort you out with a great base setting for road riding. Oh and he rides a Superduke too

[DaveH]

I have a 990 SuperDuke and find that the Sport settings suggested by KTM work very well for me (I weigh 14 stone).

[Jug]

Well tried setting the 'clickers' all back to basic settings... hated it.
The front felt like it was washing out and the bike was just to bouncy in generally.
I have now set it back to how it was before less 1 click allround. If that feels ok I'll use that as a baseline to start tweaking.

[Gimlet]

I always get a pro set-up on a new bike even if it feels OK. Simon is a bit far away for me I so I take my bikes to Paul Adams at Racelab in Wimborne. Don't know what the 990 SDs are like but on my 990 SMT the factory settings (regardless of whether its Sport, Standard or Comfort) have the damping out of kilter between front and back and the rebound out of balance with the compression at both ends. I've got a 1290 Superduke as well and that was the same.

I don't attempt to faff with mine when there's someone down the road who knows what they're doing and can set the sag correctly for me and correct the bike's attitude if necessary (the 1290 was too low at the back).
A suspension expert can tell by feel whether the damping is working in unison and what kind of reactivity you're getting across the adjustment range. I can't do that so it would be guesswork and trial and error. Not worth it for the sake of £99.

I've got spec sheets from the set-up and if my riding type or style changes or I change tyres I can ring Paul and he will advise what to tweak to fine tune.
Take it to someone who knows would be my advice. I'm sure if you speak nicely to Simon he can assist.

Nice looking bike by the way, DaveH.

[Scotty]

When I bought my 990SD two years ago I was surprised by how hard it rode, much firmer than the demo bikes I'd ridden ten years ago now (non-standard demo bikes, who'd have thought?). The previous owner told me that he'd adjusted everything to the "Comfort" settings but after getting bounced out of the seat by a lack of rebound damping (on the shock extension stroke after compressing over the bump, not the bump itself) I had a fiddle with a screwdriver and returned the rebound damping to the "sport" range of settings, which had a beneficial effect in resisting the rear spring which is basically harder than it needs to be. I've reduced compression damping at both ends of the bike to try to soften its reaction to bumps and it's better now, but I'd like to try lower spring rates front and rear sometime to see if I can get it to be as compliant and lush as the demo bikes I first rode were.

[billinom8s]

Bring it down jug, shop is always open.

[goatpants]

When I traded my Tiger Sport in for the MT10 the front tyre was bald on one side. I had adjusted the fork setting without really knowing what I was doing. I never noticed but the shop did. I shat myself!

Moral is.. If you don't know, don't touch.

[Ducaki]

Get the book Rich .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcycle-Tun ... 075061840X" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;