Please help me sort out my suspension

[Maha]

It is better to say nothing at all and be thought of as a fool than to actually say something and remove all doubt.

Confucius say ''He who has hole in pocket feels cocky all day.''

[Robert Taylor]

Hey Robert, yes indeed the fork configuration is still a totally separated system. Probably best that I send you an email. Cheers

Thanks for that, I will answer your question right here. Triumph may have juggled with the spring rates and maybe with the valving a little.
Whilst I would be more than prepared to be wrong Id be very surprised if they ditched the small port and highly restrictive fork pistons of the earlier models for pistons with decent mass flow rate properties. This is not the sort of information youd find in a specification sheet or indeed doing a search on an aftermarket suspension suppliers website. They want to sell you their pistons come hell or high water, irrespective if they need them or not. So contrary to the deliberately mischievous assertion by someone else that industry people such as myself are similiar to dentists needlessly pulling wisdom teeth, well some of us act in a sincere way and dont replace stuff unless absolutely required. We also provide free information that can be useful to anyone, irrespective of whether readers feel they want to support local or will take the information anyway and send their business offshore regardless. Maybe Im old fashioned and can remember a world where everything was less cut throat and there was a lot more community spirit.
Frankly, the proof will be in the pudding. You need to see if you can get a test ride on one of these and try to find some roads ( shouldnt be difficult ) with abrupt bumps. If these forks are harsh over abrupt bumps irrespective of spring preload and damping adjuster position then its a fair bet the pistons will still be flow restrictive.
Also dont buy into this ''fully adjustable'' marketing bull. Damping adjusters only adjust by pass bleed, they wont magically compensate for internal design and setting that is fundamentally harsh. Sure you may get some improvement by making sure that the rebound is responsive and not ''holding'' the front excessively. Also by backing out the compression adjuster. But think about this, as you back out that compression adjuster it gets to the point of making the first part of action quite sloppy, especially under brakes. It also has the affect of lowering the pressure balance acting upon the shim stacks ( because there is now more bypass bleed ) and therefore delaying the point at which the stacks open. So its not a fix, people are in denial if they think that.
So definitely the front end is the main problem area and our fix for these is Traxxion Dynamics big port pistons, we have done more than a few and its quite a bit more affordable than the Race Tech solution, with the same stellar result. Much much less than a four figure sum. If springs are required we would need to address that. We have built a highly effective fork spring rate tester and because of many issues with lower cost springs ( Ive posted about fork springs more than a couple of times ) we are very picky about what we use.
The rear end in these Triumphs are by no means the worst on the block and again youd need to make a judgement call by riding one of these bikes. If a better shock is called for we have replacements starting at a little over 1K through to around 2k, all options offering a sizable improvement in ride quality, chassis control and tyre life.
Hope this in some way helps.

[YellowDog]

Yes this does help and is in tune with my present level of understanding. It is a shame you are not based in the Auckland area.
(for me, not for you)

[nzspokes]

Wrong again, there are quite a number of different fork spring manufacturers. The cheap ones you aspire to are so not Eibach and the high standards they achieve. Poor surface polishing, bad end conditions. Sharp unfinished edges and very poor rate tolerancing. Given that we have a fork spring rate tester and upspec a LOT of forks we can verify that, rather than making blanket assumptions

I was told the Ohlinis and Racetech were done by them. Oh well.

[Robert Taylor]

I was told the Ohlinis and Racetech were done by them. Oh well.

Occasionaly Eibach have made springs for both of those suspension companies. But by no means an exclusive as a supplier for all varieties of spring fitments. There are many other spring manufacturers, both high end and low end. Eibach whilst being pretty much at the top of the tree ( and with profile )by no means have an exclusive at being the very best.
And of course not everyone wants to pay for the best and just think ''springs are just springs''.
People also think we just take suspension units out of boxes and just bolt them up, nothing could be further from the truth. I dyno'd a stock standard K-Tech shock today that had been fitted and raced with ''out of the box''. Looking at the dyno curves I can understand why the rider struggled with it. It needed proper setting up, beyond just playing with preload and external clickers. Same for our preferred Swedish product or any other product, just a tool that requires knowledge and experience.

[F5 Dave]

If the pistons are anything like the old ones RT returned when he Racetech'd mine several years ago I can see why they were so crap (and lack of shims). The rear was revalved by previous owner but the ohlins was several shades better.

I'd hate to be Maha's teeth in a few years time. But like mouths you can't see suspension workings , we'll see how smart he feels then.

[Maha]

If the pistons are anything like the old ones RT returned when he Racetech'd mine several years ago I can see why they were so crap (and lack of shims). The rear was revalved by previous owner but the ohlins was several shades better.

I'd hate to be Maha's teeth in a few years time. But like mouths you can't see suspension workings , we'll see how smart he feels then.

Lucky I never used Lower Colon Surgery as an example then...you wouldn't want be there either

[MD]

Hi YD,

I know what you mean about your first impression that the Tiger Sport was not as powerful as one would expect with the claim of +10hp. Admittedly I only did a one hour test ride of a new Sport, not run in either,so I DID NOT screw it. But seat of the pants feel was that it was down, not up, on power over my Tiger. Like yours, mine had the race pipe with tune and the airbox snorkel opened, so that's a bit unfair to compare.

Personally if I had the cash I'd still go with the Sport. No denying the suspension on the base Tiger gives up after a year or so of thrashing and needs some specialist TLC. Mine was stuffed and I had approached Robert for a fix until I fell for the MV instead. The Sport did feel very good in corners though and I'd say the chassis changes, new swingarm etc, are an improvement worth having. If it does have +10hp then imagine a bit of repeat tinkering should give it the ponies over you modified Tiger. I prefer the facelift looks of the Sport too.

[YellowDog]

Hi YD,

I know what you mean about your first impression that the Tiger Sport was not as powerful as one would expect with the claim of +10hp. Admittedly I only did a one hour test ride of a new Sport, not run in either,so I DID NOT screw it. But seat of the pants feel was that it was down, not up, on power over my Tiger. Like yours, mine had the race pipe with tune and the airbox snorkel opened, so that's a bit unfair to compare.

Personally if I had the cash I'd still go with the Sport. No denying the suspension on the base Tiger gives up after a year or so of thrashing and needs some specialist TLC. Mine was stuffed and I had approached Robert for a fix until I fell for the MV instead. The Sport did feel very good in corners though and I'd say the chassis changes, new swingarm etc, are an improvement worth having. If it does have +10hp then imagine a bit of repeat tinkering should give it the ponies over you modified Tiger. I prefer the facelift looks of the Sport too.

Thanks for your comments MD. Yes indeed, the Sport does have some nice improvements and yes I do know I am not comparing like with like. But I was just soooo disappointed. I'm going to hold fire now until I have spoken with someone whom has actually modded a Tiger Sport in the same way. The garage I'd planned buying from offered to swap everything over, but they were not so sure that the exhaust would transplant with the slight changes to the rear on the new unit.

The Tiger Sport has shown me just how great my present bike is and my most likely outcome now is to fork out some cash for a suspension upgrade until I can see what others have done with their Tiger Sports. Basically, the TS is OK as it is and no mods are required, whereas our pre-TS bikes were in need of some attention from day one.