Suspension & Tyres on a Hyosung GT 250R

**SwanTiger** · 28th March 2006, 22:10

Sportbikes are a new kettle of fish for me and my experience riding and maintaining one is extremely limited. I have had plenty of experience riding various bikes, however its all limited to off road type riding in a leisure type way.

Now - my back end slips now and again in the wet, I can make it slip if I want it to and control it. My front end is pretty flighty and now with the wet weather, it seems to be giving way a bit more too.

What can I do to improve my handling as traditionally the GT 250R's are good looking commuters, not exactly your hard core sport bike.

Front
SHINKO SR740 Tyre.
110/70-17 M/C 54H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 212 kg's

Rear
SHINKO SR741 Tyre.
150/70-17 M/C 69H
Tubeless with a maximum load of 325 kg's

My physique and riding style
I'm roughly 6,1ft and 115kg's. My riding style or better explained philosophy is to enjoy the road, however I like to take corners at a fair amount of speed and am comfortable (so to speak) navigating them. I don't hang off the bike much, if I do at all. Use a lot of counter steering and 7 out of every 10 corners I will follow the best possible line I can work out. 3 out of every 10 corners I might misjudge a little, needing to correct or lean harder.

Suspension
The bike has a rear mono shock which can be adjusted, I've never adjusted one on a bike before but I have a bucket with similar style adjustment (which I presume is standard...) so I could practise on that before hand. The whole task of getting in to the shock looks pretty daunting and time consuming.

The front forks are USD, they are pretty "floaty" and i've managed to get them down quite far. If I take a corner fast, occasionally the front will get flighty which is uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like the suspension is keeping the tyre on the road, it only feels like its "taking the impact".

I don't know how to adjust the front forks.

Pictures attached of top of Front forks and rear shock.

Any advice or help apreciated

EDIT: Before any wankers rise up with RTFM or similar, I have done so, the manual is about 30 pages long and isn't very helpful. There is a tiny bit of info on the net too, but not suffice, I want sound knowledge from a source (hopefully) I can trust. Primarily I want to work out how to make the best configuration according to my physique and style of riding.

**cowpoos** · 28th March 2006, 22:25

have you talked to the mech's in hte shop you brought the bike from lad?
also...google is a great help finding out about this sort of stuff...it would take a massive write up and then some to explain the subject....its huge...

**SwanTiger** · 28th March 2006, 22:33

The shop will be my last resort, this is something I'd like to be able to do myself so that as my riding improves I can make the adjustments. Once the warranty has expired i'll be doing all the servicing too.

**ducatilover** · 28th March 2006, 22:34

are those front forks actually adjustable? they dont look like they are from the pic you have posted unless they are adjusted from the bottom.

**sAsLEX** · 28th March 2006, 22:49

GPR70s by dunlop are the best tyres for ultimate confidence on a small bike!

EDIT search here and google for suspension set up, the rear is prob preload only which is fairly easy to set up with a ruler and a c spanner

**Insanity_rules** · 29th March 2006, 11:23

Bin the Shitco tyres dude, I did on a previous bike and that helped BIG. Either Pirelli Sport Demons or I hear Dunlops are good too. I use pirellis on my vtz250. Try that and go from there. Good tyres arent a particularly expensive performance upgrade and a good place to start.

**loosebruce** · 29th March 2006, 16:30

Coz you're quite fat, you may wanna look at running a heavier oil in the front forks, they are not adjustable by the looks of it, unless the have comp at the bottom, but if it had any sort of damping adjustment, it would prolly have preload adjustment, which it doesn't, so changing the oil is prolly the only real trcik to get the front feeling better without spending shitloads, which to be honest is not worth it on your bike (sorry). Do you know what weight oil the bike uses as stock?
The rear is most prolly only preload adjustable, and again coz you're fat you may want to look at cranking it up a bit.
I'd help but i dont have alot of free time, if you wana swing by my store one night, when i aint busy i can run you through what you can do in more detail.
Tyres will help a shit load, Sport Demons would suit you too a tee me thinks.

**Leong** · 29th March 2006, 20:38

Hey Swanny,

Looks like you can't do much with the suspension without spending heaps.

Tyres make a heap of difference not just to grip, but the handling and confidence as well! A few people have already mentioned Pirelli Sport Demons in this, so far, short thread. I changed to Sport Demons when I had my VTR250 after some research on this site and elsewhere. The difference was huge!! ...and I think the Bridgestones I had on the VTR were probably better than your Shinkos. Well worth the $300 odd.....

**Shadows** · 29th March 2006, 22:48

Dude, I reckon you should take those tyres off. Then burn them so nobody else can use them!
Tyres have got to be the best insurance you can get, so get good insurance. Anything with a name that doesn't sound like it came off a chinese takeaway menu is probably a good start. Dunlop, Michelin, Continental, Metzeler, Pirelli etc, you know what I mean. Even the bottom of the range from the respected makes would have to be an improvement!

**N4CR** · 30th March 2006, 01:59

Bin the tyres, adjust the rear shock will stop it sliding if it is set too light for you when you get cranked over. I'd doubt that you have full race style adjustable shocks like the zxr/cbrs etc but i'll look closer next time just remind me.

Try GRP100's which last a while and also stick well. GPR70's are ultimate grip, 100's are a pefect tradeoff. CHECK the size of the tyre you are fitting too, don't fit non standard tyre sizes as it can make it handle like a pos.

We shall have to swap for a bit I get my pos going again eh, so I can try give you some feedback from riding the bike. I ain't an expert but probably can figure out what is causing some of your handling problems.

**SwanTiger** · 30th March 2006, 06:04

I think Bruce hit it on the head, I'm just too fucken fat for the bike.

**skelstar** · 30th March 2006, 08:42

Id replace those tyres. I didnt on mine, but having said that I did get 20000kms out of them (inculding a trackday). The rubber on my 919, while not great (apparently) still feels 10x better than the stinkos on the hyobag.

Id look at fork oil on the front. The back reload is adjustable of course. Get it sorted as I didnt for my 20k and just dealt with it which I regret hugely. My riding would be much better today if I had bothered to sort it out.