Setting up Suspension

I’ve just purchased a 2011 GRiSO 8v Tenni and want to turn the Suspension.

It has a Wilber’s rear shock and Wilber’s springs in the forks.

I’ve just purchased a C spanner for the rear which should arrive tomorrow but measuring sag by myself isn’t really going to happen as I need another person, not sure where to jacks the rear wheel up from and I don’t have a front wheel holder. So I I’m going to have to experiment with a trial a trial and error approach.

According to the previous owner the rear shock was set up for his weight (same as my weight at 85kg) although the compression damping screw was fully closed so I adjusted it open 1 ½ turns as per the service manual specs. I also adjusted the rebound screw from 20 turns to 17 from the manual specs.

Regards the front the rebound damping setting was set at 2 ¾ turns so again re the factory setting I returned it to 1.5 turns whilst the compression damping was set at 1 ¾ turns which I changed to 1.5 turns to factory settings.

The suspension /Ride is now not nearly as bumpy as it was so I’ll take that as a win but I was hoping to find someone on this forum who also had Wilber’s Suspension and a similar weight (85kg) to me to find out what they found as the ideal settings.

I realise I’m asking a lot but no harm in asking. Otherwise, has anyone got any tips on how to progressively adjust the preloads and the rebound/compression settings in a systematic way.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Stacka

Are you using the GRiSO manual or a Wilbers manual? The GRiSO (with Sachs shock) manual will have no relevance to the Wilbers shock.

I don’t have the Wilbur’s manual so using the Oem manual atm.

I simply used the oem settings to see if there was any noticeable difference. At least I found the one setting closed which I doubt was from the Wilbur’s manual. Of course this brings to question to question whether the settings I purchased the bike with were Wilbur’s or not.

Looks like I’ll be doing the trial and error thing anyway so it makes little difference really.

What suburb of Brisbane do you reside in? I'm in Coopers Plains.
Scott Heyes @ Edge Performance in Sandgate I thoroughly recommend.
Steve Wood @ Suspension Improvements in Slacks Creek is also good.

Otherwise there is dodgy bros inc at my home address, where you get free coffee and advice.
No Guzzi's have ever been hurt or tormented while we tested such things as plastic wheels on them.

My # be 0400 816 double 8 five

I’ll text you Ghezzi

Update on setting up my suspension:

Well those on here who have had suspension adjustment issues asking for some advice etc would probably know we have a member who uses the username Ghezzi and he's really smart when it comes to adjusting Sag etc for individual riders like me. I'm really lucky too as he happens to live in the same town as me in Australia called Brisbane.

Well he invited to ride over and we ended up spending a couple of hours measuring the the various sag distances whilst he took down the measurements etc.

He also had a bike lift which I don't have so a big win there and long story short, the difference in how my GRiSO with the Wilburs Springs in the forks and a Rear Wilburs shock is absolutely brilliant.

Tbh I was lost trying to keep up as we adjusted the preloads, rebound and compression of the forks and because there's only a rebound in my rear shock, that too.

Anyway, before Ghezzi got stuck into measuring and adjusting the bike's suspension, it was simply all wrong with it way to harsh and not soaking up the road bumps much at all. Fast forward to post suspension adjustments and now the suspension is soaking up the bumps in the road like I can't believe. In fact before the adjustments I was thinking "oh well, it is a sports bike and I should just get used to it". Now I don't even think about the suspension bumps as mostly I'm not feeling them.

What's even better is we haven't even started the tweaking process yet but tbh I don't want to touch what's there atm. I will but for now I'm just happy with how they are performing now.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention what the go is currently and to give a big thumbs up to Ghezzi. Mate, your a wizard.

Good job.

Twas a great day, I got to play with a very nice Tenni. Jez gettin er in the ballpark.
We would have done more except work kept interrupting us, we will be back.

Ok so how do I do that without flying to Oz with the bike in the hold? By myself?

Hi Rusty, Stacka's bike was fitted with a basic Wilbers kit by a previous owner.
Shock comes with rebound and pre-load adjustment only, and a set of fork springs and 2 bottles of oil.
Spring rates and viscosity are unknown to us, supposedly for 85kg rider.

Well Stacka is that weight, but maybe previous owner overstated his ability, it was set up hard.

Seek out a suspension guru in your locale, $50 should cover their time to set your stock suspension up.

Hi I Couldn't find the previous posts re suspension Have moved house etc etc and hope life will give me chance to ride more. Lower blue mountains NSW.

I have Matris suspension set up by Shocktreatment. Also had rear unit made 1/2 inch longer to aid turning. Front forks were at 3rd ring exposed and the bike handled ok, but the front metzler road tek 01's started to wear very unevenly and both sides were wearing excessively and creating a very triangulated profile (like a dunlop TT for old folk reference) I think it was perhaps a size too small but didn't't check prior to gettingPirelli Angel GT's Mk 11 . When getting these fitted the head bearings were replaced as they were basically shot. This perhaps explains my complete loss in confidence in the front end toward the last 1000 k's. and maybe even the wear pattern on the Road Tek 01's which were better than my riding ability.

OK to get to the point when the bike came back with new tyres (the front looked larger) the forks were only 1.5 circles out of the triple tree / crown. It was back to the luxobarge handling of when first collected as new.. I dropped the forks back up to 3 rings but it ended up being 4 rings due to nothing more than my ineptness and nothing to jack the bike up easily available.

I'll go ride and see handling changes tomorrow. If unhappy could go back to shock treatment ...

Here's the questions.

1.anyone had experience with 4 rings out of triple tree / crown?

2.It might be worth SLIGHTLY increasing front fork compression damping to avoid too easily shortening trail when on bumpy tight roads?

Seat of the pants will tell but I'm just a little wary and thought i'd seek others' opinion. PS it has clipons and rear sets and i'm 90 Kg, rider weight is forward biased.

Thanks for any responses, and yes a trip to shock treatment is no doubt best, but how sharpened can the steering get before it will oversteer is an issue others might have experienced?
Cheers, Moby.

Hi Moby, going for a rid in a few minutes on my new hoops (S22's).
Don't panic about 1 ring difference or too much, many here go straight to 6 rings.
You might be surprised how good it is.

GRiSO's are a long way off a sportsbikes 23* rake.
I had my trail down to 77mm with no ill effects.

Hi Ghezzi
Thanks for the message. I’ll post a message when I get the chance for a decent ride after Tyres are scrubbed in.
Cheers

First, I admit I've never adjusted a suspension other than to turn the pre-load collars on old Hondas......

I felt the rear of my bike was harsh, especailly loaded for touring. Not surprising as I'm on the wrong side of 300# (136k). Hey, I'm not fat, just short for my weight.

So, perhaps the harshness was the shock bottoming out when I hit bumps. Working on that theory, with the help of my bride, I measured sag and no surprise, I was at just over 50% of total travel
when sitting still. I cranked in a bit of preload on the shock to reach a sag of about 30% ( 4 turns on the rings) and reduced my compression damping, front and rear, to about half the factory settings. Now it's a magic carpet ride. Floats through corners, doesn't jar my bum, no wallowing in fast sweepers. Win, Win, Win!

I rode around Robbinsville, NC last week, including 6 trips over the Cherohalla Skyway, then rode today locally here in Indiana on rough, uneven roads. I'm happy.

Imagine what might be if I actually knew what I was doing.

Advise on fork tuning? I daily turn onto a road that has a small slightly chunking off low curb that even cars slow down for. Normally I take the turn wide to square up but sometimes I'm at a bit of lean. Long story short I lost my front wheel and it didn't hook back up at around 25mph. Low sided me, breaking my fibula. I'm 150lbs 5'8" on stock cockpit wearing a backpack usually containing a sixer but that day was unfortunately a fresh pour growler of IPA, may it rest in peac...is. Its a 2015 GRiSO, not my first bike but the most "sporty" one I've owned. I'm thinking not enough rebound or too high compression. It felt like my wheel slightly levitated mid turn dropping me on my side. Only marks on the road were from my rocker cover getting ground down. Am I barking up the right tree to fix this before I start riding again?

Take it to a suspension expert and get them to advise you first hand. The Showas are a very good fork but their set up on the GRiSO is barely adequate in stock trim. Re-valuing and lighter oil pay big dividends. The rear shock is pretty odious as well, under sprung and over damped.