Bouncy Suspension
 

My 2009 XTR is my 2nd bike, my other being a BMW K1300S. I love the XT, some times even more than the K13, but there is one thing that bugs me - the bouncy suspension. When I pull up to a stop, the forks compress, bounce back up, and then the back compresses, bounces back up.... It wouldn't be such an issue but it's hard enough to reach the ground without the bike pogoing as I try to plant a foot. Of course, the BMW has that odd anti-dive front end, so the XT is even more alarming when I get back on it.

I know it's meant to have some off-road capability, and I don't want to get rid of that completely, but is there anything I can do to improve my bouncy castle XT, short of taking it to a suspension specialist and getting a complete new shock and fork internals? And, if I do throw �500 at it to really improve the suspension, would that then actually devalue the bike in the future as I assume stiffer suspension would take away what off-road ability it has?

Yes there are a few simple improvements you could make that won't break the bank...

Fit some fork spacers, either Kev's or make some yourself out of steel or thick wall polurethane tube and experiment with different lengths. (Search for Fork Spacers, there is loads of information on the forum). Also change to/experiment with a heavier weight oil SAE10 or 15.

Not so much you can do with the back, but sounds like you're complaining of not enough rebound damping? Not adjustable unfortunately, but winding off some preload and giving yourself more rider sag will help the shock cope better.

However, spending �350 on a new adjustable shock will make the world of difference. They are well worth the outlay.

The easy don"t really work well way...
Put 20 weight oil in the forks & a set of fork spacers in..
both of these are little more than band aids to hide the real
prob of 2nd rate suspention..
Fork spacers are ok on a XTX ..but a XTR that dose see offroad use
they are only going to make the forks hard.. not work on small
bumps... And yer still have no damping .. just hard forks..
The real issue is NOT the springs but the lack of damping..

To sort the front with out going to a full fork replacement..
instal a set of ricor intiminators or gold valves...its a bigish job as you have to
pull the forks apart and drill out the holes in the damping rods
so they no longer work as dampers.. then ALL the damping is
done by the Intiminators or gold valves which sit between the damping
rods & springs they are adjustable for rebound & compression damping..

The rear shock is what it is... trash can filler...

You're quite right, adding fork spacers and heavier oil is not going to fix the real problem, but it will make the bike "feel" a lot better and allow a better balance in sag/weight transfer to be achieved to alleviate some of the pitching and rocking described in the OP.

Hamslay clearly doesn't want to get into the cost and complexities of adding cartridge emulators, Intiminators or revalving the forks...

...which is why the suggested a "band aid" solution is almost certainly worth a shot - there's nothing to lose! ;)

Contrary to popular belief, adding preload to a spring does not make it "harder" or change its rate. A 50Nmm spring (as in the XT forks) will still be a 50Nmm, needing 5Kg to compress it 1mm, however much preload you add to it! If you add 10mm of preload to a 50Nmm free spring all that happens is it will support 50Kg without moving, after that (>51Kg) it will begin compressing again at excatly the same rate as before when no preload was applied.

The ride may become "uncomfortable", but only if your daft enough to add in so much preload the free and rider sag disappears, or gets so small the fork is only using the top of its stroke. Hamslay should aim for 50-70 mm of rider sag with any preload spacers and all will be fine, which for an average 85-90Kg rider would equate to about 25mm of preload.

Easiest way - change the oil in the forks. Put some ATF. If it not works, than try other recc as in previous posts.