Having had my Tenere for 1500 miles now, I thought I'd give a review of the suspension set up I've settled on with standard forks and shocks and road use only. My experience over the last 7 years has been mainly with Yamaha's motocross bikes but I think that there are a few consistent truths with their setup that translates to the Tenere and the road. The standard Yamaha suspension seems to come out of the crate set up for a rider weight of 75kg maximum. I have used suspension spring rate calculators on various websites and have always found that being around 93kg with riding gear on puts me in need of stiffer fork and rear shock springs to get a consistent rear suspension race sag of 100mm.

With this in mind, although the Ten is balanced front to rear, (you can check this by standing to the left hand side, holding the front brake on and pushing down on the left footpeg. The suspension should compress evenly front and rear. A good check if you have luggage on and the back is more heavily loaded)it is certainly at the softer range for road use only. I decided, as has been mentioned before in posts, to make a large change first and using the ratio of three full turns out on the fork preload for every one step on the rear shock preload (27/9 =3) I went to half way(ish) on both preloads. (15 turns out on the forks and 5 clicks from full pre-load on the shock.

This certainly did the trick in terms of stiffening up considerably the general feel of the bike. It felt a bit much but just to confirm I went to 12 turns out on forks and 4 from full pre load. This only confirmed that it was too stiff for a load of around 95kg (me, gear and rucksack my normal commuting kit)As a third test and based on the 3:1 ratio I then went to 18 turns out on the forks and 6 from full preload on the back. Out on the road I was much happier with this and seemed to regain some suppleness in the suspension without any wallow or excess fork dive under braking. Straight line stability was good and I have now kept to this set up for a couple of hundred miles. It would have been nice to have some compression or rebound damping adjusters to play with but as yet I haven't found any! I am used to comp and reb on forks and on the rear shock, high speed and low speed compression plus rebound damping. Believe me It's a good way to get yourself lost, especially when you factor in spring selection.

I am now getting a Hepco and Becker Gobi top box and am sure that there will be various bits of old truck ending up in there as permanent fixtures. Because of that, the next set up change will probably to balance the bike with extra rear weight. I suspect that this will mean going back to 5 from full preload on the shock but perhaps leaving the front preload at 18 turns out? We shall see...

As a side issue, I did change the tyre pressures (on Mich Siracs) by going up 3psi front and back (from 30/33 to 33/36) with standard susp setup but currently prefer the feel of 30/33 as it's now getting a bit damper under foot.

Please feel free to comment or disagree with my opinions

Cheers

Graham

Good read Graham, I await to see if your shock fades like mine seems to.

Very detailed report, Graham. I was using the similar methodology, i.e. the ratio of clicks (rear) and turns (front forks). Mind you, the stock suspensions wear rather quickly IMHO. For example, I was also on 4/9 and 12/27 10,000km ago. Now I'm at 7/9 and 21/27 now at 18,000km. And the majority of the past 10,000km is on empty stock sidecases and I weigh around 73-75kg including gears, and I ride 95% onroad. What I am trying to say is the stock suspension is rapidly approaching the end of its life.

Josephau, I have been thinking about alternative suspension units as I have a fair bit of experience with the Kayaba forks and shocks Yamaha use for motocross bikes. I wonder if I can get hold of some YZF450 units? Very good for re-building and lots of springs available for fine tuning. As you say, the stock suspension doesn't last too long.

Did you stay with 10 weight oil Graham? I was thinking of trying 15.
Thanks
Dave

Yep, I haven't changed the oil yet but I think with the fixed rebound (and compression) valving on the forks, going to a heavier weight oil will help counteract the increased rate of extension (due to more pre-load) and slow down the increased rate of rebound. Should then bring it back towards the standard rebound speed of movement. It will also slow the rate of compression and subsequent weight transfer under braking. The only thing to watch out for is the forks 'packing down', where the springs can't extend properly during use because the rebound damping force is too great for the spring extension strength to overcome, when it is taking multiple compressions. Normally this happens off road only.

Another problem with fork springs that are too soft, is that when you are off road is you can get the feeling that it is too stiff by getting poor front grip and harsh feedback through the bars. What is actually happening is the forks are blowing through their range of movement and you are effectively bouncing off the internal bump stops and the springs are becoming a 'solid' link. I have had this on a GasGas Enduro bike and didn't believe it until I had the suspension set up by Chris Hockey. A top bloke and international standard enduro rider. If I get serious on the off road with the Tenere, I'll be paying him a visit first!