2011 bike, non ABS model, standard rubber.

I'm 20st and take a pillion regularly. She's not small either so all in it's quite weighty and I presume the COG is even more rear-based than normal.

So i've wound the damping both ends to fully hard to help with the see-saw acceleration/braking.

What i've found is that the handling is shocking, especially the front end, when riding solo. Having a blow out didn't help confidence but I had to save a wash out yesterday morning when moderately cornering through town. It was barely damp, quite cold but not overly doing about 20mph on a steady throttle on smooth tarmac.

It seems the pillion weight actually makes the thing go around corners better when I thought it would help having hard(ish) suspension on flat corners.

If it's this bad on the road (and it's all over the place on the motorway too - anyone else suffer with excessive wind? ) god knows what it's like in the ruts and mud.

At the moment i'm very edgy cornering - hope there's an easy fix.

By the sound of it you're going to need to start by looking at stiffer springs front and rear, not expensive to do, a ball park figure would be say �250 quid or so. This will make a BIG difference to the pitching and see-sawing action you describe. However, with the weight you're talking about (no offense) a trip to a local suspension specialist for a bespoke spring setup for you would probably reap big benefits? Or at least just go and visit them and have a chat - they're usually very nice helpful people and are quite happy to give you a mug of tea and some advice. I use FTR in Suffolk, but I'm sure there'll be a specialist in your neck of the woods?

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Yup, what he ^^ said. I used to find the bike wandered with me and g/f on and our combined weight was around 150kg. The max payload of the bike according to the manual is 190kg. I would definitely look at uprating the rear spring or shock, the OE one is dire anyway. Maybe going for some thicker fork oil would help a little up that end without spending all the ���
What tyres are you using? I had Mitas e07s at one point that would slide all over. Most other tyres have been pretty good.
For a new spring I would recommend speaking to MR Holland on 01775 766455 as they can manufacture a spring to suit your weight, costs aren't steep at all. They made me one and from memory it was around �80.