I have a 2011 registered Ten with 15K miles on it, I bought it in November 2013 with 5K miles on it. In June/July this year it completed a trip to Gallipolli, Tiblisi, Moscow, Berlin and back - a touch under 6500 miles (I really must get my arse into gear and post some pictures).

However, that willy waggling is not the point of the post. It's the rather weak and floppy front end (back to willy waggling). The bike would have a disconcerting shimmy at walking speeds when loaded up and had dreadful fork dive and bounce.

I had thought of going the Hyper-pro route but have read a lot of conflicting points of view on linear vs progressive springs. To be frank, it does seem that progressive springs are a bit of a bodge, what you get at one end you lose at the other but it must be said I haven't tried them.

I may have hit upon a simpler, and cheaper, solution.

I used 15w synthetic fork oil (it was the cheapest at Wemoto, so don�t think I�m going soft buying fully-synth) instead of the recommended 10w. The standard fork springs were retained and measured 580mm (the standard free length).

I used the recommended 650ml per leg which gave a 150mm air gap (instead of the recommended 145mm).

So far I've given it the standard 22 turns out on the preload (loaded up for the trip it had about two). It�s a different bike with much more precise steering and far less fork wallow. I no longer have the headlight dip and flash when changing gear quickly!

How much of the improved precision is down to the steering head having some grease and properly adjusted (which I did at the same time) and how much is simply down to heavier oil I don't know, but there is certainly a significant difference.

I've only test ridden it solo, unloaded over 50 or so miles of Sussex A and B roads but I have another big trip coming next month so I'll let you know how it copes with being loaded up, motorways and mountain passes.

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Simon

Brighton, UK