I have owned and enjoyed motorcycles for more years than I care to mention and over those years I have owned and enjoyed perhaps 40 different road bikes, all Japanese Honda or Yamaha. I learned many years ago that the Japanese bikes suspension standard set up assumed a rider weight of 70 kilos (which I was when I started riding bikes and since then I have gained some 10 kilos).
So I have always assumed that the bikes I purchased and rode were well set up suspension wise for me and hence I have never really messed with the suspension on any of my bikes. In general smaller bikes and scooters have no available adjustment whereas sports bikes always have some degree of suspension variation usually both at the front (forks) and the rear (shock absorber).
When for several years I owned a track bike (a superb very fast Yamaha R1 and then later a Suzuki GSXR1000, both much faster than me) I did dabble very gently into setting the bike up but that was the only time I had a go and the results were very bland so I gave up, I realised very quickly that you have to know what the heck you are doing and I did not therefore I left well alone. One or two mates at the race circuit set the bike up for me and I understood almost nothing.
Fast forward to today. My favourite bike shop in the world Alf England has just started doing suspension work in a wonderful new workshop using products (and some training) from the amazing Dutch company Hyperpro so I recently took them my 2016 Yamaha XT660X. They fitted new progressive springs into each of the front forks plus a progressive spring onto the rear shock absorber, replacing the standard factory parts. The XT660X is called a super moto and as standard the front forks have zero adjustment and the rear shock has only preload and therefore can really benefit from a suspension upgrade. Well after a quick spin it feels almost like riding a different bike, totally transformed!! It seems to float over the bumps and is so much better to ride, I spent about 600 UKP for the parts and labour and my goodness I think that it was TOTALLY worth it. Thanks guys!! Special thanks to Ash who did the work and Martin who takes the money (as usual)….and special thanks must go the Hyperpro for their wonderful products!!!
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