suspension settings for motorway comfort

[Trip]

I'm about to do 2000 motorway miles in four days and have been fiddling with settings, seat, risers, throttle rockers and so on for the last few weeks trying to get the niggles ironed out. This is what I've settled on - it might help as a starting point for anyone else who does a lot of motorway. I'm 13 stone and 6ft.

front preload: 2nd notch from fully loaded
rear preload: three turns back from fully loaded
rear damper: one and a half revolutions back from fully anti-clockwise

I have a sargent seat and nippy's risers with the handlebars rotated more back than up. I've tested an airhawk and sheepskin seat cover and discarded them. I have a throttle rocker. With this configuration I can do 8 hours in the saddle with absolutely no discomfort.

Trip

 

[bsogri]

settings

after experimenting with suspension settings i found that preload backed off to 3 notches from softest setting and softest setting on front shocker was best for alround touring including loaded panniers, all my mates tried this on theres and couln,t beleive how comfortable it was

 

[shinobi]

surely thats a bit on the soft side mate, my gs would be wallowing out of corners with that set up

 

[GSinEurope]

Thanks for the advice. I've had my 12GSA for about a month with nearly 2000 miles, mostly Autobahn here in Germany. I find the factory setting too soft for me and will start to stiffen things up. I'm 6'3 and closer to 16 stone so I may just go to what you suggest and then adjust further from there as necessary.

 

[JayGee]

surely thats a bit on the soft side mate, my gs would be wallowing out of corners with that set up

Yep, I would have thought that as well. The rear preload on mine is up near the max otherwise lots of things scrape in the corners. Even with near max pre-load the pegs and rear brake lever touch down every no and then, any less pre-load and the stand starts to touch down.
Uping the pre-load shouldn't make the ride harsher, thats what the damping screw does, that's unl;ess it's so hard the suspension never gets settled into a working position (unlikely on the soggy GS)
I guess it all depends on weight and riding style but I'm still a bit surprised.

 

[Dabba]

I found things a bit bouncy on my GSA12 for the first couple of hundred miles on smooth roads but either its bedding down or I'm getting used to it and it feels better having checked its on standard road settings. Manual says in the clearest possible terms that changes to pre-load must be partnered by changes to rebound - news to me though