My first thousand clicks

[~TABASCO~]

Dang Bill, Tell us how you feel ! ::017:: One day down the road, it would be cool to fine tune my machine with some upgraded parts ! ::018::

 

[Koinz]

Dang Bill, Tell us how you feel ! ::017:: One day down the road, it would be cool to fine tune my machine with some upgraded parts ! ::018::

::026:: ::002::

 

[Zuan]

... by sharing your adjustments to the stock suspension. In doing so tell the list what your height and weight is as well so similar sized riders can use your setup as a base line. If you have extra weight Jesse Bags for example, or ride two up how you modify the bike for different loads will be very helpful to the rest of the "stockers"

I would find it helpful... I have retained the OEM stock suspension and made very little changes to the suspension settings. Suspension science is somewhat like dark magic to me. I am 6 ft tall, 230 lbs geared up, and have micatech boxes on the bike with a tank bag. There may be about 10-15 lbs of everyday gear in the boxes and tank bag. All I have done is dialed in a bit more preload on the rear shock. I ride mostly highways, secondary roads and gravel/dirt roads. I am not an off road rider. I enjoy riding somewhat aggressively through the twisties but not likely to drag the pegs. So, what have others done with their suspension settings? I believe that correct adjustments to the stock suspension will make it better for me and the riding that I do.

 

[SisuTen]

Oh my gosh yes, all the stock bike is poor. Not anything against motorcycle manufacturers, but they have designers, and their main job is to put all bad componants on each motorcycle. They work hard to make sure the seat is bad, windshield bad, bad paint, the pegs wrong, the handlebars way off. Then they design good suspension, but don't use it because it would go against all we believe in, so they work hard to put bad suspension on even if it cost 10x what good does. Then they test 100 seats and for sure pick the most uncomfortable out of the lot and that is what we get. It cost upwards of $13,000 to make a new motorcycle worth riding right off the bat. Not just Yamaha, this is true on every brand, even them Harleys.

Hmmm....do I detect sarcasm? ::025:: ::025:: ::025::

 

[Bill310]

Hello Tremor,

I got thinking last night that perhaps I had been too harsh on you, so i decided to learn more about you from your other posts.

First of all I didn't know you lived in Japan. Japan has, I learned 1.2 million kilometers of paved roads, while Canada has only 415,600 km of paved roads, and 626,700 km of unpaved roads. How many kilometres of gravel roads does Japan have?

Now lets talk about why the Tenere Suspension works for you. It is quite simple really you are in the natural sweet spot for that motorcycle.

I don't get the complaints about stock seat position, but maybe that's because I weigh 150lbs soaking wet.

It would be far less confrontational and more informative on the forum if you were to say something like, "I think the stock suspension is pretty good for me - I weigh 150 pounds soaking wet." We would be able to assess your statement about the Tenere and better understand why you feel it is fine.

Now let's talk about motorcycles, quite a few of us here have a lot of experience riding in more remote gravel areas on large dual sport motorcycles. This would tend to give us a different perpective on how we view the Tenere than someone who has had limited experience or no recent experience on larger dual sports.

I also learned this about you from your posts

You must like to crank on it I've owned big bikes before, but not since 2001,

This explains a lot about why you say what you do, and why the Tenere seems as it does to you, it is because you have owned nothing similar in a decade.

So i really do apologize for asking you for your suspension setup. The bike is just fine for you at your weight right out of the box. You are a 150 rider who hasn't ridden big dual sports in a decade.

What does concern me is that you have been talking a bit out of your butt about things when you should listen more and disclose more about yourself so people can understand your postion. Let me help you out, I will modify your post to be clearer and more helpful, but though i tried I was unable to have my edits show in red. Sorry about that .

Another wild and wooley suspension thread I'll just throw in this. Out of all of the bikes I've owned, and this is my first large bike in ten years the S10 has the most sorted suspension straight from the factory for me at 150 pounds . Mine has been pretty unflappable regardless of road surface. As far as making the point that a suspension set up for your particular weight and riding preferences is optimal, I think most would be preaching to the choir. Is it a absolute necessity on this bike...no not if you weigh hundred and fifty pounds which seems to be in the bikes sweet spot. I'm no stranger to having bikes with customs suspension tuning...had them on my last two bikes, which were a 400 and 250 cc or whatever because their stock suspension was pretty sad and i only weigh 150 pounds. However, I don't think you can take a broad sword to all stock suspension and call it 'shite' because the S10 suspenders are pretty far from that description if you weigh 150 pounds and have a similar riding style to me which is .... . On all bikes I've owned that I had the suspension reworked, I at least rode them for awhile first to see exactly what I needed,but that is a luxury I have because I am in the middle to light weight range and don't weigh 250 pounds soaking wet (ugh) and do 5,000 kilometre gravel road trips fully loaded with gear like some of you do.

The best thing about these forums Tremor is to share ideas and learn from each other. You are living in riding in Japan, that is not Australia or North America where we have wide open spaces and many of us cross our continents a few times a year. That is why we like Russell Seats (and others like them) by the way, and why you at your physical size riding in Japan can't understand why we buy them. Come ride a few trips across Kansas or Saskatchewan and you will learn why many of us buy these extremely comfortable seats, no matter what size we are. A lot of us have more dirt /gravel orientated seats as well.

To all people considering buying an S10, if you are the same size as me I'm sure I can get agreement that the suspension is pretty darn capable out of the box, and it is extreme hyperbole to call it anything resembling "shite." ::005:: 8)

I also read that you wanted an Asia forum in you lists of posts, that is a good idea, but this forum is pretty small yet and that is a decision for the mods . You know that there is an Asia forum on advrider that while not S10 specific might meet some of your needs.

Now this is the point I give you a big kiss and we all make nice nice ::025:lease correct me where I am wrong because we all do want to know about you and especially learn about riding in Japan.