Post your Tenere 700 off road stock suspension settings

[Veider]

Hi guys, I am 105 Kg.

Mainly on gravel roads, doing small jumps. Nothing like hard and big jumps and profi driving on the bike limits.

What will be your recommendation:

 

Front: Comp: ? Rebound:?

Rear: Preload: ? Comp:? Rebound:?

[Canzvt]

115kgs ready to ride with all gear. Rally Raid 35mm Big Piston forks - with preload adjusters, 6.4kg/mm front springs. 9.5kg/mm rear spring, shock revalved to suit. Preload adjusted to suit - static sag is 20mm, dynamic sag (loaded) is 60mm. She lands a dream now from small and bigger jumps!

[Hammerhead]

On 5/13/2021 at 12:39 PM, Canzvt said:

115kgs ready to ride with all gear. Rally Raid 35mm Big Piston forks - with preload adjusters, 6.4kg/mm front springs. 9.5kg/mm rear spring, shock revalved to suit. Preload adjusted to suit - static sag is 20mm, dynamic sag (loaded) is 60mm. She lands a dream now from small and bigger jumps!

Have considered similar, but fair bit lighter than you & it’s not currently in the budget. You figure the no clang for your buck factor was worth it?

[Canzvt]

27 minutes ago, Hammerhead said:

Have considered similar, but fair bit lighter than you & it’s not currently in the budget. You figure the no clang for your buck factor was worth it?

Yes, and no. I'll start with no. If I were lighter, and less aggressive in my riding style, I wouldn't have changed a thing. The stock set-up with the 8.5 rear spring (that I first fitted to try to sort out bottoming issues) were fine. But, then I got more used to the bike, got the Camel Pipe and the re-flash and became more aggressive in my riding style - as in 'this is just a big WR450!'. That's when it became obvious that I needed to upgrade the suspension or I and/or the bike would end up wounded. Add to that, our beloved Canadian government decided to re-assess my last four tax years whereby they calculated they had stolen way too much of my money and decided to give a bunch of it back! The suspension upgrade became pocket change in the found money.

So...knowing what I know now, if I had to do it again without the return of stolen goods, I would figure out how to fund the suspension upgrade somehow. If you are only a road rider, are gentle on your bike, or are lighter in weight, keep you money for something else. But if you are not any of/all of the above, buy the suspension. Its worth it.

[Hammerhead]

Lucky you @Canzvt The pirates returned some bounty! Nice.
    Totally relate to pipe +flash + familiarity = getting more aggressive on this hefty ‘dirt bike’. At my weight the stock rear can be set fine with available adjustments. Sag within reach & rarely ever find the bottom.
  It’s the front sans any available preload adjustment that’s in need of improvement. Ramped up compression damping has helped the bottoming, but still finding it when getting zesty & less than graceful. Static sag is way off under it’s own weight & rider sag is borderline despite my flyweight stature. 
  Most budget friendly move is preload caps & up the compression damping to see where it gets me. Dialing back the aggression far is easier said than done! Failing that, save some loonies & go RR open cartridge with maybe the 6Nm springs. 
  Now if only I could keep those pesky pirates outa my pocket...

[Canzvt]

When I was talking to Blackfoot Motorsports about revalving my shock, they mentioned that they have a revalve kit for the front forks which I'm guessing would be MUCH cheaper than the RR Big Piston kit. Perhaps that might be an option. Buy some springs, revalve your damping rods and away you go. I have a spare set of stockers, if you are interested. PM me and we can talk.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Canzvt

[ManBearPig]

I put 600 miles mixed on/off road before I touched anything. 
 

Recently set everything to Jimmy Lewis’ recommendations and have been very happy thus far. I’m still too fat for the rear spring but cranking the preload adjuster did help significantly. The bike corners much better now in the dirt as I can weight the front end better. Compression is set at 7 clicks out at both ends. Rebound is 10. 

[KidX]

I'm installing a 85nm Rally Raid spring on the rear shock. I'm 190 pounds without gear. On the RR website it states: 

 

This isn't very clear. Does this mean I add/increase compression and damping by a couple of clicks?

 

Also, once you guys have your sag and settings dialed in and add a passenger or load up for a trip do you change the preload settings? If so, do you just take a guess at how many clicks to add?

 

Picture added to. get attention

Edited January 25, 2022 by KidX

[Ktmmitch]

19 hours ago, KidX said:

I'm installing a 85nm Rally Raid spring on the rear shock. I'm 190 pounds without gear. On the RR website it states: 

 

This isn't very clear. Does this mean I add/increase compression and damping by a couple of clicks?

 

Also, once you guys have your sag and settings dialed in and add a passenger or load up for a trip do you change the preload settings? If so, do you just take a guess at how many clicks to add?

 

Picture added to. get attention

If you fit a stiffer spring, then generally you would increase rebound damping, to slow down the faster return caused by the stiffer spring.

[Toppie]

19 hours ago, KidX said:

I'm installing a 85nm Rally Raid spring on the rear shock. I'm 190 pounds without gear. On the RR website it states: 

 

This isn't very clear. Does this mean I add/increase compression and damping by a couple of clicks?

 

Also, once you guys have your sag and settings dialed in and add a passenger or load up for a trip do you change the preload settings? If so, do you just take a guess at how many clicks to add?

 

Picture added to. get attention

 

Cant help you but......that great photo got my attention.

[williestreet]

On 1/25/2022 at 9:53 AM, KidX said:

I'm installing a 85nm Rally Raid spring on the rear shock. I'm 190 pounds without gear. On the RR website it states: 

 

This isn't very clear. Does this mean I add/increase compression and damping by a couple of clicks?

 

Also, once you guys have your sag and settings dialed in and add a passenger or load up for a trip do you change the preload settings? If so, do you just take a guess at how many clicks to add?

 

Picture added to. get attention

Do I take a guess?  No.....Measure it.

 

You need to spend some time in the garage and find the needed preload setting for the load you plan to carry.  

Sag should still be correct if riding by yourself or carrying a passenger and luggage.  

 

In the spring before riding season I spend an hour or so in the garage loading the bike up like a would for a trip.  I try to simulate what load I will be taking in most cases.  If you carry bags fit them and fill with all the gear you normally take.  You don't need to be perfect as I am sure most trips the weight might  change plus or minus a bit.   If you are taking a passenger you will need them as well.

 

I don't carry a passenger, so I load everything up and adjust my preload to get my rear sag back to the proper number.  The stock forks don't have adjustable preload caps, but all the weight you are adding is on the rear.  If you get the back up to the same sag as when riding normally you will find the front has changed very little.  I just leave the front alone.

If you find you need 6 clicks of preload added when adding camping gear record that somewhere.

 

If taking a passenger I do the same with the passenger and record the number somewhere.  Maybe this needs 15 clicks on the preload adjuster?

 

When all is said and done I know when traveling I will add 6 clicks of preload to the rear shock.  If your partner is coming you add 15 clicks to your normal setting.

 

Do the work before hand so when travel time comes it is quick adjustment.

All you need is a tape measure and a bit of time, but if you want to make your life easy spend a few bucks and pick up a Motool Slacker V4.  Awesome tool I wish I had purchased years ago.  Makes setting and checking sag a breeze.

 

Rebound and compression generally can be left alone.  On most of my bikes I have felt no need to adjust compression or rebound when I get the bike back to proper ride height.

 

Slacker Digital Suspension Tuner - V4

---

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by williestreet

[RobR]

Love all the data in this thread, but lots of the posts are missing a key data point - All uprider weight.  If you have posted, I encourage you to edit your post and add you weight.  I promise we won't judge or body shame. 

[Eran_mo]

Hi,

New owner of a 2021 Rally Edition with stock suspension, i'm ~5.10" and weigh ~74kg with gear, i ride mostly on road.

any suggestion for a good setup both for the rear shock and front fork?

thanks

Eran

[AZJW]

Probably TMI, but this has worked well for me as I've only come close once to bottoming the front forks, but admittedly save the gnarly trails for my Beta dirt bike.

 

 

 

 

 

Mileage		Date	Mnt.
26		7/25/2020	Reset all suspension to OEM	8/18/20	9/4/20 90nm spring
Forks	OEM Std	As Delivered	Set
Rebound	17
LH		15	17
RH		16	17
Compression	11
LH		8	11
RH		7	11
Rear shock
Preload	10	15	10	26	0
Rebound	13	12	13		13
Compression	15	16	15		15
Free sag			602mm	602mm	602mm
Rear Static sag			572mm	577mm	581mm
Rear Rider sag			531mm	543mm	542mm
Actual sag			71mm	59mm	60mm
Front free sag				233mm
Front Static sag				192mm
Front Rider sag				180mm
Actual sag				51mm
zip tie test					118 mm used/87mm left
	lbs.
Body wt.	168
Aerostitch	10
Boots	7
Helmet AFX	4.3
Osprey Hydration	9.5
Total	198.8	90kg

[Tenerider]

@AZJW Do I understand correctly: OEM settings for LH and RH fork were off by 1 click for rebound and compression, AND they were off from the owner's manual defaults?

Looks like I need to check mine!

 

Anyway, this is really really helpful - being similar in weight, I'll copy your settings. Thanks !!!

Edited June 13, 2022 by Tenerider

[AZJW]

@Tenerider Yes, that's correct.  As delivered,  my T7 settings weren't set to oem specs,  so IMHO, that should be confirmed before spending any bucks on upgrades.

[Prestone]

im a big bastard at 102 kg ready to go.

 

both ends at 30% rider sag.
 

Fork.

stock 6.0 springs with 5mm spacers.

comp 5.

reb 13.

 

shock.

85 Nm spring.

comp 8.

reb 9.

 

this works pretty good for gravelroads with a lot of big holes, if i jump the thing it bottoms out from time to time, but thats just fine.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Prestone

[gonebiken]

Rider: I’m 5’10” and 170 lbs (77kg) in my birthday suit. With full gear including helmet, knee braces, hydration pack with first aid kit, maps, gps, spot, etc is 200 lbs (90 kg).

 

Bike weight deviation from stock: AXP skid plate, so heavy but necessary. Yamaha crash bars. My 5lbs (2.27kg) spare tube and tool bag tied down on the passenger seat. Everything else should be negligible. 

Goals: Suspension seems close enough for my needs. I have two 250 Mx bikes if I want to go fast and/or hard I’ll do it on one of them. I had a 450 but got rid of it since I was always faster on a 250. I got rid of my street bikes (cbr1000 rr sp and a v-rod) so it needs to be able to get me to Starbucks and/or a quick twistie fix. For off road it is to do anything exceptions being fast and extreme enduro <- currently gets an “exceeds expectations” on that. 
 

Current: I’ve finally decided to pay a little more attention to the T and do some testing and adjusting. I have a process I use for dirt bikes. Part of that is to just get a feeling with the bike using the stock settings. This is after you verified you can achieve a decent sag front and rear or otherwise you already did a re-spring. Then you test full soft all the way around. It should feel shitty but safe if careful. Same for full hard. You do this on as much terrain types as possible.  If you achieve shitty on both extremes you should be able to find at least fairly decent somewhere in between. For dirt bikes you can usually find tested and recommend settings and that’s my next step (racerx dialed in on YouTube). Well not for the T7 so I then went to the stock settings. A little off road testing and immediately decided I was correct thinking stock rebound seemed oddly a rather fast/soft recommendation. I also found the recommended compression to be way too fast/soft. Suspension settings are nothing but trade offs. Worse the are constantly changing over time as all the things that effect them are changing. That’s a good thing as even skill level plays in that. In other words you’re not progressing if you not having to change your suspension settings. So here’s my settings:

 

Note the bike is lowered in the rear. Since I had a little too much sag on the forks I was able to not lower the front as much to make up for it. Seems to be pretty good and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got plenty of clicker range left for minor adjustments. If anything I’d say I’d might soften fork compression a little more for more aggressive off road but just as likely to set it right back. Another note for rider sag the columns with percentages and mm range are just the standard guidelines most go by. 
 

The best setting are alway found with a screw driver and the seat of your pants. Happy trails all. 

[Outbacker]

Yummy!

This arrived today from TekNik Australia.

9.0Nm rear spring and 6-8.0Nm progressive springs for the front.

When added, it should support a heavier bloke like me.

[stavely]

On 9/23/2022 at 5:50 AM, Outbacker said:

Yummy!

This arrived today from TekNik Australia.

9.0Nm rear spring and 6-8.0Nm progressive springs for the front.

When added, it should support a heavier bloke like me.

How heavy are you kitted up, and how did this mod work out please  ? They sound like stiff front springs.

[Outbacker]

My weight plus stuff is about 125kg.

[r1superstar]

On 7/15/2022 at 10:26 PM, gonebiken said:

Rider: I’m 5’10” and 170 lbs (77kg) in my birthday suit. With full gear including helmet, knee braces, hydration pack with first aid kit, maps, gps, spot, etc is 200 lbs (90 kg).

 

Bike weight deviation from stock: AXP skid plate, so heavy but necessary. Yamaha crash bars. My 5lbs (2.27kg) spare tube and tool bag tied down on the passenger seat. Everything else should be negligible. 

Goals: Suspension seems close enough for my needs. I have two 250 Mx bikes if I want to go fast and/or hard I’ll do it on one of them. I had a 450 but got rid of it since I was always faster on a 250. I got rid of my street bikes (cbr1000 rr sp and a v-rod) so it needs to be able to get me to Starbucks and/or a quick twistie fix. For off road it is to do anything exceptions being fast and extreme enduro <- currently gets an “exceeds expectations” on that. 
 

Current: I’ve finally decided to pay a little more attention to the T and do some testing and adjusting. I have a process I use for dirt bikes. Part of that is to just get a feeling with the bike using the stock settings. This is after you verified you can achieve a decent sag front and rear or otherwise you already did a re-spring. Then you test full soft all the way around. It should feel shitty but safe if careful. Same for full hard. You do this on as much terrain types as possible.  If you achieve shitty on both extremes you should be able to find at least fairly decent somewhere in between. For dirt bikes you can usually find tested and recommend settings and that’s my next step (racerx dialed in on YouTube). Well not for the T7 so I then went to the stock settings. A little off road testing and immediately decided I was correct thinking stock rebound seemed oddly a rather fast/soft recommendation. I also found the recommended compression to be way too fast/soft. Suspension settings are nothing but trade offs. Worse the are constantly changing over time as all the things that effect them are changing. That’s a good thing as even skill level plays in that. In other words you’re not progressing if you not having to change your suspension settings. So here’s my settings:

 

Note the bike is lowered in the rear. Since I had a little too much sag on the forks I was able to not lower the front as much to make up for it. Seems to be pretty good and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got plenty of clicker range left for minor adjustments. If anything I’d say I’d might soften fork compression a little more for more aggressive off road but just as likely to set it right back. Another note for rider sag the columns with percentages and mm range are just the standard guidelines most go by. 
 

The best setting are alway found with a screw driver and the seat of your pants. Happy trails all. 

 

Good info.  We are about the same weight and have a similar thought process for the T7 and how to ride it.  IT'S not a dirt bike so don't ride or treat it as such.  That's what my 2022 TE250i is for.  haha

[OneEyedTiger]

Is it worthwhile to get both front and rear springs? 
 

I don’t do anything crazy on her but I don’t like how much the front caves in when I brake.

[Tenerider]

40 minutes ago, OneEyedTiger said:

Is it worthwhile to get both front and rear springs? 
 

I don’t do anything crazy on her but I don’t like how much the front caves in when I brake.

The front dive is - as far as I know - not necessarily a sign of too light springs, it's also due to the damping mechanism.

Since it is a conventional damping rod mechanism, you'll either have appropriate compression damping on hard edges, steps, ... (high-speed compression) which means you have a lot of brake dive and eventually bottoming on long sweeping obstacles (low speed comp). Alternatively, you'll have appropriate compression damping for braking and so on, but a very harsh ride on sharp-edged obstacles, potholes, ...

 

The cheapest "solution" would probably be progressive springs in the front, but this is not considered an ideal solution by suspension specialists (which I am NOT).

[niplo]

On 3/12/2023 at 9:45 AM, Tenerider said:

The front dive is - as far as I know - not necessarily a sign of too light springs, it's also due to the damping mechanism.

Since it is a conventional damping rod mechanism, you'll either have appropriate compression damping on hard edges, steps, ... (high-speed compression) which means you have a lot of brake dive and eventually bottoming on long sweeping obstacles (low speed comp). Alternatively, you'll have appropriate compression damping for braking and so on, but a very harsh ride on sharp-edged obstacles, potholes, ...

 

The cheapest "solution" would probably be progressive springs in the front, but this is not considered an ideal solution by suspension specialists (which I am NOT).

 

I'm 96kg with gear, adding crash bars, skid plate, bark busters, will take me to ~104kg weight on the front of the bike. The 6.6 N/mm spring is recommended for 100-120kg.

 

Would it then make sense to install the 6.6 N/mm spring to have good low speed compression damping for braking, but go to a lower viscosity oil for lower high speed compression damping for hits?

 

According to online viscosity tables the Motul Factory line compares as following to the OEM oil:

Motul Factory Line 7.5W - viscosity 24,6
OEM KYB G10 10W - viscosity 32,20
Motul Factory Line 10W - viscosity 36,3

 

Would you recommend to go for the Motul 7.5W with the 6.6 N/mm springs? I guess 100mm is a good starting point for air gap.