overall a more compliant ride like the nicer more expensive bikes have. loading up the back of the bike and running out of adjustment on the rear shock, and 3. I wanted a tested solution to the three problems the bike has: 1. People are messing with different weight oils, adding intiminators or cartridge emulators and sometimes drilling holes into them, cutting spacers, raising the forks in the clamps, etc. I spent hours reading threads on ADV, Stromtrooper, and watching OnTheThrottle's suspension tuning videos and came to the conclusion that suspension tuning was definitely a science and an art. I'm not a motorcycle mechanic guru nor do I have any friends who are. When I was doing the research into upgrading my 09 DL650, by the time I was done my head was spinning. 95% of my riding is on tar, the rest easy forest road. I ride a lot of bumpy broken asphalt road and my preference is a little more towards compliance, even though i consider myself a sporty rider. My rear shock is elka unit with a 9.4kg spring. To the OP, the answer depends on your weight whether you run stock spring or not, what type of riding you do and what brand of oil you plan to use.įYI, i am 94kg, use 0.90kg spring in one leg and 0.95kg spring in other- runs silkolene pro rsf 2.5 wt which has a around rating and i use intiminator. While everyones experience and preference may differ and you would get different opinions, talking about what weight oil one uses withoutġ) naming the brand/range of oil is useless - as people pointed out viscosity rating varies from manufacturer to manufacturer - no relevancy unless we can get the rating Ģ) not knowing the weight of rider is useless - people who weights 70kg or less will often find the stock (k7 onwards especially) quite good and dont understand what the fuss is about.ģ) preference in riding style and type of roads on is also important for someone trying to use the information as a starting point.Ĥ) rate of spring and what other suspension mod has been done to the bike is also useful.

Fork oil actual viscosity chart