Softening the suspension

[Dagger969]

I searhced a bit to find this to no avail. Anyone know how to soften the suspension on a 98+ kat both front and rear? I saw the little knobs on the end of the fork but i dont know how to adjust them. And I have no clue how to go on the back.

[ThAzKat]

1 being the lowest setting gives you a softer setting. on the rear you can adjust spring height to make it softer also.

[trinc]

you may be thinking 'soften' but it may actually be a bad shock. they generaly suck from the get go - look into an RF shock or an early gixxer shock. do a search on setting sag - sport riders did a good write-up.

the front end - make sure you don't bottom out the forks under hard braking - put a tie wrap on the fork tube - ride and hit the brakes hard ( good time to practice emergency braking ) and see how far the tie wrap moved.

tim

[arsenic]

yeah look for a 90-92 GSX-R 750 rear shock, I know that is a direct bolt on with the pre 98's It should work with the 98+ as well.

[The CyberPoet]

Do you have the owner's manual? It talks in detail about how to adjust the settings...

It is possible if it's a used bike that either the settings are set for a heavier rider/load, or that the previous owner actually had custom fork springs, heavier fork oil and/or reworked suspension components installed.

In general:

FRONT FORKS:
The front forks have one adjustment per fork: the flat-bladed screw on the top of each of the forks (damping rate/valve adjustment). This adjustment controls how fast oil can flow through the fork valve, thereby acting as a damping adjustment to keep the forks from yo-yo'ing on return from bumps.
Take a flat head screwdriver, turn each screw all the way to the left (counter-clockwise); don't force it hard -- it should move with a modicum of effort. Once all the way to the left, start turning them back to the right (clockwise) and count the clicks. There should be four click-stops available for each one -- the first stop from the left is the softest setting and the 4th is the hardest. Generally, 150 lb rider will want 2 or 3, a 200lb rider will probably want 3. Doubling up on the ride (passenger, gear)? You may want 4. ALWAYS SET BOTH TO THE SAME NUMBER OF CLICKS (failure to do so can result in handling problems that may lead to an accident). NEVER SET IT TO ANYTHING EXCEPT A CLICK (no setting inbetween "clicks"), as the valve won't be seated properly.

KNOW THIS ABOUT 98+ FRONT FORKS:
If both screw spins without any "clicking" and no stop, the fork internals have been replaced with cartridge emulators. No adjustment can be done other than changing the viscosity of the fork oil. If just one screw spins without clicks or stops, the damping valve is bad and the forks need to be rebuilt.
Fork oil should be changed every other year. If you suspect the oil is more than two years old, replace it and the fork oil seals (or have a competent mechanic do so).

REAR:
98+ Kat 600's have two adjustments in the rear: spring preload and damping valve adjustment. The spring preload controls how much the rear wheel wants to move (higher preload for higher weights), and the damping adjustment controls the yo-yo action after it starts moving.
To adjust the spring pre-load, you normally use the specialty tool designed for this purpose in the toolkit and rotate the collar at the bottom of the rear spring/shock assembly (higher numbers are more preload, i.e. - higher spring pre-compression). The damping valve sits atop the shock and has numbers visible in a window on the left side of the shock. Pick a number; higher means more damping.
There are threads on this board about how to figure out the best baseline set-up for your ride weight; search for "setting static sag".

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet