I love my '02 F4i, but the bike squats bad under hard acceleration and dives horribly under hard braking. I am 6'6" and 230lbs, and even with the pre-load adjusted to the max on the front forks and rear shock, it hasnt changed. I havent messed with the compression and rebound too much yet, cause honestly I don't really know what they do. My friend (also a big guy) said he was going to get some stiffer RaceTech fork springs and a stiffer shock coil for his (BOO!) gixxer. What do you guys think? Would it help the problem? Any incite into rebound and compression? This is my first post, so thanks for all the help in advance.

 

i think you should definitely look into an aftermarket suspension tuned by a specialist according to your size. as for the diving i think it is a bad idea to set the front suspension on max stiffness. the diving in a way absorbs most of the momentum. think if the suspension didnt give way and was stiff as a rock, once you hit the brakes hard enough, you'll go flying off the bike full force.

 

Im 250 and i keep the rear shock set on 6 and the front almost totally stiff but it only helps a little. I love this bike but after 3 and a half years on it i think i am coming to terms that i need a bigger bike. I dont want to spend a lot of money on a custom suspension then hate the way the ride feels. I think im going to buy a 1000, but im not sure how much bigger that bike is than the F4i, or if the suspension is any better. i just know that there's a lot more power.

 

Compression and rebound would change how squishy your shocks are... I saw a huge difference after I stiffened my compression, before that my bike used to bottom out on speed bumps and what not.
But I'm not really a big rider, so I dont know how stiff you can really make it.

 

i would look into an aftermarket suspension setup something that is made to hangle maybe a higher load and still handle and brake properly

 

I'll go ahead and throw my weight out there.. I am pushing a fatass 300 lbs right now and I ride mine every day. At first the dive was horrible, nearly unbearable and bore down hard on my wrists, but after cranking up the preload and the dampening, I am overall pretty happy. I started all the way at the hardest setting, and backed it off. It was very stiff at first, almost like it was bouncing against the bumps in the road, but as I backed it off gradually, I found a pretty comfortable setting. I need to spend more time with it, but I never bottom out and it's overall a comfortable ride.

As far as bigger bike = more comfortable ride for bigger dude...im not so sure I agree with that theory - Ive ridden an F3, Nighthawk 750 and GS500 and of all of them, the GS500 rode the best (in terms of handling comfort and suspension only) It was fast, for its displacement, and never bottomed out and that was on factory suspension settings. I'm not a huge fan of non-hondas, but that bike was a fun city ride.

It will be interesting also to see how my suspension settings change as I drop weight. (I'm dropping for career reasons)

 

okay, so it sounds like i need to bump up the dampening/compression to handle my weight, but do i also need to change the rebound at the same time? thanks again for all the help guys, i am horrible when it comes to setting up suspensions...

 

http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0402_susp/index.html

Good luck!

 

You're missing one piece of crucial info here.......the springs (both front and rear) are not the correct spring rate for your weight and riding style!!!!!!!!! No matter how you set your compression and rebound, you're never going to get it right!

While setting compression and rebound may help in some areas, you're going to fall short somewhere. Setting preload MUST come first!!! The other settings (compression and rebound) fall in place after preload. Without the right spring rates, you're never going to get the right preload.

The only way you are going to truly fix this is to change your springs (and it would be prudent to change the valving as well) in both your front and rear. Anything else will just merely be a somewhat band-aid fix that may help in one area (e.g. potholes, bumps) but fall short in another (e.g. hard braking).