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Thruxton R Suspension Settings

15K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  jsobell 
#1 ·
Anyone else find the "Standard" settings to be too firm?

I'm 250 pounds, so I figure the bike is way undersprung for me and correcting that is high on the list, but I found the as-delivered rebound and compression settings to be all over the place, so I set them to "Standard" from the manual, and then did a 60 mile ride on twisty mountain roads.

Bigger bumps jolted my kidneys and it felt like the rebound was too tight, so that some-times the tire would lose contact with the road. I then set it for "Comfort" and the suspension feels a lot better for the bumpy roads I ride on. Still firm, but the bike feels more planted.

I tried dialing up the front preload to get rid of excess sag, but found that the Showa Big Piston Fork preload has a total travel of about 4mm, so it's almost useless except for fine-tuning.
 
#3 ·
Personally, I think the suspension on the Thruxton R is pretty well set up out of the box. I'm coming from a Speed Triple R which had suspension set up for the track and had to be dialed to their softest settings to have any compliance on real roads - and even then, they felt firmer than the Thruxton's suspension. Interestingly, I took my Thruxton to a suspension specialist and he didn't feel it was necessary to change a single setting (he didn't charge me anything!). Obviously, you need to take your weight and personal preferences into account


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#6 ·
Personally, I think the suspension on the Thruxton R is pretty well set up out of the box...
I personally total agree with You, I've never had a bike with so good standard settings than the R. I'm comining from a GSXR 1k with Öhlins TTX shock and R&T fork, before that a D675 with WP shock. I'm quite a regular track visitor so turning ability is important to me.

If we stick to SI-units, my weight is about 95 kg and the only thing I've done so far is adding 4 turns of preload front and 1 step in the rear. That gave me about 40 mm rider SAG front, 35 mm rear. I also added 1/2 turn of compression damping in the front to prevent the initial dive when hitting the brakes, might need another addition if the speed is very inspired on the track.

So far I've been doing a couple of 1 000 km on road and half a day on track (new track for me) and I must say I'm impressed. Of course, the engine is severe outpowered compared to a modern sportbike but the chassi as well as the brakes is really impressive. All from the standard settings, I've felt no need to fiddle with rebound, the bike is just so well balanced from stock standard settings. Also, the shims of the compression stacks must be quite good for advanced street riding, the initial movement is so much more comfortable on the Thrux compared to my earlier sportbikes.

So, I must give the teams from Showa, Öhlins and especially Triumph a fat thumbs up for their work, it behaves much better on stock settings than I've hoped for :)
 
#4 ·
The way I see it is you should be able to adjust the shocks from soft to hard between both extremes. I don't find this is the case with these shocks.
The spring tension is on the softest setting from the factory, which is pretty stiff IMO and can only be made firmer as you adjust the top spring compression ring, and not softer.
That to me is pretty pointless with "fully adjustable shocks"
When I get chance I will be taking the C clip that locks the top ring up one notch and see if that fixes things. Failing that it looks like I will have to get some different springs. Triumph dropped the ball here IMO, these things should be more adjustable than they are, their is a wide range of rider weight out there and these shocks do not compensate for that..
 
#5 ·
My R, as delivered, had some of the damping settings set between Standard and Comfort, and some to Comfort. The settings were not matched from side to side.

So I looked in the manual and set everything for Standard.

I then took it out to the nearest canyon roads. On most bumps, I just found the suspension to be very firm, but not too bad. On the worst bumps, I would feel it in my kidneys on the compression, and feel the tires leave the road briefly on the rebound.

I then set everything to Comfort and hit the same roads again. The suspension was still firm, but the bike always felt planted. Even the worst bumps were soaked up without kidney punches and the tires never left the ground.

It makes me wonder if I should go to stiffer springs, or just add preload spacers to the front and add preload to the rear by moving the the clip down, until I get the sag right front and rear, as increasing spring rate usually requires increased rebound and decreased compression, but I'm already full out on compression.

I think I will try increasing the damping gradually as there is a lot of room between full comfort and standard. Maybe there is room in the damping for stiffer springs.

It is nice to be able to experiment at least.
 
#7 ·
Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I'm in roughly the same boat, and wanted to see if you replaced the springs, or just made some adjustments and left it?

My R will be shipped on the 26th, and there will be some dealer work (installing the fairing), so I figured I'd order springs and have them done at the same time if necessary.

I'm close to your weight, maybe 15lb lighter - would you replace springs all around, or just one set? What did you go with? I'm going to be commuting on it mainly, not a lot of highway, but some. Looking for a more comfort-oriented setup.

On that note, anyone recommend a suspension shop in San Diego with Ohlins specific expertise for final setup and adjustments? Or do you think my dealer (Rocket) is probably fine for this sort of work?
 
#8 ·
@nbolmer

I wound up replacing the front springs with 1.0 kg/mm springs, but have not replaced the rears yet. Replacing the fronts cured the excessive brake dive I was experiencing. I still bottom the rear on the worst of bumps, so I plan on replacing them at some point, but it's not urgent either. The settings are still at comfort front and rear and I'll probably leave it that way.
 
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#10 ·
I changed the front and rear compression and damping to the comfort settings and left the front and rear preloads alone because I found the standard settings to be much too firm. Lot's better now.
 
#12 ·
I know this thread was last posted on in November, but since it was addressed I didn't want to start a new one.

I took delivery of my new Thruxton R this past Wednesday. I was trying to get the suspension to be more compliant, given NY roads are crappy and I was feeling every undulation and a lot of bounciness in the front end. It's as though the whole front end shakes rather than the forks being compliant. So I turned the screws and knobs all the way clockwise, and then tried to set them to what the manual says are the comfort settings.

Is it me or does the comfort setting make it so the rebound adjustment screw (TEN) on the forks is all the way out?? If a turn of the slotted screw is 360 degrees, then 8.5 times puts it at the opposite stop, at least on my bike. The compression screw (COM) is far out too, but not quite to its stop.

One rear shock rebound adjuster will click for 44 clicks, while the other only clicks for a dozen or so.

Once I set everything to comfort I took a ride and it seemed better, but maybe a little more jittery? Unsettled as opposed to very damped? I dunno. Do I have it right?
 
#13 ·
Is it me or does the comfort setting make it so the rebound adjustment screw (TEN) on the forks is all the way out?? If a turn of the slotted screw is 360 degrees, then 8.5 times puts it at the opposite stop, at least on my bike. The compression screw (COM) is far out too, but not quite to its stop.
?
Mine is the same. TEN goes all the way out.
I´ve been pretty unlucky setting my up suspension. I cannot get the rear shocks do handle the way i want, no matter the configuration. I ride pretty fast and my bike shakes the rear a lot (from side to side) when i go 100mph or more (it starts shaking from 80mph but gets really bad at 100). It sucks away all my confidence.

I´ll try to get my bike to a suspension expert, then check the wheels. Even my tiger with ultra soft suspension was stable at high speeds. My thruxton is terrible.
 
#14 ·
I phone Triumph today to get some clarity on which way to turn the rebound damping adjuster at the bottom of the rear shock absorber.

The manual has now been updated to say - To change the rebound damping setting, look upwards from the bottom of the suspension unit to the top, rotate the adjuster clockwise to increase or anticlockwise to decrease.

I hope this clarifies the ambiguous description in the older manuals.

I changed my Thruxton to the Comfort settings and find it handles better on lanes. Still keeps everything tight and steady, whilst keeping the tires in better contact with the road.
 
#16 ·
Also late to this thread, but fiddling with my suspension more.

@ThruxtonR,DanieIVE
The TEN on your fork legs is NOT rebound. It is preload. Rebound is set on the bottom of the fork leg.
Can you explain these findings in more detail?

My understanding was the that ten and comp screws at the top of the forks changed the oil flow for rebound and compression and the adjustment at the bottom of the forks was for preload?
 
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