Suzuki GSX650F Forum - www.GSX650F.biz

Does anyone recognise this behaviour : when I start a corner, specially at low speed, the bike wants to steer IN more than I want, I have to apply force to stay on both wheels.
It's about freezingpoint overhere, so can that have anything to do with this ?
Thick oil ?? Cold tires ?? Old forkoil 51000km ??
Last summer it was OK



Did anyone do a front suspention mod yet ??
What did you change ?
-Oil
-Progressive springs
-
-


Did this mod proof to be a good one ??

Hey Lampie, I haven't had that behavior yet in the cold, cuz it's snowing like hell right now..... Yet in late Spring of last year I had that same feel, it was cold mid 30's, it was somewhat wet'ish and my SuziF was all over the place, well I dialed it a few nidges down and it was fine.

From experience though, this cold temp is a bitch towards the tires and grip.. literally they suck if it's freezing, as they don't come up with the temp.

I would by default have changed the fork oil alright, 50 km, seems a little high for my liking.

Cheers

Volker

I put in a ride of about 250 miles last Sunday when the temps were in the 15 to 20 degree range, and about another 150 on Monday when temps were about 5 degrees warmer. If the roads are dry and free of deicing agents, then I think the bike handles pretty much as at any other time. If the roads are damp at all, or have any sand or salt on them then that's an entirely different matter. I tone it down if there's any indication that salt or sand has been applied to the road.

Not sure I've experienced exactly what you are describing, but I did have the rear step out on me going through a tight dogleg when the temp got up near freezing on Monday. Makes me think it's got more to do with the road surface than the tire temp. Bad things happen when the ice starts to melt. I'd rather deal with solid ice then water on ice.

Well there's your problem Lampie, "approaching a corner at slow speed" Hit em hard and fast and you won't have to worry

I haven't experienced what you did, but did change the front end. I recently put racetech springs and Gold Valve Catridge Fork Emulators in my bike with a thicker oil. It really is a great difference but was $$$. I did it because the front end seemed too light as it was, I'm about 270(120 Kg) or so, and the nose would dive when braking aggressively. Now there is no dive but a more consistent action.

How have you found traction now that you have the stiffer oil and springs in there gkcontra? I ask because I've lowered my front end and was finding under hard braking the second triple tree thing would almost contact the dust seals of my forks... SO i tightened up the preload on the forks, but then found it was too stiff, and i was not only absorbing every single bump the road has to offer with my spinal chord and wrists (and in NSW atm, there's a hell of a lot of bumps!) but i also found if i hit some little bumps through a corner, my front end wanted to step out on me... Not fun... I seemed to have found a good compromise atm, but am still wondering how to improve it more...

AS odd as it sound what Dashy states, yet I am in agreement. My SuziF doesn't like "slow" speeds, me being 6'4" 270lbs, put enough weight on her to make her stick and much to my surprise, the "faster" I take a curve the better she handles. The best so far I experienced, I'm going I5 heading to Seattle, there's a nice sweep, but the curve is a true curve, meaning really turning in. So my arse start moving towards the side, I want SuziF to turn, a tip of counter steer and off she goes leaning in. At this point I'm at about 90 mph, much to my pleasure, she's running a line as it was drawn by a precision instrument, now wiggle no nothing. Compared to a speed of the legal limit of 60 mph... she feels very edgy and response quickly to any move I make, like I said, not so when I'm at a higher speed. My wife afterwards yelled at me, because I was like 5 miles away from her and her Burgman.... I had the biggest smile on my face and moved in to the dog house

lol. RPK to Mrs RPK- "I know I'm in trouble... I'll understand if you wanna sleep on the couch..."

traction is about the same as before, the bike just doesn't dive now. That may have something to do with the emulators though, I think they suck up the little bumps allowing the springs to do their job for ride height. If I didn't do twisty rides they suggested I just do the springs, as soon as twisties were discussed the emulators were brought up and we added them.

Well... I think the first step is to put some new oil in the forks.

Does anybody know which oil ?
5W (thin oil) , 10W or 20W (thick oil) ??
I heard someone tell that you can mix them to create 7,5W or 15W

And how many CC of oil do I put in the fork ??

Lampie, I had a similar problem on my SV650 with the bike wanting to lean into the turn more with low speed turns. With the SV, I found it more noticeable if tire pressure was lower than desired. I haven't noticed this on the GSX, although just the other day the GSX seems to dip a bit in slow turns. I'll pay extra attention the next time I ride to see if I can feel it. Anyway, for me, it seemed to be an issue of low tire pressure. How's your tire pressure on the front tire?

I put 2.6 bar @ front
and 2.8 Bar @ rear

Front is Michelin Pilot Road2 with 2mm profile left (about 18000km) and I want to replace it within 3 months
Rear is Michelin Pilot Road3 with 7mm left (about 6200km)

When it was warmer I did not have this feeling so strong as I do now.

10w oil. 132mm air gap in the forks. If you're using standard springs you could make the gap a bit less to help with bottoming out.

Al.

I've had a tour with the Suzuki-Ownersclub Netherlands today

Beside the weather it was perfect.
Bike was better than new.

I changed the following :

Oil in the fork 459ccm of 10W , Putoline
2 front brake calipers,complete with original TOKICO brakepads, 2 cylinders got stuck because the seal was mounted wrong ! , found on Ebay, only 2000miles
2 front disks, original, found on Ebay , only 2000miles

After a while the brakepads and disks liked eachother and now the brakingpower is phenomenal with braided brakelines.

I was thinking of selling my bike.... but now I don't know anymore
I know what I have now...