Stock Settings for early Showa forks

[Howley]

Hi All,

I just picked up a set of NOS Showa forks that I believe came stock on the '94 900SS. I was just wondering what the stock settings are (compression and rebound damping) so I can have a place to start my tweaking. Is it fair to assume the position the forks are in is the stock position?

Cheers

[rockaduc]

They might not be in the stock position.  Ducati.com probably has the downloadable owner's manual for that bike.  In it, you will find the factory settings.

[He Man]

i would skip that part and i just zero everything and start fresh. sit on the bike. set the sag numbers, put the compression in the middle of its stroke and work your rebound dampening until the whole bike bounces evenly.

[Howley]

What do you mean 'in the middle of its stroke'?. As in in the middle of its range of adjustment?

[ducpainter]

What do you mean 'in the middle of its stroke'?. As in in the middle of its range of adjustment?

Pretty sure that's what he meant, and it is as good a starting point as any.

[He Man]

yea thats what i mean. count how many turns it has from zero and just half it. if its in the middle you can decide if its too much or too little.

http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/category/5/24/73/

on the throttle has A LOT Of very good videos on rebound, setting sag, compression damping and other little bits. grab a pen and paper to jot down some notes and you should be able to set a good baseline for urself.

dont be afraid to mess up because you can always just zero it out and start over again. If you like what you have, count how many clicks to zero, and go make note of where each adjustment is at. so if you ever get screwed up you can go back to what you like and adjust from there.

This is assuming the suspension can handle your weight to begin with, if not, youre not going to be able to set sag

[Howley]

OK cheers for the help. I checked the sag on my standard non adjustable forks a while back and it was bang on. I figure I'm probably average weight.

[He Man]

really, it depends on how you ride and feel.

Stock weight on the S2R is said to be 160lbs. im 150 they were to soft for me to be confident in them.

El Matador, on the same bike, riding 2 up, was riding faster then i can inmagine to ever ride (for now) and they had a combined weight of over 300lbs.

so again, it all depends on how well you feel with the front end, as long as it isnt broken, and compliant with your inputs you should be fine.

[brad black]

on the ss they came from the factory with both about 4 clicks out, which made them quite horrible to ride as they were very stiff.  rebound on 9 or 10, comp on 11 or 12 was about where most seemed to end up with std oil.  5wt helps reduce the excessive high speed comp damping.  they have the rebound adj at the top of the leg that causes an adjustment interaction with the compression circuit - they're not the best forks.  can be made to work ok tho.

if they're ss ones they've got dual rate springs that are too soft initially, so you get lots of sag.  get rid of them and fit some linear ones.  i think you'll need about 15 - 20mm preload usually.