suspension balance

[aaronb]

so i planned to respring my bike over the winter, including a 999 rear shock.  so i have the rear shock and 650# spring (i weigh in at about 225+ in gear).  so i am ready to do the rear (hehe) but have not ordered new front springs and now money is very tight.  we just put an offer in on a house and i do not want to spend the cash right now.  

would it be ok to just do the rear right now, and ride around with a soft front, or should i just hold off and wait until i can do it all at once.  im thinking i should wait but i thought i would get some opinions of how the bike would ride with a 650# rear spring and stock fronts

[clubhousemotorsports]

You will be okay doing the shock spring only but you must realize what you will be doing to the chassis set-up before you make the change.

new rear spring will have the back end higher than before so the bike will carry more nose down attitude. Your effective rake will steepen and the bike will be more prone to tip in quicker. You will have more weight on the front than before so just ride it and learn what the change has done, if you get too nose biased you could lower the rear or raise the front to compensate.

As long as you are okay with those changes I say do it you will be much happier in the long run and after fixing one end you will soon do the other anyway.

Cheers

[stopintime]

Even if it's not the usual way, maybe you will learn something new about suspension....
It will be more obvious what the new rear does, it will be more revealing how the front needs to be changed and when you get around to it - it will again be more obvious which improvements the new front provide.

I'm no expert, but have an open positive mind. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm just a positive idiot

[Oldfisti]

If you haven't already, increase the spring preload and maybe the compression a touch as a stopgap measure. (after riding with the new rear first) Don't go crazy with the compression. My experience with Ducs is they actually like more rebound rate when set up right.

[aaronb]

thanks for the thoughts, i think the current setup is set pretty well (with the exception of the rear feeling a bit soft), so i guess i will put in the new setup and and just give it a additional static sag to try to keep the bike at about the same height, dynamically.  whatever, it will be fun to play with