Stock Suspension vs. Tuned Suspension

It has to be a trial-and-error affair, unfortunately. It all depends on your weight, setup you want, etc. For me, I want the bike enjoyable in the twisties, which means less comfort on broken pavement, but I like a firm suspension. It was too firm stock, so I basically went 2 clicks/turns softer on everything except rear preload (which is a PITA to adjust on this bike, but feels softer than the front, so no adjustment needed IMO), Fortunately, that did the trick, apparently... but haven't had a chance to take the bike to any twisties yet. But the way it feels on the street leads me to believe it'll be perfect, since it feels pretty much like previous bikes that were fine when pushed. I'm around 160 (165 now, but will get down to 160) in the mornings with just shorts and T-shirt, as a reference. You can start like that, and go from there, since you seem to have the same complaint I did. Oh, but start bottoming out all settings first, to make sure you know where they were. Mine all were where the manual said, but bought my bike with 0 miles, so expected that. In addition, I marked the bottomed out positions with a dot (fine point permanent marker) on both parts, to know exactly where a full turn is. Then readjusted the settings with 2 clicks/turns (in case of front preload) less (as in softer) than factory. Good luck.
JC

Sounds like what I did should be also perfect for you. And if not, pretty darn close. Those are my new 'base' settings. After that, I'd only do 1 change at a time, if needed. And finish off the adjustments that way. Let me know how it went, and what else you adjusted after that, if anything. Please post how you feel the bike in the twisties after the 'base' adjustment (before other adjustments), just to know what I might find myself too . Good luck brother.

Agree, I'm at 225lbs and after taking it to my suspension tuner (he does all my bikes) it was night and day, it's the best $50 you can spend. However, I'm more performance focused and at my weight the suspension is now pretty stiff as a result and after setting rear sag. 

 Where are you located?

Yessir!

Well, for me it'd be a hell of a lot more than that, by the time you factor in travel expenses . And being very close to the ideal weight the factory uses to set up the suspension, I wouldn't even pay those 'measly' $40 unless I really needed to (I don't). I like working on my bikes, and setting up suspension for the street is not rocket science. It just takes trial and error, and same thing even for a professional. But to each his own. In my case, I have no choice but to do it mysel. And fortunately, I like those challenges too. He he. And same thing with oil changes and other maintenance. I much rather do it myself even if they were free .

I'm in North Carolina. I'm gonna take my bike to get its first service knocked out today and I'm going to talk to the guy there and see if he does suspension tuning.

I watched the Dave Moss suspension set up video for the FZ/MT and track setup IMO would be too hard for the street, but the track setup video ran straight into the street setup video with a guy at one of Dave's street sessions.

On this site somewhere I've read that someone here dropped the front end 20mm and I was thinking man thats excessive and it'll cause issues due to instability but in Dave's video he made a comment that on his findings on his very own MT10 following 8000 miles in 6 months, he found the best setting for the front height was to drop the forks through the yokes from the first ring to the 3rd which is indeed a 20mm drop! Added to this the fact he backed off the rebound and compression at the front and raised the rear end by increasing the rear preload. It would have been nice to find a testimonial from the guy confirming the settings made a difference (big or small) but hey ho, it is what it is.

Co-incidentally on Dave's site, my testimonial is on the first page from when he gave me advice on my old RR9 Blade and the difference to that was night and day (although the settings he offered me did end up too much for street work and I softened them upon a little over the following month and it was nigh on perfect, for me at least).

I would never call anyone an idiot but it sort of does fly in the face of accepted practice to go that far but hey, if DM recommends it then the guy knows his stuff. I'm glad it worked for you though and once I have a few more miles on mine it'll be getting the suspenders adjusted. Mine is only showing 700 miles just now so I want it at least with 1000 miles on the clock so it will be loosened up.