Heya

I have just upgraded the suspension on my GTS 250 to the Carbone Sports fully adjustable (compression) front shock and the Carbone rear shocks (with 3 compression settings). Unfortunately i could not spring (ahem!) for the malossi or bitubos but these seemed a decent alternative).

The rear shocks are stiffer than the original shocks but the front is adjustable from soft to very hard.

So far I have left the rear shocks on the softest setting (as recommended by my mechanic) and am playing around with the front shock only.

I am having trouble finding a sweet spot with the settings and would appreciate your input.

I have been compressing the front suspension half a turn at a time and trying it out. There seems to be a very small sweet spot where the front end feels slightly heavy (in a good way) and the ride is nice.

The problem is that at this setting I seem to be getting a noticeable "wiggle" from the back end when I accelerate quickly or decelerate quickly (without braking) which I never had before and a wiggle when turning at slow speeds.

It doesn't seem to be coming from the rear tyre but more from the whole back end in general if this makes sense!

The bushings are the old ones as I could not get hold of some new ones when it was being fitted however my mechanic said that they were in good condition and did not need replacing.

If I vary the compression on the front shock by a third of a turn either way the front end loses the niceness (becoming too hard or too soft and not good to ride, for me anyway) but the wiggle seems to be less.

I am currently running my usual tyre pressures that were spot on under the old suspension (front 26psi and 30 rear) and the tyres are the same type as previously (diablos) and are less than 1000km old. I am ~69 kilos and the bike has a top box.

I realise that the only way to get the setting spot on is by trial and error and getting out and riding and am planning on doing this on saturday but was wondering

1. would having stiffer rear shocks influence the tyre pressure I should be running?

2. should a third of a turn of the shock affect the ride so noticeably?

3. if I go harder on the rear shocks would I need to go lighter or heavier on the front?

I would describe my riding style as a "confident commuter".......

Any input would be more than welcome.

Thank you

Lee