On the fence

His front forks move doing the standard sitting on the bike, hand on front brake and pushing down. Mine are barely moving and getting stuck in the release.

RoadChick said:

His front forks move doing the standard sitting in the bike hand on brake and pushing down. Mine are barely moving and getting stuck in the release.

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same was on my HS, normal, not a low model .

I never thought i would tune a fork. Until yet, in the last nearly 40 years, i always lived with stock forks. Only at R100GS i changed springs and fork oil, nothing else.

When i read about HS fork here i thought " what do these guys nag about the fork". after my first gobbing of front wheel i ever encountered i knew what they/you guys meant.

This is completly gone with Andreani cartridges, even it's a little on the hard side now and only really works well when driving it hard.
In "tourist mode" it could be softer.

Had the option to send it to an suspension specialist to rework the stock fork or go with a cartridge. As specialist has no time the next weeks my decision was quite easy .

RoadChick said:

His front forks move doing the standard sitting in the bike hand on brake and pushing down. Mine are barely moving and getting stuck in the release.

Click to expand...

I have a low model, I weight around 73kg in birth suit. The fork is stiff when I push it down. But the way it moves up and down seems normal, maybe a little on the slow side.

On the road, the fork is bumpy on small bumps and I find it to plunge a little to much when braking hard, but it never used the full travel length, so it may be because I used to ride sports bike fork.

Overall, the fork isn't very good to my taste. My last bike was a ST3 whith a 996 showa fork and ohlins rear shock and there is no way to compare them with the Hyper fork. But on the Hyper, I never had a real problem with the fork and I'm still confident with the bike when riding. There is almost no cosiness and it is very sensitive to any hand move, but it works for me.

If I had 1200€, I'd put an andreani kit and a very good rear shock. But I won't in a near future.

gatdammit said:

the 2015's both have "43mm standard usd" fronts. But the rear suspension on even stock Motard is different/better than Strada. Lower bars and different seat, too. All adds up to a slightly different ride, I suspect.

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The only difference between rear shocks is that the Strada has hydraulic preload adjustment and a bit less travel. How is the standard Hyper shock "better?" Have you tried one?

zippy49 said:

The only difference between rear shocks is that the Strada has hydraulic preload adjustment and a bit less travel. How is the standard Hyper shock "better?" Have you tried one?

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Which means it has more travel and higher threshold to bottoming. The SP has 25mm more than the standard Motard. So, why does the travel number increase with higher rated suspension lines? Because better (on a track, at least).

Unless you have some Hyper side-by-side comparo' I haven't read, this is an objective discussion.

gatdammit said:

Which means it has more travel and higher threshold to bottoming. The SP has 25mm more than the standard Motard. So, why does the travel number increase with higher rated suspension lines? Because better (on a track, at least).

Unless you have some Hyper side-by-side comparo' I haven't read, this is an objective discussion.

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I have read comparisons and the trade off is agility over stability. It's not better or worse - it's different.

The higher suspension has more agility but less road feel. A rider skilled in trail braking can make use of this by compressing the front end in turns, thus increasing stability when needed.

The strada suspension is more of a compromise - though it's plenty agile for me and is stable in crosswinds etc..

My guess is someone unhappy with the stock strada suspension (no idea regarding the lowered version) would have more issues with the SP.