FREE Suspension Setup advice from an expert

0260n25 said:

The dot on my fork is at 120 mm from fully extended. My zip ends up where you see it or just a bit lower (barely touching the black dot) when bottoming out. I would agree that it is just a bit short of 120 mm, although my dot may not be exactly 120 mm.

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That’s where we saw the fork bottoming out as well. I just took 3 mm minus 120 mm that these forks are supposed to have to get that 117 mm number

roadracerx said:

I have found in life that you generally get what you pay for...my aim is to give something worth a lot away for FREE - on this forum. In person tuning is a different story... I am posting this thread to give back and to help people because I read through some of these threads and I routinely see information that is not accurate.

On this thread I will answer questions to help sort out your 848/1098/1198 and all Panigale setup basics and/or issues you may have.

I have been setting up bikes for 20 years for all sorts of riders and I have been very successful in doing so. I started down the path of learning how to do pretty much everything on my own because I didn't want to have to rely on others to fix my bike and I don't want flat rate mechanics who don't care about my safety cutting corners; I have experienced both situations more than once.

I have learned from folks like Dave Moss and David Behrend and setup supermoto, motocross, flat track, mini motard, road race and street bike

I am a WERA and AFM racer with top 5 finishes in expert superstock/superbike classes on bikes that I build from scratch and I even won some championships on Ducati when I was a younger man.

I am starting this thread to help so let's get to work...

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On 2020 Ducati v4 why does my wet clutch disk have two that measure .228 and rest are .196 on reinstall does it matter where thicker ones go . Also bought new Barnett kit and it came with only one pressure plate disk mine currently has two . Is this going to work . Any help is appreciated .

Donsherrill said:

On 2020 Ducati v4 why does my wet clutch disk have two that measure .228 and rest are .196 on reinstall does it matter where thicker ones go . Also bought new Barnett kit and it came with only one pressure plate disk mine currently has two . Is this going to work . Any help is appreciated .

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Suspension advice here only, also metric is the lingua franca of Ducati mechanicals

@Donsherrill any reputable Ducati dealer should be happy to share with you the oem clutch pack stack height and the +/- on the acceptable range, don't take your bike to any dealer that won't share info. If you can't find it I will measure for you but I don't have that info saved in my brain.

I'm looking for info on the TTX36 shock. My V4 is a 2019 and I'm 85kg with gear and use a 100N spring (Ohlins recomments 95 i think) on the shock. What should be a correct preloadsetting (mm) of the spring? I mean the springlength just the spring and mounted on the shock. Is 100N a correct springrate?
Now I'm riding with 3 turns on the hydraulic adjuster and have 15mm free sag and 30mm riders sag.
What should be a good shocklength (312mm now)? The forks are flush with the triple clamp.
Thanks, guys.

@rikkie07 what tires are you running on the bike? Is this a base model? 100 N/m spring is fine. You ALWAYS want to start with a minimum of 10 mm of installed preload. That is measured from the free length of the spring.

@roadracerx I think I got everything I need for my fork spring change. Is it necessary to do anything with the fork oil? I watched a video where a guy changed his fork springs but was careful to let as much of the oil on the old springs run back into the fork. I have a fork oil gauge so setting the level isn't that much of a big deal, but can I just add Ohlins 5WT to the stuff that's already there? The service manual calls for a different fluid.

ETA: No one has Ohlins 5WT in stock. Any recommendations there? Would it be a good idea to add more oil and reduce the air gap to prevent any bottoming out? I am still 240lbs with full riding gear and went with the 11.0nm springs.

@bp_SFV4 Ohlins ONLY recommends Ohlins oil, 19 Cst is the standard weight, which is 5. You can get Yamaha fork oil from most dealers, which is a part owner of Ohlins, that should work well. I COMPLETELY drain and clean out old oil and start fresh.

You will need 400-450 cc to do the job properly.

@roadracerx Is there any value in going to 7.5w to 10w oil?

I've read a lot of guys are changing valving, would heavier oil be a cheap version of that?

@bp_SFV4 no 5wt is the way to go. Are the "guys" that a re-valving fast?

roadracerx said:

I have found in life that you generally get what you pay for...my aim is to give something worth a lot away for FREE - on this forum. In person tuning is a different story... I am posting this thread to give back and to help people because I read through some of these threads and I routinely see information that is not accurate.

On this thread I will answer questions to help sort out your 848/1098/1198 and all Panigale setup basics and/or issues you may have.

I have been setting up bikes for 20 years for all sorts of riders and I have been very successful in doing so. I started down the path of learning how to do pretty much everything on my own because I didn't want to have to rely on others to fix my bike and I don't want flat rate mechanics who don't care about my safety cutting corners; I have experienced both situations more than once.

I have learned from folks like Dave Moss and David Behrend and setup supermoto, motocross, flat track, mini motard, road race and street bike

I am a WERA and AFM racer with top 5 finishes in expert superstock/superbike classes on bikes that I build from scratch and I even won some championships on Ducati when I was a younger man.

I am starting this thread to help so let's get to work...

Click to expand...

I’m curious what your thoughts are on my setup.

I’m about 250-260 pounds in full riding gear.

I have essentially a 2020 V4S

I put 11.0 springs in my stock Ohlins forks, and a 110 lbs spring on my stock rear shock setup, that the highest Ohlins has for the rear.

I’m also about to put a linear shock mount lower link and a Pierobon swingarm extended by about 35 mm.

Looking at various aftermarket setups for both front forks and rear shock with appropriate spring rates and valving etc etc

What are your thoughts or recommendations?

roadracerx said:

@rikkie07 what tires are you running on the bike? Is this a base model? 100 N/m spring is fine. You ALWAYS want to start with a minimum of 10 mm of installed preload. That is measured from the free length of the spring.

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It's a base. Fork is standard. Shock installed preload is 12mm. Tires are Pirelli 120/70 and 200/60. Compound depends on tracktemp. and tracks. I always loose out on getting out of the corner, bike wants to run wide on exciting. What can I improve?

roadracerx said:

@bp_SFV4 no 5wt is the way to go. Are the "guys" that a re-valving fast?

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On the internet everyone is a A group all-star.

@rikkie07 set the shock length to 315 mm eye-to-eye extended, this should solve the running wide issue.

@Steven31371 I get that the Pieobon swingarm is cool but WHY are changing to this and is the person who is setting up the bike knowledgable? You mention your weight is 250-260 lbs with gear, right, but you are already using a 110 N/m shock spring (the highest Ohlins provides, right?). So if you EXTEND the swingarm this will require a stiffer shock spring because you have a longer lever, i.e. swingarm length, unless you try to maintain the same wheelbase.....but there would be no point in doing that. The longer swingarm will also put more weight on the front end, not necessarily a bad thing but everything affects everything.

Spring rates seem to be in the ballpark but many questions need answered for me to be able to tell if the bike is working well.....

What is your current geometry on the bike, i.e. fork ride height and shock length.

What are your bike and rider sag numbers front and rear?

What tires are you using?

Does the bike fight on corner entry or run wide on corner exit?

roadracerx said:

@Steven31371 I get that the Pieobon swingarm is cool but WHY are changing to this and is the person who is setting up the bike knowledgable? You mention your weight is 250-260 lbs with gear, right, but you are already using a 110 N/m shock spring (the highest Ohlins provides, right?). So if you EXTEND the swingarm this will require a stiffer shock spring because you have a longer lever, i.e. swingarm length, unless you try to maintain the same wheelbase.....but there would be no point in doing that. The longer swingarm will also put more weight on the front end, not necessarily a bad thing but everything affects everything.

Spring rates seem to be in the ballpark but many questions need answered for me to be able to tell if the bike is working well.....

What is your current geometry on the bike, i.e. fork ride height and shock length.

What are your bike and rider sag numbers front and rear?

What tires are you using?

Does the bike fight on corner entry or run wide on corner exit?

Click to expand...

I have a lot of mods on my bike, abs a lot of reduction in rotating mass.

ThysenKrupp CF wheels, Sicom Carbon ceramic Rotors, 520 sprocket and chain sets…with a 15/43 teeth sprocket final drive setup.

Also a lot of other weight reaction on the bike…in all I drop about 18 pounds of rotating mass off the bike while giving the bike while increasing the low and mid range effective torque numbers by about 13% via a more aggressive final drive gear ratio.

These upgrades made the bike pull my extra weight alot harder and made the bike handle like a flea flicking from side to side.

The side affects of losing all that rotating mass was that the bike lost ALOT of gyroscopic forces that, while making the bike funner to ride and turn in by simply thinking which direction you want to go, also made it less stable especially on high power pulls in a straight line or coming off curves, the more aggressive gearing also made it wheelie more….like alot lol.

For the front end I raised the triple clamp to the top of the forks, while lowering the rear ride height by 3-4 mm.

I also increased the fork springs to 11.0 and rear springs to a 110 to compensate for my weight, and I’m getting about 30 sag front and 30 rear (it won’t give me more.)

To stabilize the front end I put the IMA triple clamps with adjustable offset eccentrics and increased the trail using the offset eccentrics buy about 4 mm…this made the front end more stable, but reduced turn in but that’s fine because the turn in was REALLY aggressive with all that loss of gyroscopic forces. The bike is trying to go wide a bit more than I’d like on a very hard pull off an apex , but there is no front end shake or tank slapping.

There is that pesky wheelie problem though, hence the slightly longer Pierobon swingarm…it will mechanically reduce wheelie so I can use less anti wheelie to solve the issue….and I’m putting on the linear link.

Both of which require a stiffer rear spring than the strongest one Ohlins makes….I’m sure there are non-Ohlins springs with very close measurements to the Ohlins springs that are stiffer than Ohlins make, but then I think I may run into valving issues, as I suspect the reason Ohlins only goes up to a 110 nm spring is that’s what the valving on the TTX can handle.

So, I’m thinking I’m going to have to go with a Ktech of Gilles custom valved setup that also has higher rate springs available.


Alternately, I can just lose 50 pounds hahaha


Front shock travel is okay so far, but as I get more aggressive braking it’s getting closer to its limits of travel range but I still have some room to adjust the compression and damping

The problem I have right now is that to get that 110 nm spring to hold my big ass the 30 mm sag I have to crank the preload down so much that the bike is pretty harsh and a bit jarring on a big bump, though manageable

Diablo SuperCorsa tires.

@Steven31371 I am happy to help you sort the bike but a quick read of what you have done ..... it is clear to me you have gone in the wrong direction on a lot of things. My help will take a lot of time. Lmk, if you would like to hire me to help. I guarantee results.

roadracerx said:

@rikkie07 set the shock length to 315 mm eye-to-eye extended, this should solve the running wide issue.

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I will do that thanks. But on the datasheet i got with the shock there saying Lenght 310mm +4/-2 . So 315 would be out of range. When I remember correctly last time I had the shock out at 315mm lenght the safetymark on the thread of the ballbearing would be visible, so I wasn't sure if that's still OK then ?
Are my sag figures OK? I'm thinking of upgrating my forks with NIX 30 inserts. Would that be a good thing or is the showa BPF good enough?
I don't know if it helps, my laptimes are 15-20s of MotoGP laprecords on the same track.
Thanks for the pro advice.

Is it possible that the TTX GP DU468 specs are different for the US and the EU . On EU sites I find that lenght is 310mm +4/-2 and on US sites (SBU) it's 312mm +4/-8.
That makes a big difference in adjustability! I tough the geometry settings where the same , am I missing something here?

The only real way to get the correct specs on Ohlins shocks and forks is to get the serial number for your specific shock then call or message Ohlins.

Even if it’s the same model Ohlins releases different specs for the same model shock from one year to the next, from market to market, and bike model to bike model.