V2 - Initial Sag Measurements

Here's what I got with a hot suspension after a 40-mile ride:

Front

Fully extended with wheel off the ground: 130 mm from the dust seal / slider joint down to the axle casting

Bike's weight only: 97 mm averaged from the dust seal / slider joint down to the axle casting

Adding my weight: 80 mm averaged from the dust seal / slider joint down to the axle casting

Conclusions:
1. The owner's manual says that the travel is 120 mm. And so bottoming out would be 10 mm above the casting.
2. The weight of the bike only is dropping the fork 33 mm from the fully-extended position or 27.5% of the 120 mm of travel.
3. Adding my weight is dropping the fork 50 mm from the fully-extended position or 41.6% of the 120 mm of travel.
4. The difference between the bike's sag and rider's sag is 17 mm.
5. The total difference between the fully-extended position to rider's weight is 50 mm, and so I need to add preload.


Rear

Fully extended with wheel off the ground: 655 mm

Bike's weight only: 645 mm (consistent with no averaging needed)

Adding my weight: 614 mm averaged

Conclusions:
1. The owner's manual says that the travel is 130 mm.
2. The weight of the bike only is dropping the rear 10 mm from the fully-extended position or 7.7% of the 130 mm of travel.
3. Adding my weight is dropping the rear 41 mm from the fully extended position or 31.5% of the 130 mm of travel.
4. The difference between the bike's sag and the rider's sag is 31 mm.
5. The total difference between the fully-extended position to rider's weight is 41 mm; however, the rear feels stiff to me as is.

Final note: I'm running the tires at 34 pounds cold with the above figures.

I'm open to suggestions as I try to dial things in, and I'm very new to adjusting the suspension. I've watched a lot of videos but I'm still figuring things out. Riding is on mountain roads and I don't track it. Thank you!

have you opened the compression screws yet? you can slide the o-ring on the rear shock to check maximum travel.

i'm 160 with garb and took two turns out of the rear. i don't brake much so the front is at 5 clicks.

So I turned up the preload on the front from the recommended 7 turns in to 9, then 12, then 15, then 16. My rider sag stayed at 80 mm but the bike sag moved up progressively from 97 mm to 115 mm as I made the adjustments. That seemed weird to me. Can anyone explain that?

Ultimately I went back to the standard settings in the manual but dropped the rebound in the rear by three clicks and the rear felt more planted. I also set the rear cold pressure to 32 pounds and left the front at 34.

How much do you weigh? If you added all your preload and it’s still sagging that much you need a stiffer spring rate. 50mm at full preload is way too soft your your weight. Compression and rebound will do nothing for your sag, that’s all spring rate and preload.

I took two turns of preload out of the rear shock because it feels like to wants to launch me over bumps. I now have 10 mm of free sag from fully extended in the rear and 40 mm of rider sag from fully extended in the rear.

I’m going to try that for a bit and see how it feels.

The front is still a mystery to me. The free sag in the front goes from 130 mm fully extended to about 95 to 97 mm under the bike’s own weight. Why is the free sag on the front at about 32 to 35 mm? Is that normal?

The free sag on the front is that much because of the strength of the spring. If you want the sag to be less then try swapping to a stronger set of fork springs.
Best guess is Ducati made it that way intentionally, but would be to soft for my preference.

Thanks for the input - I appreciate it.