I gotta be honest here. I'm pretty heavy. Most days I'd go on the far side of 275 nekkid. I've read everything I can find on this forum regarding suspension settings. It's not easy, because even the sticky threads just meander around and get hijacked over and over. There's the spreadsheet, which of course I've printed out. And there are the "golden" settings for pre-load, which NOBODY seems to be able to agree upon. 15, 11, 16, 14mm on the sheet, but then other "experts" say they run 6-7mm, and weigh under 200. When somebody of greater weight asks what we should do, there are several types of reply, mostly along the lines of "lose 50 lbs", "lose 100 lbs" (thanks for all of you sensitive types), and the ever sincere "use the 2-up settings". Really? Does anyone really think that a 300 lb rider, sitting up against the tank and leaning over the handlebars has weight distribution ANYTHING like two 150 lb people on the same bike? (only if the passenger is sitting on the driver's shoulders). So again I have come up empty handed. My front pre-load was at 10mm. I don't remember how it got that way, maybe the dealer's prep-man took a look at me and said "better crank up the suspension for this fat slob". Maybe I was having problems with nose-dive and bottoming out on bumps and cranked it down there myself. Either way, it was with much nervousness that I followed the 2-up chart and tried to get it up to 14mm. I'm no racer, don't do track days, and my goal here is to make the bike as safe and stable in the corners as possible. Harsh ride is not to big of an issue for me, and I never have a passenger. Rear pre-load was way soft, about 4 turns in.
So, I finally settled on my own compromise mix: Front preload 12.5mm, Front dampening 3 clicks from all-in. Rear preload 22 clicks from all-out, dampening 1.25 turns from all-in. I'll try this weekend to see how it feels, but I'm not sure I'll even know what to feel for.
Gotta go for now, Domino's is at my door, and I like my three large surpreme pizzas nice and hot. Till later...