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I am going to a BMW club track day in a few weeks and I have decided to use that day to try dial in my suspension settings. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea of what I am doing. I havn't touched them since I bought the bike three years ago. I have been happy with the ride, but maybe it's beacause I don't know any better.

I just went out now and turned the screws for the first time to see where is was set. Both were about 1 1/2 full turns (540deg) from full hard. They had a little under 4 full turns of adjustment.

My questions are:

1. Is there a given measurement anywhere that I should use to set preload?

2. I have seen in previous threads discussing damping adjustments the terms "click" and "turn". Do these mean 180 or 360 degree turns of the screw?

3. Should I start at a full hard or full soft setting? My initial feeling was to set in the middle, but then I would be guessing if it needed to be harder or softer. I figured if it was set in either direction I only had to keep making it harder or softer untill it felt right.

4. That brings me to the biggest question. What should I be looking or feeling for that tells me it is too hard or too soft?

Any help is appreciated.

Hi
I found a bike mag site (which I can't remember...) which said the best settings they found were:

Rebound front and back..all the way in one turn (360) back out.
Preload all the way in 4 (360) turns out

I think 1 click on the rebound is 360.

As for what you should look for..well it's down to feel, how it feels to you. If it gives you confidence in the tyre, grip, turn in etc it's set up right for you. Everyone has a different set of parameters especially on the track so I'd say start of with the settings above and tweak one thing at a time till it feels right. DON'T move two settings at once or you'll never know what caused the change you felt. Sorry it's not a quick fix but I found those settings made my bike feel better on our crappy roads in the UK!

The settings my shop's suspension doctor set on my bike was 2 turns out from lightly seated front and rear. It may be 1.5 turns if your shocks are well used.

The purpose of the rebound adjustment is to prevent the suspension from "pogo-ing" (continue bouncing) -or- "packing" (rebounding so slowly that multiple bumps will almost fully compress the suspension). In either case, it does not provide stability in a corner, especially a bumpy one. The most dangerous is too much damping (0.25 turn) because in a bumpy corner, either tire will leave the road surface and slide out (a low-side accident). Too loose (4 turns) will be like a bucking bronco and just scare you to the realization that it needs to be set to something else.

The TeleLever/ParaLever suspension also doesn't seem to play by the same laws of physics as telescopic forks and conventional swingarms do. At first, my susspension Doc was baffled by the TeleLever's normal setting of 50% sack in the front end. Then found out that trying to static bounce the front forks by rolling the bike and stuffing the front brake was near impossible. It doesn't dive!! Damping was set by ensuring that after a difficult to do but rapid compression, the suspension extends QUICKLY back to the "at rest" position WITHOUT BOUNCING. The idea is to start loose (3.5 Turns) and go in by 1/4 turns until there is NO top-out bounce. Once it is shop set by a pro (that's YOU now) you should resist/avoid making hot pit changes unless you are the official BMW race team pit crew or know what you're doing. The most common mistake made is allowing trackside "know-it-alls" to turn your properly set setting screws -and- riders with no suspension experience or info like I have just listed, dialing in too much rebound compression. The tires MUST follow the road surface or you will hit pavement before the day is out. Track day tire pressures are numbers I do not know and that's an area that can dramatically affect how the bike handles. Play with those if the bike isn't confidently stable.

To make the bike eager to "fall-in" to a corner, add the maximum rear pre-load, ride it, then back it off (or NOT) 1 turn at a time to a setting that feels right for your weight load (bags) and type of riding.

When everything is right, you can effortlessly, uneventfully, confidently blast thru bumpy corners so fast that it will give the poser SportBike riders behind you the scare of their life.