Field Test: Touratech EVO Suspension - BMW R1250GS

[@Stcprgl]

thank you so much for the review / test. There is not much video about the EVO. May I know what was the settings of compression front and rear for the second half of the video (national park off raod)? What compression settings would you set up for front and rear for a tarmac with full of potholes and you're riding relatively fast (say 60-70 mph)? And if you would go much slower the compression setting numbers would decrease or increase? I've got the same set for 2018 R12GS and not really getting the behaviour logic of the suspension related to the equation of speed of the bike and speed of the bump (fast/low compression). Would appreciate any help

[@TouratechUSA]

The guys were experimenting a lot with the manual clicker and found they each had different preferences on base settings. The common response was that they preferred a firmer setting (higher number) for street riding and a softer setting (lower number) for dirt riding. One rider preferred a softer setting on the front than the rear in both cases. The guys used Dynamic Pro on the road and Enduro Pro for the unpaved riding. We just took the bike on a 1000+ mile unpaved ride and found that 3-4 on the front and 4-6 on the rear was just right. We did turn the shocks up to a 7 in the front and a 9 in the rear when going fast and catching air to keep the bike riding higher in the stroke but any higher than that and it was too harsh over embedded rocks. That's great info for off-road settings. On these bikes, the electronics are adjusting the damping characteristic by altering the oil bypassing the piston hundreds of times every second. The manual adjuster is a compression adjustment that restricts the oil that is passing into the reservoir when the shock compresses. The manual adjuster setting is much more noticeable the bigger the bumps you are hitting. When you are thinking about about high speed vs low speed the suspension only cares about 'shaft speed' meaning the rate at which the wheels are moving up and down. Square edge bumps (like potholes) are going to be your highest shaft speed , rolling bumps or undulations in corners are going to be your slowest shaft speed. The telelever on the front of these bikes will never be great over square edged bumps because of the anti-dive built into it's geometry. The front wheel travels forward while it goes up (that's anti-dive). For example, no amount of suspension tuning will make the front wheel absorb riding up a curb onto the sidewalk like a telescoping fork will. That's one of the trade-offs to make the GS such a fantastic touring bike.