STARK
Use your real riding load
The spring table places Soft at 65–75 kg, Medium at 75–90 kg and Hard at 90–100 kg. Do not use body weight alone if you normally ride with armour, a backpack and tools.
Weigh or estimate the complete load you place on the bike. Added equipment can move you into the next range, and starting with the wrong spring makes clicker changes less useful.
If your total sits near a boundary, terrain and pace also matter. Bajamoto establishes a baseline from rider mass, experience and usual trails rather than choosing from the weight table in isolation.
Change one setting, then ride
Write down the starting position before touching an adjuster. Make one change at a time and test it on familiar ground, where you can separate the effect of the adjustment from changes in terrain.
Turning clockwise adds compression damping or slows rebound. Turning counter-clockwise does the opposite. Keep both fork legs on identical compression and rebound settings; an unmatched fork is not a valid tuning experiment.
Use small, recorded steps. If the result is worse, return to the baseline instead of compensating with several more changes at once.
Diagnose before making everything harder
Bottoming, kicking, diving or poor grip can point riders toward the same instinctive response: add damping everywhere. That can hide the real cause and leave the motorcycle less settled.
Check the spring choice, sag and mechanical condition first. Then decide whether compression or rebound is the parameter that needs attention. A methodical approach gives you a repeatable setup instead of a collection of unrecorded clicks.
Safety-critical suspension work should be handled by an experienced technician. This is particularly important when the issue may be mechanical rather than a normal external adjustment.
Keep the KYB service schedule visible
Bleed the fork after every ride with the fork fully extended. This is part of routine care, not a setup change, and should be completed consistently.
Fork oil is due at 15 hours or 12 months. At 40 hours or 12 months, both fork and shock require service.
Record the hours and dates alongside your baseline settings. When the suspension’s behaviour changes, that record helps distinguish a setup question from maintenance that has reached its scheduled interval.
