Yamaha YZF1000R Thunderace Setup

From: Performance Bike Magazine Article

 

 

Thunderace not handling as well as you think it should? All the boys on the latest bikes

having to wait for you at every roundabout? If you spend all your time in the Little Chef nappy

changing area when you're out on a breakfast run listen-up Thunderace kids.

Help is at hand... Thunderaces are heavy old chaps by today's slimline standards, but they

can still just about cut it with the best of the new kids on your block if you set them up properly.

 

The bike we are using has a pretty representative 14,500 miles on it and is in good nick.

We gave the bike a general look over before naffing off to Donington Park for a track day

Mission: to get in the way the experts while finding the required settings to make the Thunderace

a sweeter handler. We put all the suspension adjustment back to the stock positions and took it

out for some tentative laps. And tentative they were -just bouncing the front end while the bike was

stationery made you feel sick. It mayas well not have any suspension damping at all.

It didn't take us long to find the standard setup's limits. The bike was wallowing badly through

Schwantz Curve Gust after the Old Hairpin) and dragging its hero blobs almost everywhere.

It lacked feel at both ends and turned-in like a Harley Fat Boy. Mid-corner it was a handful too:

All it took was a breath on the throttle and the rear would squat, unweighting the front tyre and

letting the bike plough to the outside of corners. It's a shame really, because the engine is a joy and

the frame as strong as an ox. Back in the pits, we noticed the tyres were looking really

battle-scarred, even though they'd only done ten laps. They where ripping away in chunks, a clear

sign the tyre was being over­worked by badly set-up suspension.

 

We started the treatment by adding two steps of spring preload to the rear shock, and upped the

compression four clicks while the rebound was upped three clicks. The tie-wrap we always attach

to the forks to indicate the travel used had buried itself in the yoke, so we knew all the travel

was being used. The forks got similar treatment to the shock. We turned the spring preload

adjusters in another ring, the compression was upped five clicks and the rebound damping

got six clicks added. The hero blobs came off and we went out for another session.

The bike now, at least, looked like it wasn't a fish out of water We managed to pass a few people

and got the tyres up to a respectable temperature without ripping the hell out of them.

The YZF wasn't decking out quite as much now, but we noticed the aluminium end-can had touched

down in a couple of places.

 

There were complaints the bike took a lot of time to settle after you turned it into a corner and

someone mumbled: " Man, this thing doesn't let me know what it's doing. I'm not sure if the front

is tucking or sticking as the bike turns. It sort of floats." Translated, this means it lacks feedback.

So, we added more compression damping front and back to hopefully stop the floating feeling.

We added a step on the rear spring and hoped that it would be enough as the there was only

one position left to use.

 

Back on track, the bike was reborn. It was hooking up and going good enough that a couple

of the R1 track-type geezers had to come up to check what we were doing.

They were quite upset that we'd managed to run around the outside of them at Maclean's and

then hold them off down the straight all the way to the braking point (Oh Pete, you're such a hero -ed).

And brake the Thunderace does. It was the first bike to get the Sumitomo calipers that have graced

Yamaha's sportsbike range ever since. They are among the best out there and, although we noted

some fade, they still had the power to get the big Yam stopped lap in, lap out.

 

On the road, the track settings where a bit harsh on the arse but the bike turned so much better

that we found ourselves putting up with it. The Thunderace might not be the choice of

steed for, say, a Superstock race, but with careful tweaking you'll never be last to the Little Thief.

Oh yeah, and it'll do all that two-up sports touring stuff too if you really want it to

 

ENGINE TUNING

The Thunderace has a torquey, bullet-proof motor that will top 165mph on a good day. It benefits

from a jetting kit, end-can and a day on the dyno to sort out the fuelling. But don't forget

it has the patented EX UP exhaust valve (and only five gears,so the ratios are well-spaced)

so don't replace it with a full system that does away with the thing.

EX UP uses a butterfly valve in the collector pipe that alters back pressure and gives

more bottom end power while not robbing the upper rev­ range of its peak power prowess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1  First step is to get it on with some rear           

preload. We ended up one step off max

­leaving 5mm of static sag

 

 

 

2 Rear rebound damping is dialled to within

three clicks of max -three up from where we started fiddling with it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Four clicks added at the easy-to-get-at rear

compression adjuster. The final setting was

within two clicks of maximum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4        The front end was super-soft to start with,

burying the stanchions into the sliders. 30mm

of static sag, had things moving in the...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5        ...right direction. This was achieved by winding the preload

adjusters in until just two of the indicator rings were showing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6        Upping compression damping slows the rate

of the fork dive. Peter, the one who interferes with toothy rodents, settled on four...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7  ...clicks off max. When it came to rebound damping, PB's very own caribou-shagger

was happy at seven clicks from max

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8  Get a spod to lift the bike's arse and measure between

 a fixed point at the spindle and one on the tailpiece

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9  Now let the bike settle and re-measure.

The measured difference is your 'static sag'.

In this case it is merely 5mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10  If you do any major tampering with rear ride height,

make sure you check the chain is still tensioned correctly afterwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11    You'll be wasting your time if you try to get your bike handing

 all proper like with the Wrong pressures in them there black things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12     The end result of Moose Boy's endeavors.

 Nice even effects, but could be a bit cleaner -just like his DVDs

 

 

 

 

 

 

            YZF1000R Suspension Baseline Settings:

           

            FRONT

 

            Static Sag:                    30 mm

            Compression:                5 clicks off of max

            Rebound:                      7 clicks off of max

            Preload:                        2 lines showing

            Tyre Pressure:               33 psi (track) 35psi (road)

 

 

            REAR

 

            Static Sag:                    5 mm

Compression:                2 clicks off of max

Rebound:                      3 clicks off of max

Tyre Pressure:               35 psi (track) 37 psi (road)