There’s only one way to ride an R6 fast – nail it like a two-stroke and plot smooth lines to carry crazy corner speeds. S’easy.

But the R6’s twitchy manner can make this riding style tyre-wall hazardous. Time to tame the tempestuous middleweight. Enter Jim’s longtermer.

The first session on the track proved the R6 had no major shortcomings in its setup, but near enough is never good enough for anyone. At least when it comes to bikes.

It had a weird tendency to shake its head while accelerating hard, especially over bumps. This is a known R6 trait, but it needn’t be this bad. The bike also tended to chatter and run wide slightly when pushed hard – the much chronicled R6 understeer.

To make the bike turn quicker we need to drop the forks through the yokes. This would make the bike even more twitchy, so we looked at stability. A suspension travel check showed both ends were bottoming out, so preload was increased front and back. This improved stability slightly but both ends were still bottoming, so we dialled in even more preload. By now the front end had 8 mm of spare travel, but the rear was still bottoming.

This was when a pattern emerged: as we increased rear spring preload the front end became more stable. This is a good example of a front end problem being down to the rear. Because the R6 power comes in with such a rush, the rear suspension was being fully compressed on hard acceleration. This left no spare travel, so when a bike hit a bump the suspension bottomed and set the front end shaking. Once we stopped the rear end bottoming the bike became stable enough to quicken the turn-in. (Note: as we increased the spring preload we increased the rebound damping to stop it returning too fast).

We dropped the yokes 10 mm to make the R6 steer quicker. When doing this always check for clearance between the fork lower and bottom yoke on full compression. This is very important because if they touch you will crash – we know from experience.

The bike now turned-in better and held tight lines, even on fast, flat turns, and remained stable and relatively predictable. After Gus and Trev gave the bike the thumbs up, it was off for the road session.

The bike felt as at home on the road as it had on the track so only tyre pressures were changed. When a pillion got on the bike stayed the same, but a larger pillion would require one more notch of rear preload.

Here is where to find all the adjusters on the R6 and how they work:

Sag is altered by changing the spring preload (more preload, less sag). Sag is the amount the suspension moves down from its fully extended position. Loaded sag is measured with the rider and bike’s weight combined and static sag is with the bike’s weight only.

Put a small cable tie around the fork stanchion. Then push it up against the dust seal with the bike upright. Next lift the front wheel off the ground and measure how far the forks travel down.

Measure the distance between the centre of the rear axle and a fixed point on the tailpiece. Next lift the rear of the bike and measure again. The difference between the two figures is your static sag. The bike should be on the ground, not on a paddock stand.

Measure as for static but instead of lifting the tail piece sit the rider on the bike and measure how far it moves. Add your static sag measurements to this to get your loaded sag measurement.

Count the number of rings exposed on the top of the forks and adjust by turning with a 17 mm spanner. Both forks must be set the same.

The R6 adjuster is very simple to set. With a C-spanner turn the top collar and note how many steps is has moved up. Maximum preload is with the collar set on the top step.

These control how fast the suspension travels down. The R6’s are to be found on the back of the fork lower and on the stock reservoir. Turning them all the way in will give maximum damping.

These control how fast the suspension travels down. At the front of the R6 they are found on the top of the forks. The rear is a disc found at the bottom of the stock shaft. Winding the adjuster up increases damping. Turning the front adjuster all the way in will give maximum damping.

This is easy to check out, and as we found, very important for ironing out problems. Use the cable tie on the forks and put another around the rear shock shaft. Slide them against the moving parts of the units, ride the bike (stoppies and wheelies will give a false reading) then check the travel. As a general rule, 5-10 mm from full compression is about right. Increasing the amount of spare travel and vice versa. If you can’t seem to get this right consult someone like Maxton (01928 740531). The spring weight or damping may be wrong for your situation.

These are very important and can dramatically change the way a bike behaves. They also need to be changed for track or road work (see chart for figures). This is to compensate for the different running temperatures of these situations.

The R6 doesn’t have adjustable steering head angles and no rear ride height adjuster. The only was to change it is by altering the fork height or the rear preload.

By increasing the amount the forks protrude through the top yoke the steering head angle can be reduced. This will make the bike steer quicker but reduce stability. On the R6 even small changes will make a huge difference to the bike’s handling. Don’t change this if you are having stability problems or if you aren’t confident about holding onto a bike that shakes its head.

This setup has the rear spring preload on the second from maximum position, so if you carry loads of weight or a large pillion regularly it would pay to fit a heavier rear spring. The R6 will still be lively to ride and landing the front wheel from high-speed wheelies can be scary. So if you ride your R6 hard, fit a steering damper. The R6 is a hardcore bike and any help to tame violent outbursts will increase your pleasure and reduce your pain.