sky_sailor wrote:Dumb question. How would these improve/change the handling characteristics of the bike?
Lyle
Primarily by providing better control of the bike's suspension. If all roads were totally smooth, and all curves were without undulations in them - you'd need no suspension. As soon as you start throwing bumps, off-camber curves, curves with undulations and bumps in them, you are asking the suspension to isolate the rider and mass of the bike from the changes the wheels are travelling over.
The biggest change I've always found has been comfort, followed by handling. The comfort is achieved by more closely matching the damping characteristics of the suspension to my body/bike weight combo.. and allowing for modifying this if the body/bike weight (aka mass) changes. BMW designs the bike's suspension around an ideal rider weight - which I suspect is much less then most of us old men riding the things are. When you increase the mass (weight) on the suspension (with your body weight, loaded-bike weight) the control isn't as good, and comfort suffers (primarily, and this isn't intuitive - by bottoming out of the suspension.) BMW provides minimal adjustable control to compensate - the preload adjuster and rebound adjuster on the rear shock. Used correctly - they CAN help.
Handling - also is enhanced when the mass the suspension is controlling is better controlled. Going into a turn, your suspension tends to compress.. then decompress as you come out of the curve (due to centrifigal force.) Making the compression and decompression more controlled (ie - smoother) helps moderate load forces on the tire, providing a more uniform grip and feeling of control for the rider.
Will everyone notice the difference? Probably not. I know one ex-rider, older chap, who raced a bit, did long distance riding, etc who rants and raves about all the fools spending money on aftermarket suspension. Only thing is - he never experienced a good aftermarket suspension setup for him. There are also people who are so out of tune with their bikes that any changes in handling simply go unnoticed..
This is a case of YMMV - and lots of the variation depends on how well matched to YOU the aftermarket suspension is.. either by design, or by skilled tuning of it after it's installed on the bike.
