Suspension advice: My bike seems to 'flop' into corners

Q. My Honda CB1100R has a tendency to flop into corners although I fitted a new rear shock recently.

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I’ve checked the head bearings for play and set the tyre pressures. Is there anything else to check?

Cliff Freeman, email
 
A. It sounds like the forks are too soft and when you’re coming off the throttle and braking for a bend the front is diving down fast which steepens up the front-end geometry so that it steers a lot quicker for the same input from you.

This will give the impression that it’s falling into bends. Check the front sag is 30mm by wrapping a tie wrap around a fork leg, lift the front up so that the suspension is fully extended, then let the weight of the bike settle on the suspension and see how much travel has been used up.

Chances are you’ll be looking at 50% of the available travel gone before you even put your weight on the bars.