Spring preload is independent of oil level. Adding oil makes the air gap smaller effectively increasing the spring rate in the bottom end of the fork stroke. It likely won’t affect sag numbers at all but would make bottoming out less likely. It’s possible that your oil level is below what it’s supposed to be. On my 04 10R I had 35mm of front sag but +10mL of oil in each fork. The slightly softer spring provided the supple ride that the Dunlops like and the extra fork oil provided the extra stiffness I needed on the brakes. YMMV.
If you don’t know for sure what your sag numbers were to begin with I would say that is what you need to check first. Without knowing what your baseline set-up is there’s not much we can do and nor do we even know where to start.
For what it’s worth, you’re more likely to bottom out doing stoppies on the street (like you were doing) than I am when hard on the brakes, dropping 3 gears, at the end of a straight. You’re grabbing a fist full of brake to pop the rear up whereas I’m progressively loading the front but only to the extent that I can keep the rear from wandering around during downshifts.
Back from the first service with $50 and 20cc of 5W fork oil top up. It worked. I have been thrashing the bike around town for a full day now and not having the bottoming out anymore, nor too rapid an initial dive.
I am still on max preload but am now able to set it back to "Sport Mode" with 20 out of 31 clicks for front preload. So the top end of compression is supple and absorbs the little bumps with out rattling my eyeballs, and I haven't bottomed out yet!
I got about 3 zip ties worth of travel in the forks. I'm gonna toss a couple mini endos in there later today to see if I can bottom out, but it seems the fork oil top up did the trick!!!
Ducati rep will also see if complaints are made about soft suspension in the Cali geneal meeting next week. If a number of complains have come in, Ducati may pay up for new springs, aparently as they had done once for rear springs on Multistradas one year.
If I am the only dude moaning out there, then my dealer will soften the blow on me should I opt for 105 springs.
All in all a good productive session. The mech was skeptical of if the oil would work, but then again he wasn't able to repoduce the same bottoming out I was. It was hot and he didn't have his leathers to push the bike, so kind of faffed about in his t-shirt. So in the end, he wasn't sure why I was bottoming out, and wasn't sure if the oil would solve the problem he wasn't sure about in the first place.
I asked him to try it for me first for peace of mind, before we took a bigger step for springs. He did, and it appears to have worked!
Now I'll go on a 20lbs diet and wring even more performance out of the Pani!
On a side note, GP Bikes were suppurb and afforded me oodles of attention and consideration and also allowed me to take the KTM RC8R for a boot while I waited.
It reinforced a couple things:
1) I love the Pani so damn much! I wouldnt have traded it for the RC8R for anything...even with cash back! And the RC8R was one of my top 3 for consideration!
2) The front end of the RC8R (brakes aside) was exaaaaaactly how I knew a front end should feel! Now that I got my Pani feeling that way I am over the moon. The RC8R's monoblock brembos lack initial scrub off power the the new 2 pot Pani's Brembos have, and I wasn't too impressed. Nor did I feel that "on / off" nature or rumor associated with previous monoblock Brembos
The RC8R is a great bike, and in my opinion more comfy and better for the city riding, but also lacks punch and excitement that I would expect from a V-Twin. The Pani is raw and wild, but not overkill with Torque in the low revs, and can be mellowed with the electronics.
The RC8R is however lacking in electronics and mellowed out mechanically, which means no raw or soft option....just kinda bland in the middle.
But the Pani is a thigh scorching, crotch and hand numbing monster that excites me, quite literally the way my first bike (1988 FZ600) did, the first day I opened the throttle (uninsured, at night with my M1, and all of 3 days riding experience). The Pani brought back that feeling. I only felt that one other time when I switched from a 600 commuter to a 600R. The leap from the ZX10R to the Pani was that substantial.
So...I can see why some might be selling their Panis...if they wanted all out power bragging rights against the S1000R, or if the bike melts their thighs, or if the low rev torque isn't as much as the 1198s. But once broken in, the engine loves high revs and the power is truly awesome. Handles like the Aprilia they say too!
PS...love GP Bikes!!!! Service and Salespeople are the best I have ever experienced! BMW dealership by the DVP is damn awesome too...but for cars. Don't know how they are on the bike level.
