So I managed to do some back-to-back testing with the current racebike and the 09 on Friday at the Creek. At the advice of Terry Hay (who I was asking for a heavier rear spring for the Matris), instead of changing springs I shortened the wheelbase a lot and switched to smaller sprockets to reduce the chain's angle of pull (which makes the rear setup more reliant on traction torque, meaning less load on the rear spring, combined with additional reduction in load from the shorter wheelbase). This markedly improved the handling of the bike, which had been slow and very heavy to turn.Originally Posted by Sicko
The Matris is a revelation! Aside from setting the sag, I haven't felt the need to touch a clicker from the supplied settings (and most of you would know how unusual that is for me!). In contrast, the TTX which I recently fitted to the 2013 bike - and I had been raving about how good it was (after trying 3 different spring rates) - felt wallowy and uncontrolled. It was a clear, distant 2nd to the Matris.
The OEM Ohlins is fairly good in these bikes, although not for hard race use. The Sachs forks are fantastic, but the rear shock is very disappointing. I've recently completely rebuilt, revalved and resprung a Sachs rear shock (including a RaceTech rebound separator valve etc) and it was a vast improvement but still not as good as the OEM Ohlins. Even the OEM Ohlins falls well short of the TTX, which in turn falls well short of the Matris!
I'm still getting my head around the fact that the R6 is a very 'front-end' bike, whereas the RSV4 is clearly extremely 'rear-end'.
I also replaced the fork springs with a 1.075 combo, which greatly improved the front. The 09 is now being let down by front end geometry, so I'll be on the lookout for some replacement steering head angle insert thingies. It seems they were changed by Aprilia in the later model bikes for a good reason!
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