Soft / Normal / Sport

[craigjv4]

I can absolutely feel the difference between soft, normal and hard settings on my GS. I set it up and adjust it the exact same as 58058D - 1 helmet + luggage. I leave it at this setting but change between soft, normal, and hard all the time depending on the road and how I'm riding.

I eventually upgraded to Ohlins on all my sport bikes and my dedicated track bike. Yes, the suspension performance was great especially after riding 2 years on the stock GSXR 750 (track bike) and then upgrading to Ohlins front and rear. But the springs were dialed in for my weight, fine tuned for high/low speed rebound and compression damping, and road use or track use.

With the GS, my load changes from full packed luggage to the weight of running a few errands around town to me solo riding. While the suspension is probably not perfect in every condition, it certainly works great across the entire usage profile. I'm very pleased with BMW's suspension and love the on-the-fly adjustability.

For me, on the K1300S, I would set the spring at One helmet + Luggage for my solo riding, with no luggage weight. Depending on the road I was on for my commute, I toggled between all three damping settings. For the rough sections I was in either soft or normal if I felt like a spirited ride. For smooth roads in the twisties, definitely I was in Sport mode. Sport mode for Track use. Freeways, normal or soft depending on the quality of the road again. Riding two up, with no luggage, I used the 2 helmets + Luggage, never road 2 up with luggage, so I did not need the extra spring on that. The spring provides the support neccesary for the forces the bike (and you) are experiencing, the damping adjustments determine how rapidly the shock is allowed to react to an impact/bump, etc.

On the K1300S, there was a significant difference in all these settings. Are they superior to aftermarket dialed in properly? Absolutely NOT. However, for me, they were very 'reasonable' settings and I was able to work with them. They were Very convenient. That is the real key, convenient.
YMMV

 

[d martin]

Search ESA on K1600 Forum

http://www.k1600forum.com/forum/bmw...ping-vs-electronic-suspension-adjustment.html

 

[52184]

Suspension response should impact handling.

Personally, have I found the ESA to be of value? No. It's a mediocre quality shock with an electronic farkle that seems to function erratically. Sadly, that farkle limits the owner to only one replacement option at this time. IMHO, a good aftermarket shock without the farkle would be significantly better.

^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^

I have replaced the OEM shocks on my K13GT with HyperPro shocks, with the ESA bits transferred to the HP shocks. All done by Klaus at EPM Performance Imports. They had a rally special at Bozeman that I could not resist, Klaus and company have been great to work with, and the shocks are better than OEM and infinitely rebuildable. So, I qualify as a satisfied customer.

Having said that, if I were doing it over again I'd skip ESA and buy a pair of fully adjustable HP shocks and start dialing them in. Here's why:

1. Sorry, BMW, but the design of the Duolever contains an inherent harshness, a lack of suppleness that shocks can't fix. Just stick a fork on it...

2. Now that we have that out of the way, the root problems with ESA are that you can't set the baselines, and can't set the degree or amount of adjustment that is applied to preload or damping rates at each setting.

So, you're stuck with whatever baseline and steps the engineering department decided would be useful for the average size/weight rider exercising average skills on that model bike under average conditions. If you and your riding fit nicely within the design parameters you think ESA is better than sliced bread. If you fall outside the parameter window then you don't find much utility in the ESA functionality and would rather not spend the money for ESA but instead put it toward good aftermarket suspension. Unfortunately, getting a non-ESA/DESA version of many of the new models is difficult or impossibile.

IMHO, of course...
DG