So...Just got my 09 1200GS and loving it. My question is--what are the differences with the ESA settings between sport, comfort, regular and all that? Can anybody really feel much of a change between them while riding? Does the ride height go up and down? Becomes more stiff for sport possibly? Cool feature, I guess I havnt been riding the bike long enough to notice any differences yet. :huh
There is a marked difference between comfort, normal and sport settings on my 2011 GSA. Go look for a bad piece of road and ride up and down it in the different settings. You will the change. On mine the ride height goes up by 15mm in the "small mountain" setting and up by 25mm in the "big mountain" setting. When you then sellect the single helmet, it should all drop down to normal ride height. I normally ride in comfort mode, single helmet but when the twisty stuff comes it goes over to sport to stiffen up the damping etc. Hope it helps!
I have an 09 GSA. There is not much difference in feel between Comfort, Sport and Normal settings. They are just rebound on our bikes so when the shock compress it is the same feel, but how quickly it returns to "center" or rebounds it what changes. So if you hit a speed bump, for instance, the initial bump will be the same, but in comfort if won't tend to bounce you back up as much as sport would. I tend to run comfort most of the time and switch to sport when the road gets twisty. As far as the preload settings, I'm about 200 pounds (a little over BMW's standard "normal" person) so the single rider feels a little soft in the back, but I like it. If you really want to get a better feel in the twisties then switch to the next setting, one rider with luggage, and the extra preload will stiffen the suspension. It will raise the bike up though. This partially compresses the spring and makes if feel stiffer, but doesn't affect how the shock reacts. The 2011 ESA is different and actually does affect both rebound and compress from what I understand. So that is probably why the first responder says he notices the differences alot. Hope that helps.
If you do most of your riding on the superslab you might not notice a big difference. On my 2009 12GS I select normal setting and 1 helmet with luggage. Feels the best to me. Not too soft or hard, kinda like Goldilocks I guess! I also figure that part of the fun of a new bike is trying the different settings to see what I like! Congrats and good luck.
1 helmet with luggage/comfort for city riding here in Mexico the I change to sport on twisty roads and normal on pay roads (highways) 6'2" 195 lbs.
