3rd Gen ES Suspension Problems Poll

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How do you feel your suspension is wearing?

  • Still as good as new.

    Votes: 85 87.6%
  • I can tell it is wearing-in / changing but still feels good.

    Votes: 9 9.3%
  • Starting to degrade but no need to do anything yet.

    Votes: 2 2.1%
  • Degarding and I'm going to be looking for repair options soon.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It's pretty well shot and I need to find a solution now

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I have already replaced part or parts of the ES suspension due to wear.

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Total voters
    97

Fred W

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So, here we are, three years since the release of the 3rd Gen FJR with Electronic Suspension (ES). I can't recall hearing a single report of anyone having a problem with it. This seems rather strange considering the electro-mechanical complexity of the system.

The ES has its own dedicated Suspension Control Unit (SCU), a stepper motor for the rebound and compression damping adjustment on top of the two upside down fork legs, a stepper for the (combined) compression/rebound damping of the rear shock, and another servo motor for the rear shock preload / ride height. There are also interlocks and conditions for when the suspension can be adjusted.

We in the FJR community tend to be a hard riding bunch, and most ride more miles per year than the average motorcyclist. In three years there have to be a fair number of people that have ridden their ES bikes far enough that one would have expected conventional suspensions to be getting a bit tired and lacking in their performance by now, but I can't recall anyone reporting that they have tried to rebuild, refresh, or replace their ES suspension yet, not even under warranty.

Time to take a poll and see what others are seeing. I personally have 25k miles on my '14 ES and it still feels like the day I picked it up. No problems of any kind to report here except for the time when some dummy (me) left the connector off of one of the fork legs. Doh!

In case you were wondering, when you unplug any of the adjustment motors the ES Suspension Adjustment is completely in-operative, so replacing the rear shock with its two motors with some sort of an aftermarket unit someday down the road would seem to be a major challenge. But I guess we can discuss that some day down the road when we actually find we need to replace something.
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Since my 15ES is new to me, I chose less than 25K miles. (I have about 3300 miles on it so far since picking it up in late January.)

I would also comment that the suspension is better than my 04 that had a Penske and stiffer springs in the forks.

 
nice.. I love my GenII, but this is a great survey. I immediately questioned what the value of an ES would be, if many people were unhappy with Yamaha's OEM suspension anyway? If it underwhelmed you, the cost to upgrade would be pretty high.

Looking forward to the results.

 
nice.. I love my GenII, but this is a great survey. I immediately questioned what the value of an ES would be, if many people were unhappy with Yamaha's OEM suspension anyway? If it underwhelmed you, the cost to upgrade would be pretty high. Looking forward to the results.
My last bike was a c14 with traxxion ak20 and a penske 8983. My forks were done every 20k miles, shock rebuilt every 40k miles. If the feedback i received on the es from guys who had ridden on suspension and went to an es, everyone was very pleased with it. I agree, only have about 6k miles on my 16 but very pleased with it.

Also on the fly adjustment is amazing, it by far was the biggest selling point to me,

 
I have one of the oldest es bikes at three years and four months old and over 46k miles, I have not had any issues. I change my suspension settings all the time and have not seen any problems with any of the electronics.

 
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I have one of the oldest es bikes at three years and four months old and over 46k miles, I have not had any issues. I change my suspension settings all the time and have not seen any problems with any of the electronics.
has the fork oil been changed for maintenance ??

 
I have one of the oldest es bikes at three years and four months old and over 46k miles, I have not had any issues. I change my suspension settings all the time and have not seen any problems with any of the electronics.
has the fork oil been changed for maintenance ??
Yes, at 46k miles I changed the seals and oil. Oil wasn't in bad shape and seals didn't leak but were changed for preventative maintenance.

 
I have one of the oldest es bikes at three years and four months old and over 46k miles, I have not had any issues. I change my suspension settings all the time and have not seen any problems with any of the electronics.
has the fork oil been changed for maintenance ??
Yes, at 46k miles I changed the seals and oil. Oil wasn't in bad shape and seals didn't leak but were changed for preventative maintenance.

How about the bushings? At 46k I would think they would be ready for relpacement.

 
Maybe the upside down forks put less stress on the bushings......ff
That would be my guess, especially the bushing that is at the end of the fork tube (referred to as upper bushing on inverted forks, lower bushing on conventional forks). In fact, the C14 inverted forks do not have a upper bushing and the lower bushing (just above the fork seal) is considered to be a lifetime part and Kawasaki does not show a replacement in the parts fiche. The seals can be changed without removing the bushing.

 
No bushings in the es forks to replace! Bushings are embedded in the fork tube. When we inspected the fork assembly, there is no play.

 
No bushings in the es forks to replace! Bushings are embedded in the fork tube. When we inspected the fork assembly, there is no play.
Interesting....but I'm not sure how bushings can be embedded in the fork tube unless you are referring to the outer/upper tube assembly. Did you take any pictures?

 
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No bushings in the es forks to replace! Bushings are embedded in the fork tube. When we inspected the fork assembly, there is no play.
Interesting....but I'm not sure how bushings can be embedded in the fork tube. Did you take any pictures?
Ray took pics and will write-up a how to. The bushings are attached to the inside of the larger (black) fork tube and are not designed to be user replaceable.

 
No bushings in the es forks to replace! Bushings are embedded in the fork tube. When we inspected the fork assembly, there is no play.
Interesting....but I'm not sure how bushings can be embedded in the fork tube. Did you take any pictures?
Ray took pics and will write-up a how to. The bushings are attached to the inside of the larger (black) fork tube and are not designed to be user replaceable.
That's good news and probably explains why the oil in inverted forks stays so clean (and seems to last so long). Looking forward to Ray's write up.

 
Only done 14000-odd miles on my AS that has the suspension of the ES.

Had one "problem", a reluctance to change damping, left me soft when I wanted hard. This was a one-off occasion, at a time when my YCC-S was showing an issue, I suspect there may have been a communications issue between the various computers, not directly the suspension itself. Not done enough miles since (other things taking priority) to be sure there will be no recurrence.

 
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