Improving ride quality on the 5th

2021 brought an interesting situation: owning two VFRs at once (three if you count the '86 500 project I also had for bit), the 5th gen that came along in April and the 6th that was acquired in November.
There were two different purposes in play. The 5th was to finally experience what the hype over this model was, and the 6th to have as a "spare" bike to store in Florida indefinitely so as to have a bike to ride there during what we hope will be several trips in the future where we can partake of a family member's house.
Now having ridden both pretty much back to back, 7500 miles on the 5th and but 700 or so on the 6th, I have reached some conclusions.
One is that the 6th has not impressed in the least, and the 5th looks like a keeper.
The only thing about the '03 that was an improvement over the '00 is the ride quality in the front end. The newer bike just plain rides better and more comfortably over bad roads. And bad roads are nearly all I'm going to see in my part of the country anymore.
So my question is, what is the route to take to improve the 5th's ride quality as a road bike with some moderately serious travel intentions, and with an excessively mature rider?

 

I think I can answer your question, as a somewhat mature rider who enjoys swift rides on bumpy roads without getting jarred and jounced.

The stock 5th gen fork is undersprung and overdamped; fitting some decent springs will get the ride height correct without excessive preload, and then some freer-flowing damper cartridges will take the jarring out of the bumps. You can buy ready-made cartridges from Daugherty Motorsports that will slip right in, or you can fit Racetech Gold Valves to the stock pieces. The compression valve is where the most restriction is and where the most benefit can be had, but I believe there's merit in replacing the rebound valve stack as well.

I weigh around 85kg and the 0.90kg/mm fork springs are about right for me. If you go the Racetech route, I use a C32 compression stack with 1.3mm bleed holes, and the R17 rebound stack.

 

OTOH, new springs are always the best bang for the buck, OEM is definitely undersprung. I put in RaceTech 0.90 springs (OK for my 90kg/198lbs), full fork clean/bushings/seals and new 10W oil. This seems adequate to me, but sure, ideally I'd like new cartridges that are adjustable. I'd say try new springs first and for your style of riding, see if you need to go the damping route after putting on a few miles on your favourite roads.

 

Ray, good info and a good plan. I'll start like that. The spring rate sounds okay, I'm only slightly heavier. I'm very dense, after all.
When I got the bike, I had to do the steering head bearings at once. The bad part is, I was working on a couple of other projects and I can't recall if I changed the oil. I'm pretty sure I didn't do seals and bushings, so there's that.
I'm happy with the steering and fork action as a sport-tourer as it sits. The thing is, I may be looking to move it a few notches towards the touring side if I part wtih the FJR. So that's the goal in mind.

 

It is also a good idea to align the fork parts for least binding if you are searching for te best ride quality. Loosen the top steering nut, top triple clamps, axle clamps and the axle nut BUT NOT THE LOWER TRIPLE CLAMP. Give the forks a good bounce to settle everything. Then tighten the axle nut and right axle clamp and repeat the bounce, then tighten the left axle clamp, bounce again, tighten the steering nut (carefully avoiding twisting the forks) bounce again and lastly tighten the top triple clamps. All using a torque wrench.

This lets all the parts find their most parallel position that lets the forks slide as smoothly as possible.

If you are changing the oil you really need to fully disassemble the fork damper as that is where the goop really accumulates.

 

Terry, thanks for the tip. That procedure was done when I did the steering head bearings. I learned it from my 1967 BSA Twin shop manual!
Seriously, I should get in there and have a look at the bushings anyway. This particular bike was exceptionally well-cared-for by the first two owners (and well-modified, too), so there's no urgency. But yes, I do like the forks forking right.