What does the bike need in terms of an upgrade? I've heard it handles big hits well buy is a little sketchy on the smaller stuff. Can someone detail what the bike needs for serious back country touring?
Typically the 610s come out of the factory set up for a pretty hefty rider (i.e, 220-250 lbs) in both the front and rear. Springs and oil grade change are first stop for DIYers....full re-valve for others. And still there are others who are confident that all you need to do is break in the springs (somewhere around the 1,500 mile mark is what I recollect as a benchmark but I could be off target). Hope that helps.
My '06 TE610 handles WAY better up front with just 3 clicks on the compression damping. And thats for a 200 pounder. Course it's up around 2000 miles now so maybe the forks have broken in some as well. For the backcountry touring I like a set of dirtbagz for the storage AND cause the racks bolt right onto the subframe and increase it's thickness substantially.
You could lower your oil level in the forks to 120mm. If it is a newer one there is no compression adjustment on the forks. Did you try to set your sag? I say "try" because the springs are just too stiff. Or at least mine were. I weigh about what you do and finally just sent my stuff to LTR. By the time the smoke cleared it cost around 600 with the addition of the comp. adjusters. Much better though, the bike feels the way it should.
