I've just come back from a 1300km trip with a lot of off road and noticed that the first 10 to 15 minutes on-road felt very weird. I put it down to the rear shock over heating on the off road sections and losing its damping, which you then notice when you get back on smother roads.

Would that sound about right? Bike is a 2009 Z with 17,000km. For this trip I was carrying about 10kg in Enduristan throw over panniers.

I was thinking I'd treat it to a better rear shock and see what I could so with the fork internals, springs obviously for starters. So, the info in this thread has been very timely and helpful.