Suspension Question
Discussion
Met up with a few other bikers the other day at Oakdene and they were talking about suspension setting and what a difference it can make to the ride, eg: how fast you can take the corners, braking etc.
I bought the bike second hand and have not touched the setting at all they are as they were before i bought it. I know that everybody has personal preferences as to what setting they like best but traditionally what is the best??
I ride it without a pilion like the fast straight and twisty "A" roads would like to get quicker through the corners. Any comments appreciated.
Plus what does it do to the bike if you harden it up or soften it???
Cheers
D
I bought the bike second hand and have not touched the setting at all they are as they were before i bought it. I know that everybody has personal preferences as to what setting they like best but traditionally what is the best??
I ride it without a pilion like the fast straight and twisty "A" roads would like to get quicker through the corners. Any comments appreciated.
Plus what does it do to the bike if you harden it up or soften it???
Cheers
D
i'd be careful with this one as theres so many guys that talk utter crap about suspension, alot of people adjust it not having a clue what they are doing.
Best bet is to find out what settings your bike has at the moment and put it back to the standard manufacturer settings as this should be a good start point.
You have three basic adjustments on most modern sportsbikes:
Preload: This is how much you srping is compressed at a standstill. this is the spanner adjustment on the top of your forks (you measure it by counting the rings you see). on the rear shock this is the big metal collar on the top of your shock. You should set the preload to give the correct static sag - this is how much he bike sags from when the suspension is fully extended (i.e wheel of the ground), to when te bike is supporting its own weight, and then finally to when its supporting your weight (u sat on the bike in full kit). Do a search on the net and u should find some good guides for setting static sag - if not let me know and i'll post one.
Compression: as well as the spring suspension relies heavily on the flow of oil through valves within shork absorbers (and bike forks). Compression is obviously the adjustment that controls how quickly you allow your suspension to compress this adjustment is normally the screwdriver adjustment at the bottom of the forks and at the top of the shock at the back. To set up the correct compression at the front should increase the compression until you begin to get a judder on the brakes going into a bend, you should then decrease the compression just enough to get rid of the judder. At the rear you should increase the compression to prevent the vehicle squatting under accelleration.
Rebound - this controls how quickly you allow your suspension to extend after compression this is adjusted using the screwdriver adjustment on the top of the forks and on the bottom of the rear shock . If this is set to soft then the power of your spring will cause the shock to extent to quickly after being compressed so when u hit a bump or worse release the brakes after heavy braking going into a bend the vehicle will start to become unstable /bounce around. However if this is set too hard you will find that your spring can't recover quickly enough and so your tyres will skip over bumpy surfaces.
with compression and rebound adjustments you will hear and feel the screw click as you turn it. You should screw it all the way in and then count the clicks out to set it - so if the manufacturers setting say rebound 4 you would screw it all the way in and count 4 clicks out. You should only adjust one thing at a time when adjusting suspension and after each adjustment go for a ride an see how it feels before making another change.
hope this helps.
Best bet is to find out what settings your bike has at the moment and put it back to the standard manufacturer settings as this should be a good start point.
You have three basic adjustments on most modern sportsbikes:
Preload: This is how much you srping is compressed at a standstill. this is the spanner adjustment on the top of your forks (you measure it by counting the rings you see). on the rear shock this is the big metal collar on the top of your shock. You should set the preload to give the correct static sag - this is how much he bike sags from when the suspension is fully extended (i.e wheel of the ground), to when te bike is supporting its own weight, and then finally to when its supporting your weight (u sat on the bike in full kit). Do a search on the net and u should find some good guides for setting static sag - if not let me know and i'll post one.
Compression: as well as the spring suspension relies heavily on the flow of oil through valves within shork absorbers (and bike forks). Compression is obviously the adjustment that controls how quickly you allow your suspension to compress this adjustment is normally the screwdriver adjustment at the bottom of the forks and at the top of the shock at the back. To set up the correct compression at the front should increase the compression until you begin to get a judder on the brakes going into a bend, you should then decrease the compression just enough to get rid of the judder. At the rear you should increase the compression to prevent the vehicle squatting under accelleration.
Rebound - this controls how quickly you allow your suspension to extend after compression this is adjusted using the screwdriver adjustment on the top of the forks and on the bottom of the rear shock . If this is set to soft then the power of your spring will cause the shock to extent to quickly after being compressed so when u hit a bump or worse release the brakes after heavy braking going into a bend the vehicle will start to become unstable /bounce around. However if this is set too hard you will find that your spring can't recover quickly enough and so your tyres will skip over bumpy surfaces.
with compression and rebound adjustments you will hear and feel the screw click as you turn it. You should screw it all the way in and then count the clicks out to set it - so if the manufacturers setting say rebound 4 you would screw it all the way in and count 4 clicks out. You should only adjust one thing at a time when adjusting suspension and after each adjustment go for a ride an see how it feels before making another change.
hope this helps.
I have heard great things about this bloke, Darren Wnukoski @ MCTechnics, from what I am told he adjusts the suspension to suit you ie, your weight, riding style, and use.
Check out the web site www.mctechnics.co.uk/
I'm told £75 gets you sorted.
Check out the web site www.mctechnics.co.uk/
I'm told £75 gets you sorted.
if you aren't able to set the correct static and dynamic sag, then you prob need a different spring. Until you can set the sag correctly, the bike will not have the corect 'attitude'. Also be careful if you try and copy settings from somewhere else, as
1) most production shocks / compression/rebound pistons have wide tollerances
2) you don't know what tyres the bike was fitted with
3) were the settings arrived at in dry or damp/wet conditions?
4) the stock suspension may have had aftermarket, linear rate, springs fitted
Rembember that all the damping does is control the movement of the spring, so having the incorrect spring weight fitted, means that your damping will never be right....
1) most production shocks / compression/rebound pistons have wide tollerances
2) you don't know what tyres the bike was fitted with
3) were the settings arrived at in dry or damp/wet conditions?
4) the stock suspension may have had aftermarket, linear rate, springs fitted
Rembember that all the damping does is control the movement of the spring, so having the incorrect spring weight fitted, means that your damping will never be right....
Ballon said:
I have heard great things about this bloke, Darren Wnukoski @ MCTechnics, from what I am told he adjusts the suspension to suit you ie, your weight, riding style, and use.
Check out the web site www.mctechnics.co.uk/
I'm told £75 gets you sorted.
The guy is a genius. Everyone I knoe raves about him, and my R6 was a different bike after handing over the £75.
ps - Did I mention that he said that my R6 was the best production bike he's ever ridden??!!
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