Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original

Suspension set-up theory

<< < (2/2)

jazg:
this might be a dumb question but how should a well set up bike behave through long whoop sections? what would you be feeling for? the trails i ride are just endless whoops and i've got used to the way they feel but some of the guys are still riding away from me there so maybe i could do something with suspension

TheGDog:
Yo jazg... don't forget to adjust your tire pressure too.  Makes a WORLD of difference everywhere!

When that rear tire has too much air in it... it can feel pogo-y in a scary way.  Then... once you drop it down to the right pressure where things seem to hook-up the best as far as traction goes... you'll notice FAR less business in the rear.

on my IRC M5B 140/80 18" rear. 11 Lbs. is the sweet spot.  I run 14/13 Lbs in the front Maxxis Desert IT.

Get your tires pressures sorted out first even BEFORE you start messing with the clickers.

And when it comes to messing with the clickers.  Only change one thing at a time.   And only change it 1 click at a time.  And keep repeating your testing runs until that part of "the problem" feels better.

If you try to adjust both the compression AND rebound clickers at the same time you'll end-up over-adjusting in one direction... the re-over-adjusting back in the other direction. (Hope that last part makes sense to you)

Hillclimb#42:
alright, yeah thats the kind of info I'm lookin for. I kinda already get that you want to use the travel of the suspension for softest ride without bottoming out, and rebound has to be at least as fast as the obstacles are spaced.
  I believe that your bike should eat woops for a small snack,Jazg. My 500 loves em. I would think that you would want to be set-up pretty soft with a fairly fast rebound, as woops are usually very closely spaced. Going for stability and straight tracking.
  Along these lines, how do you balance front forks to rear shock? How do you make sure that front forks are set exactly the same to each other?
  We use tire pressure frequently. Loose and dry = reduce air to below 10psi in rear, wet and serious traction might have people putting in over 20psi. This is mostly a traction deal. Probably don't want anything less than 12psi on normal riding unless its all sand or snow.
  What happens when you have mixed conditions? Say rocky, woops and jumps with hard landings. Keep in mind, I don't get practice rides to tweek things into perfection. I need generalizations, if thats even a word. :-P
   

dsrtrider:
if your bike is "stinkbugging" where the rear feels higher you can lower your forks to raise front up or increase rear sag to lower rear.  If you feel its like a chopper than decrease sag to raise rear and move forks down tubes to lower front. adjustting sag is important for proper ride geometry.  i am more familiar with proper settings on ktm's becasue they talk about it to death on ktmtalk.com but for KX's i will just say in general i read adjust yuour rear sag to get the position you like for stability and/or turning.  if you get proper rear sag with gear on (100mm or so) and you don't have much free sag(10 to 25mm??) or to much free sag that points to a different spring rate.  Forks can also be adjusted for rider and free sag with springs but i am not sure on correct numbers for KX's.  i have some articles that talk to it and there is likely some suspension guys on this site that knows more on this.  Once you get correct sags via springs and you adjust to the geomtry front and rear that feels good then start working with clickers.  if you don't have correct springs you can make mistakes with clickers.  proper springs hold you up in the correct place on suspension.  to weak of springs drops you further down in the stroke where its harsher.  adjusting clickers at this point maybe misleading.  get your sag and springs set first.

assuming your springs are good you shouldn't have to deviate to much from the manufacturs clicker settings.  maybe 8clicks either way (??).  if you are maxed out on your clickers that is also a sign of spring or valving is needed.

Clickers work low speed circuit (rolling woops, g-outs,). valving is more for high speed circuit (square edge bumps, major bottoming, etc).  That circuit is afected by valving and some spring and fork oil height adjustments.  Fork oil hieght can help resist bottoming but to high makes mid-stroke harshness if to high.

If you go over major jumps think stiffer settings, more oil, heavier springs. if you ride fast over smaller obsticles try softer clickers, lower oil heights, softer springs.  go to extremes on clickers till you learn how your bike behaves.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page