Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2002 9:21 pm
Never ceases to amaze me how much shizzle is written up on setting up suspension - making a fairly easy task into a nightmare. Here's a couple of good tips.
a) Before you do anything else put a tie wrap around a fork leg and one on the damper rod on the rear shock. On the advice of most Bike Mags, most folk ride around with everything wound up - if you are only using 20% of the travel, you can twiddle with dampers all day (they are not working), and if your hitting the bump stops, the suspension has stopped working anyway. Adjust your spring pre-load till you are using at least 80% to 90% of the travel. Then you can start to twiddle.
b) Rebound damping allows or stops the spring getting back to its position before the next bump. Too much rebound will cause the back/front to load up and slide. Adjust in increments till you get that confident feeling when riding ripples round the bends.
c) Compression is the same story, if the front/rear keeps whacking you in the ring piece, you've too much, if you feel like you're jumping on a waterbed you've too little.
This is the very basic method - you can make it as complicated as you like - even learn new words for the pub if you like but it's really very easy.
Remember the basic rule - if you're not using all the suspension, there's not point playing with the screws.
John
a) Before you do anything else put a tie wrap around a fork leg and one on the damper rod on the rear shock. On the advice of most Bike Mags, most folk ride around with everything wound up - if you are only using 20% of the travel, you can twiddle with dampers all day (they are not working), and if your hitting the bump stops, the suspension has stopped working anyway. Adjust your spring pre-load till you are using at least 80% to 90% of the travel. Then you can start to twiddle.
b) Rebound damping allows or stops the spring getting back to its position before the next bump. Too much rebound will cause the back/front to load up and slide. Adjust in increments till you get that confident feeling when riding ripples round the bends.
c) Compression is the same story, if the front/rear keeps whacking you in the ring piece, you've too much, if you feel like you're jumping on a waterbed you've too little.
This is the very basic method - you can make it as complicated as you like - even learn new words for the pub if you like but it's really very easy.
Remember the basic rule - if you're not using all the suspension, there's not point playing with the screws.
John
