Can someone please guide me in the jungle of adjusting the shocks on the bike.
What can you adjust.
How do you do it.
How much differens for a heavy guy versus a light.
Can`t we have a quick set up guide on the forum?
BR Jonas
.
shock tuning guide
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Sanoj
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Quan-Time
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this has been covered before a few times, with links to outside sources.
Ill just give you a pointer of which you can start with.
1: you will need a mate and a stand to take off the weight of the front and rear so its at its MAX reach, when its at rest (own weight) measure height, then sit on it and remeasure height.. This is to get your static sag set correctly (this number can change depending on the type of springs / oil you use.. so i wont say the numbers that i use, as i have USD R1 forks and a custom swingarm and rear spring so it wont apply for you).
Get a nice piece of road (straight) like your own street or something.. set the rear to neutral (there is a little screw you wind in, thats 0, and wind it out.. should be like 11 or so "clicks"... put it in the middle.. so 5 or 6.. this is your "rebound" rate.. more on that later.
Put your forks all the way in and repeat process. At the top you see theres like a 13mm hex you can screw in and out ? bottom it out, thats zero, screw it all way out (it will lock before it comes out, so dont worry, you wont pull your forks appart) and count the rings around it.. put it in the middle.. Same with teh flat head screw in it... put in middle..
Put a "zip tie" or some sort of band around the forks, so when the forks move up and down, they push this up the forks.. When you return home or to your mate, measure this distance.. this helps identify if your bike is only using a little bit of travel, or it is bottoming out.. Find out the max travel of the forks, you should only be using 7/8 of it under "OMG IM GOING TO HIT THAT TRUCK" braking.. you should NEVER bottom out,, even when breaking that hard.. but you should get VERY close to it.
Now go up road at medium pace.. put front brakes on.. not enough to go over the bars, but feel the bike "dip".. now pull the screw thing all teh way out, and back the flat head screw right off... repeat.. should be VERY spongy.. like a boat in water.. all soft and quishy.. note the breaking distance (try to do it at same speed each time, on exactually the same place each time.. note your pull up distance).. set to rock hard, repeat..
Now find where you are comfortable with.. The hex thing is your compression rate.. how much the forks "dip" while under load.. going around corners uses this.. so too soft and you can get understeer badly, too stiff and you can get wheel hop / skip.. thus, front wheel drops from under you.. also bad.
The flat head screw is your "rebound rate".. means how fast the forks rebound the bars back up... You can set this fairly slow,, so when the forks compress, you can control the rate they come up.. fully open there is no resistance, its whatever gravity will allow,, but if you tighten it up, you can visually SEE them come up slowly.. this can be person, but again, there is riding involved in this.. Once you are happy.. thats your front set.
rear..
The coil over spring aronud the shock is your compression rate.. There will be 2 locknut looking things.. Back them off obviously makes the bike softer to ride, but around corners the back end "squats" too much and makes it feel like the back end is sliding all over the road coz its bouncing so much.. but make it too stiff, and the bike will step out coz it cant soak up the bumps properly..
there will be a little flat head screw to adjust for your rebound rate, but stock TRX have a little black knob with a + and - on it,, guess what that does
The static sag test i described above is a good "general" setting for a starting point. If i was to set my bike, i wouldnt put it in the middle straight away, im 6ft, 100kg (205pound?) and have long arms and short legs.. (anyone who makes a "you look like a monkey ?" joke gets a peanut thrown at them).
I distrute my weight differently than any other normal person.. everyone is different.. So the static test helps establish a starting point is all.
Id suggest
1: measure from your axle to your handlebars or grips while the front wheel is off the ground. write the number down..
2: with wheel on the ground, remeasure the distance
3: with you sitting on the bike in a riding position (including helmet and jacket, so you sit naturally and comfortably) remeasure distance again.
4: repeat process with the rear.
follow the steps i listed above and you get an idea.
To make a point about how much feel you get.. Almost any current motoGP rider can tell when his crew changes something.. even by one click. Hell, rossi even plays games with his mechanic.. His suspension guru says "yer, i put the rebound back a notch as this track is blah blah.." rossi pits and says "no you didnt, you put it one click harder.. i can tell".
Thats the level of riding they have, and thats much much difference it can make once you know what you are feeling for.. so experiment with soft, neutral and hard and find what suits you best.. there is no "ultimate" setup.. Each road, and even the weather can change whats the ideal setup.. So find a safe, confident inspiring setting and keep thinking about it.. After a week, you might find you dont like it.. cos a back street isnt day 2 day traffic.. but its a good base line to start with.. and because you went thru the motions of feeling the difference between hard, soft, soft with strong rebound, etc.. you know roughly what you want to modify..
WARNING: once you DO settle on a setting, DONT move more than one click or one ring at a time.. small steps is better.. too much can throw off what you are ment to be feeling for..
Good luck with it.. hope i help you understand a bit more.. But search arond. theres loads of these "how-to" suspension guides
Ill just give you a pointer of which you can start with.
1: you will need a mate and a stand to take off the weight of the front and rear so its at its MAX reach, when its at rest (own weight) measure height, then sit on it and remeasure height.. This is to get your static sag set correctly (this number can change depending on the type of springs / oil you use.. so i wont say the numbers that i use, as i have USD R1 forks and a custom swingarm and rear spring so it wont apply for you).
Get a nice piece of road (straight) like your own street or something.. set the rear to neutral (there is a little screw you wind in, thats 0, and wind it out.. should be like 11 or so "clicks"... put it in the middle.. so 5 or 6.. this is your "rebound" rate.. more on that later.
Put your forks all the way in and repeat process. At the top you see theres like a 13mm hex you can screw in and out ? bottom it out, thats zero, screw it all way out (it will lock before it comes out, so dont worry, you wont pull your forks appart) and count the rings around it.. put it in the middle.. Same with teh flat head screw in it... put in middle..
Put a "zip tie" or some sort of band around the forks, so when the forks move up and down, they push this up the forks.. When you return home or to your mate, measure this distance.. this helps identify if your bike is only using a little bit of travel, or it is bottoming out.. Find out the max travel of the forks, you should only be using 7/8 of it under "OMG IM GOING TO HIT THAT TRUCK" braking.. you should NEVER bottom out,, even when breaking that hard.. but you should get VERY close to it.
Now go up road at medium pace.. put front brakes on.. not enough to go over the bars, but feel the bike "dip".. now pull the screw thing all teh way out, and back the flat head screw right off... repeat.. should be VERY spongy.. like a boat in water.. all soft and quishy.. note the breaking distance (try to do it at same speed each time, on exactually the same place each time.. note your pull up distance).. set to rock hard, repeat..
Now find where you are comfortable with.. The hex thing is your compression rate.. how much the forks "dip" while under load.. going around corners uses this.. so too soft and you can get understeer badly, too stiff and you can get wheel hop / skip.. thus, front wheel drops from under you.. also bad.
The flat head screw is your "rebound rate".. means how fast the forks rebound the bars back up... You can set this fairly slow,, so when the forks compress, you can control the rate they come up.. fully open there is no resistance, its whatever gravity will allow,, but if you tighten it up, you can visually SEE them come up slowly.. this can be person, but again, there is riding involved in this.. Once you are happy.. thats your front set.
rear..
The coil over spring aronud the shock is your compression rate.. There will be 2 locknut looking things.. Back them off obviously makes the bike softer to ride, but around corners the back end "squats" too much and makes it feel like the back end is sliding all over the road coz its bouncing so much.. but make it too stiff, and the bike will step out coz it cant soak up the bumps properly..
there will be a little flat head screw to adjust for your rebound rate, but stock TRX have a little black knob with a + and - on it,, guess what that does
The static sag test i described above is a good "general" setting for a starting point. If i was to set my bike, i wouldnt put it in the middle straight away, im 6ft, 100kg (205pound?) and have long arms and short legs.. (anyone who makes a "you look like a monkey ?" joke gets a peanut thrown at them).
I distrute my weight differently than any other normal person.. everyone is different.. So the static test helps establish a starting point is all.
Id suggest
1: measure from your axle to your handlebars or grips while the front wheel is off the ground. write the number down..
2: with wheel on the ground, remeasure the distance
3: with you sitting on the bike in a riding position (including helmet and jacket, so you sit naturally and comfortably) remeasure distance again.
4: repeat process with the rear.
follow the steps i listed above and you get an idea.
To make a point about how much feel you get.. Almost any current motoGP rider can tell when his crew changes something.. even by one click. Hell, rossi even plays games with his mechanic.. His suspension guru says "yer, i put the rebound back a notch as this track is blah blah.." rossi pits and says "no you didnt, you put it one click harder.. i can tell".
Thats the level of riding they have, and thats much much difference it can make once you know what you are feeling for.. so experiment with soft, neutral and hard and find what suits you best.. there is no "ultimate" setup.. Each road, and even the weather can change whats the ideal setup.. So find a safe, confident inspiring setting and keep thinking about it.. After a week, you might find you dont like it.. cos a back street isnt day 2 day traffic.. but its a good base line to start with.. and because you went thru the motions of feeling the difference between hard, soft, soft with strong rebound, etc.. you know roughly what you want to modify..
WARNING: once you DO settle on a setting, DONT move more than one click or one ring at a time.. small steps is better.. too much can throw off what you are ment to be feeling for..
Good luck with it.. hope i help you understand a bit more.. But search arond. theres loads of these "how-to" suspension guides
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phuk72
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What QT has said is correct but ........
Setting up suspension correctly is by far the best performance mod you can undertake (just don't expect great results with 10 year old shocks / springs)
If you have a standard shock and it has done more than 20,000 miles then it will be past it's best - especially given that you are at the 100kg mark.
Setting up suspension correctly is by far the best performance mod you can undertake (just don't expect great results with 10 year old shocks / springs)
If you have a standard shock and it has done more than 20,000 miles then it will be past it's best - especially given that you are at the 100kg mark.
