Taking some spanners forrevalving your bike’s suspensions can be quite a menial task, provided that it has to be done in the right way. This will not only set a seal on a perfect ride, but maintain the bike’s overall efficiency.
Contrary to the standard suspension settings that is found in every newly assembled bike, it’s preferable for riders to optimize the setting that suits their weight and riding style. So, rather than following opinions of people calling themselves as experts, follow this guide to get a more comprehensive idea about how you can take your suspensions into account. By doing so will get you a much better ride quality and optimum performance in most of situations.
Before you begin, make sure that you have these tools ready beside you for suspension adjustments.
- Spanner for front and rear preload
- Tape measure
- Flat-blade screwdriver
- Cable-tie
Jotting everything down
The first step is all about making a list of all the steps you need to follow. Making notes will make sure that if you screw things up, there’s always a possibility to back and correct things. You can also look at the manual having factory settings, which can be used to understand the rebound and compression figures like how many turns or clicks must be made.
Setting the sag on front forks
The sag refers to the position at which the suspension sits fully relaxed. This can be understood by the example that bike with 120mm fork need to have 40mm of sag. A way to measure this is by putting the motorcycle on chock and compress the forks with the help of a cable-tie. Allow the forks to settle and push the cable tie towards the outer dust seal. Leave the bike’s seat and let the forks fully exhaust with the weight taken off.
Reworking the front preload
To obtain the 40mm sag figure, you have to work the front preload again. This can be done by playing with the adjuster. Lessening the sag requires winding the adjuster in, and out in case you want the sag to increase.
Front compression adjustment
Compression damping specifies the rate by which fork presses once it goes over bumps, or when there is load on the bike. In case the bike compresses too quickly on applying brakes, you might wanna lessen the damping to rectify this problem.
Rectifying the front rebound
The front rebound control determines how swiftly the motorcycle fork relaxes once it observes compression. If the bike feels a bit loose at hitting the front breaks, then more rebound needs to be introduced. As a good practice, you can compress the front side by pressing or bouncing it. Do the same with both fork legs.
Saggy on rear shocks
In order for the shock to work best, it must be in the appropriate ballpark. To make sure this happens, adjust the sag between the ranges of 30-35mm. You can use two reference points, by taking one point towards the swing arm edge and the second point on the tail piece. Just make sure that the suspension gets topped-out without anyone sitting on the bike. If the rider is seated then adjust then adjust the preload until you get the required numbers.
Calibrating the rear rebound
Adjusting the rear bound make sure that the shocks extend once they have gone through an exhausting compression. For corners, where the bike can go a bit wallow, a rebound can prove to be quite perfect. However, if the bike goes not so smooth around corners or even over bumps, then it’s better to reduce the rear rebound by adjusting the shock from the bottom side.
Extensive speed compression
For riders who have modern motorcycles, may have high/low speed compression damping. Now, your idea of suspension adjustment revolves around getting a good ride with a compression stiff enough to support the bike. Therefore, for cornering moves, adjust the compression speed to low, and for mean bumps, make it go high.
After completing your suspension revalve, you can observe the changes by taking your bike on a long track. This will give you an idea about the work done on the bike, hence noting relevant key points. Nonetheless, as part of your Motorcycle Fork Tuning, it’s preferred to have a suspension specialist set-up the base and work all the way up. In the end, it all comes down to realizing that the entire process must be done gradually, as it takes time for the bike to get used to of the new change.