Suspension Set Up Info

[Hotboot]

Some great suspension information and pointers here.
A little too basic for some, but absorb what you want. :rofl:

All this assumes you have fresh fork oil and a shock in decent shape.


http://www.gostar-racing.com/club/motorcycle_suspension_set-up.htm


JB

[Jack Giesecke]

There's suspension stuff all over the net. Seems it's a good area to be an "expert" in with a little effort. Really not a lot to setting sag. Revalving forks and such I'm not really into. I don't rebuild shocks cause I don't have a N2 bottle. But, sag is a really simple concept.

Marcus McBain has a lot of good info on his site for those that are wanting to learn. I don't have the URL, though, but seen him list it and checked it out. His business is "Race Performance Services", I think? Something like that. He's at all the CMRA stuff, has a shop in north Houston somewhere, and is pretty into it. He's even got a fellow riding AMA for him next season and he'll be supporting. I'd as soon use Patrick, though, at Motorcycles Unlimited in north Houston. He does a good job from everyone I've heard that's used him, and he doesn't specifically specialize in suspension. MU is a general MC shop with apparel, used bikes for sale, parts, and repair. Same can be said for Andy Mercer at Metric Motorcycles in the heights.

I have used Lindeman for my race bikes, but they're minis. Few suspension guys, Marcus included, spend any time with mini stuff. Lindeman is sort of a specialist in that, but they do big bike stuff, too, AMA superbikes and such as well as off road and flat track. Those guys really know their stuff about a wide variety of the sport. You send your stuff to them, answer a few questions as to skill level, intended use, rider weight without gear, and when it comes back, you just bolt it on and go win races, I kid you not!

I set the sag on my street SV front and rear. The rear spring rate is quite adequate on the stock shock, but I'd sure like to have an Ohlins on it. I had to buy springs to get the sag right on the front, though. Race Tech has a really good spring rate calculator on their web site. I used Race Tech springs and went to 20 wt fork oil to stock level and it works fine on the street. I think I'd want emulators in it for track use, but it's fine on the street. It does seem to have a little too much compression damping, but it works okay. The stock springs were really sad. I had to take care of that first thing soon as I got it home.