Fork travel and ziptie

So I have the front fork height at the top triple tree @ stock and ziptie on the fork. Currently at about 1.25 inches from the lower triple tree but still looking to loosen the preload more if possible as big bumps are painful for both me and the bike! I was reading online that some people recommended 1/2" to 1/4" from the lower triple tree, etc. but that is on other bikes. BUT my concern is that its beyond the "safe" travel limit of the forks. I know your suppose to measure when its fully extended, etc. then minus it out but curious if with my stock height its safe to assume the lower triple tree is the limit!?

If you haven't slid the forks up in the tree then typically on most bikes they hit a mechanical limit before bottoming out on the lower portion of the tree.

But I don't know what pre-load will do for bump absorption for you. Damping is what will ease the shock you feel when hitting big bumps. You might think about swapping to a lighter weight oil and that might help you out as well. Or even just run your oil level to the lowest recommended height inside the fork tubes. Either of those tricks should help you out.

also check the front wheel to exhaust clearance when the forks are fully compressed. I have known several people drop their forks to lower the seat height without realising that the front wheel now hits the exhaust header when the brakes are fully compressed (under hard breaking)..

Gary

DFW: seems you hit the nail on the head. I didn't mention it figured I would after people replied and heres the run down. I have upgraded springs (info in sig) running 5 weight (not the issue) but running I believe its 110 mm oil height (as told to do by the vendor) and from other research I did if big bumps cause what I more or less have that could be the problem and I should lower my oil height obviously not a 5 minute job over lowering my preload which does help somewhat but as you mentioned probably not all that much! Assuming I lower the fork oil height slightly (by 5/10mm) wouldn't my preload have to increased to make up for more fork travel as more air gap or no!?

Thrasherg: Good point but my front end is actually higher over stock with the new fork springs!

You don't adjust preload because of damping changes (in general). Get your preload/spring dialed in by checking sag numbers, and then adjust oil height and damping settings from there.

Tazman2 said:

Assuming I lower the fork oil height slightly (by 5/10mm) wouldn't my preload have to increased to make up for more fork travel as more air gap or no!?

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Nope. As jqueen stated, the damping and spring pre-load are "almost" completely unrelated. The reason I say almost is because one can be used to shore up the other but it isn't the preferred way of going about things. If you lower your oil level 10mm but keep your pre-load the same, then your sag should be within .5mm of where it was before you started. The same goes for changing oil weight as well.

The downside with the more budget level suspensions is that you don't get separate controls of the various features. On my Strom I have pre-load, oil height and weight to play with, and that is about it. Oil height mainly affects compression, but changing your oil weight will affect compression AND rebound. But if we jump to a bike like my YZ250 I get pre-load, oil weight, oil height, along with adjustable compression and rebound valving. Which typically gives me so many options I can't help but make a complete mess of my suspension settings.....

Clear as mud yet?

Oh and don't get me started on progressively wound springs and why I dislike them so much. They are a prime example of how one component in a suspension system is used incorrectly to shore up another. Some people love them, and that is fine by me, but I generally steer people clear of them.

Well thanks for the info guys! Guess I should think it through how to do it with the forks on the bike with minimal mess and headaches or wait till winter when I have nothing but time! lol

Back to your ziptie......if you have one on the fork, reset it everytime you ride and watch the travel. Now if you hit a big bump or pothole and it comes close to bottoming out, then rule that out. However, for everyday riding, just watch it and see when it ends up on the bottom stroke. If you are very far from bottoming, then yes you should be able to soften it some. Now as far as set up goes.....you should be setting up the preload to your weight. Then adjust from there.

I've got my sag set at about 1 3/4 inches front and back. Deltron ATF fluid and that's set at what ever the book says. Everything is stock on both ends and a correct 70+ thousand on them. Change fluid and flush the forks about ever 20K miles. Been good to me like that. It's never gonna match the KLR for comfort on these chopped up roads about here.