_RG_
Forum Supporter
I'm a proud member of the camp who believe motorcycles these days roll off the line with some pretty good suspension components. Our ilk also holds that folks should get out their manual and tinker with the suspension before dropping $2500 or more on having some shop swap out parts. Now if you're Cody Webb or Tristan Hart then politely ignore all the above as uninformed gibberish. For the rest us mere mortals however...
Folks who do suspension work all day and dream about it at night are emphatic about setting your riding sag before even attempting to tinker with the dark arts of compression damping and rebound.
One of the crew's wife gave him a wireless sag checker. Really nice...and pretty expensive for something that's likely going to spend 99% of it's life parked in the toolbox. Once your sag is properly set why change it unless you and Little Debby pack on another 50 or so around the tail bone?
So who's used the tape measure technique? It's ok...nuthin to be ashamed of. Takes about one session to decide there has got to be a better way. Of course there are a number of products out there that help. Here's one of them:
Little cable spring wound with a sliding stop. Attach one end to the axle hole and the other above it on some plastic.
You'll really want a bike lift for doing this. You young husky fellows who can throw your bike over your shoulder might get by with borrowing a milk crate from a klr rider but the rest of us will appreciate an easier way to raise and lower the motorcycle. You'll get to do that several times.
Nothing new here...raise the bike...set the stop down on the base unit...lower the bike...get on (with gear or comparable weight)...gently get off the bike and measure the distance from the base unit to the sliding stop.
So...does this product work? Sure. I had to adjust the stop (made to be adjusted) so that it slid easier but caught well enough to stay put when I'd get off the motorcycle. And...you need some way to measure that distance. So really this tool is only part of the solution. Since we're talking mm here something reasonably accurate helps.
You need a way to sit on the seat in riding position with both feet on the pegs. Gravity makes this part tricky.
Can one person check the sag without two or three semi sober riding chums standing by? Yeah...no prob.
Is this tool worth the $35 price? Just barely but it does work as advertised. I don't expect it will take a lot of abuse. I'm concerned about the spring inside behaving like every tape measure I've ever owned... but maybe not. Now...on to the dark arts.
Folks who do suspension work all day and dream about it at night are emphatic about setting your riding sag before even attempting to tinker with the dark arts of compression damping and rebound.
One of the crew's wife gave him a wireless sag checker. Really nice...and pretty expensive for something that's likely going to spend 99% of it's life parked in the toolbox. Once your sag is properly set why change it unless you and Little Debby pack on another 50 or so around the tail bone?
So who's used the tape measure technique? It's ok...nuthin to be ashamed of. Takes about one session to decide there has got to be a better way. Of course there are a number of products out there that help. Here's one of them:
Little cable spring wound with a sliding stop. Attach one end to the axle hole and the other above it on some plastic.
You'll really want a bike lift for doing this. You young husky fellows who can throw your bike over your shoulder might get by with borrowing a milk crate from a klr rider but the rest of us will appreciate an easier way to raise and lower the motorcycle. You'll get to do that several times.
Nothing new here...raise the bike...set the stop down on the base unit...lower the bike...get on (with gear or comparable weight)...gently get off the bike and measure the distance from the base unit to the sliding stop.
So...does this product work? Sure. I had to adjust the stop (made to be adjusted) so that it slid easier but caught well enough to stay put when I'd get off the motorcycle. And...you need some way to measure that distance. So really this tool is only part of the solution. Since we're talking mm here something reasonably accurate helps.
You need a way to sit on the seat in riding position with both feet on the pegs. Gravity makes this part tricky.
Can one person check the sag without two or three semi sober riding chums standing by? Yeah...no prob.
Is this tool worth the $35 price? Just barely but it does work as advertised. I don't expect it will take a lot of abuse. I'm concerned about the spring inside behaving like every tape measure I've ever owned... but maybe not. Now...on to the dark arts.
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