BACK IN YOUR BOX, HOOLIGANS !

DAVE PERHAPS YOU COULD EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCES TO THOSE OF US WHO DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DAMPING , AND SPRING RATES(and anything else, relating to the suspension and the effect of the different settings)
I for one don't know enough about this to get the best out of my bike, and I suspect I'm not alone.........

 

Nope you aint alone there Shadow

Lets have a 'Suspension for Dummies' 101

 

OK, just winging it here and this is probably below the 101 course, more on the level of "special class":

Spring rates: The stiffer the spring the more force it will take to compress/shorten the forks. Your fork is supposed to shorten to keep the body of the bike more or less in one place and allow the tire/wheel to move up and down with the vertical variations in the road. Too much spring rate and you pogo stick. The tire has to take up the slack and you smash them into the rims. Too little spring and it allows braking to cause a nose dive and during the downforce of cornering, the center if gravity of the bike is moving up and down the forks in unpredictable ways which is completely creepy.

Damping rates: Because you don't want the spring to be in total control of where the wheel/tire go (pogo sticking), you want to slow that process down and become more predictable. The road may slam the tire up and compress the springs, and you want to slow that down a little to make it more gradual, and you don't want the springs slamming the tire back at the road and causing the bike to buck in response to every compression, so you need to slow that down too. Same as above, too much damping and the forks are too stiff and you get a jar to the frame you don't want and the fork isn't as compliant as the road needs it to be. As before, too little damping and its just bouncy and moving all over the place. Also, shocks can be really sophisticated and can allow the compression damping to be at a different rate than the rebound damping. Somebody else will need to explain why.

So you want to soften the blows to the frame and smooth them out as well as the fork's response to them in order to remain stable and predictable. The point is to keep the tire in contact with the road rather than bouncing up and down with varying amounts of contact/grip/traction.

More weight on the bike means you need more spring rate to just hold that weight up as well as more damping to control the added mass.

Ok, How far off am I?

 

[QUOTE=dad;304754]Based on 1990 and up models with fixed cartridge front ends. The static sag (rider aboard) is often too great. Measure that number and if it's not in the 1 1/4" to 1 3/8" range, figure the change required, remove the cap and spring according to the service manual, and make new spacers that are longer directly by whatever the measurements dictate. Drain the oil and re-fill with 10 weight, measuring the oil level with the spring out, from the top of the tube to the level of the oil, fork tube in the fully compressed position. The stock setting is 6 7/8" down from the top. Raise that level to 4 3/4" down from the top and it will tremendously aid in preventing bottoming out on hard braking. It makes the air spring much more progressive while leaving the normal travel range fairly compliant. Anything more than that will require at least new springs. Just follow all normal procedures as outlined in the service manual for this work except using the new fork oil level and new spacer lengths.

I remembered this old post because it worked for me on my 94. It seems a little harsh on rough pavement but it works for a heavy load-two up with bags.