Let me preface this with my weight of around 134lbs.

After reading and watching many tutorials I finally decided to set my suspension sag. I was also waiting for my spanner wrench to arrive as well.

Ok so I first started by measuring top out measurement on both ends. I was borrowing my friends shop so I strapped the front and rear separately to his car lift arms, then got measurements.

I started doing the rear first and ended up with a setting of 1 on the preload to get around ~35mm for street riding. Ok that looks good and seems right, lightweight rider will need less preload to get similar results.

Now onto the front. I did read another thread on here that the front of these F4i were either really soft or hard. Anyway I got on, had my gf measure at stock preload which is four lines showing on the adjuster. I got around 50+mm. Lowered down to two line showing and got only like 4-5mm less. Lowered down to one line showing and got another 1mm. I think i'm around low 40mm range.

What i'm confused on is i'm turning the adjusters clockwise to add preload but then this is dropping my sag number down. This somewhat doesn't make sense. Did i do something wrong? Someone please explain. I going on a group ride to bear mtn here in NY this weekend. I would like my suspension to be set correctly for those great roads.

Thanks.

 

More preload (screwing the adjuster down) will make it sag less. If you can't get the sag right, then your springs are worn out or too soft. If its been a few years, the forks could use a good gone through anyway.

 

You'll never get perfect sag from the frontend unless you put stronger springs in or loose another 30lbs or so. The rear sounds correct for your weight.

 

Springs and whatnot are way above what I need from this bike, my first. Thanks guys for the help. As long as I know the setting was done correctly and now the suspension is slightly working with me rather than against then I've accomplished my first mission.

Maybe after a few more thousand miles ill try adjusting comp /rebound to see some effects of that.

 

Only adjusting the preload without setting rebound [which is the easiest part of suspension] or compression [the hardest part] isen't doing you much good. If the valving was set correct before and now you've upped preload then your compression is going to be too hard and your rebound will be too soft. The end result is scary when riden at a fast pace.

 

I kinda knew and was afraid of this.

What would you suggest, without being me and riding my bike, as an overall improvement to my shock settings with my preload settings as is now? The valving was factory settings before. I'm sure its an overall setting to accomodate as many riders as possible without making the bike kill them in the process.

If I just go by the factory settings as "OK", then do you think I should soften comp and harden rebound "some" to get back to a relatively factory ride as a new basis? Does this make some sense?

I'd be fine with the suspension being set 80% of ideal for my weight and general newb riding skills.

 

Set rebound [its super easy, watch a vid or two on youtube] then start playing with compression. Compression is more of a feel thing vs rebound which is a standerd to adjust to.