Schock Spring

I screwed down my adjusting nut a bit but my sag is still 4". My understanding is 3 1/2 is about right. I weight 230 lbs and Race tech makes a spring for my weight. The ride feels ok on pavement but I think I'd be alot better off with the new spring. My first time messing around with suspension setting, as in the past I just bought um and rode um. Anybody want to share their advice with a old newbie?

Mordicai: The max weight value for the spring is something like 425 lbs. (rider and passenger).

I rode the bike (with the wife's set-up; lowered, max sag (she's 135lbs) and on high speed, loose, fireroads and some high speed, flat-out (70 MPH) "G-Outs" it did very well (given it had stock tires too).

Many here (much less our weight) swear by overall suspension modifications.

Me: I can (and have) ridden most every bike I've owned with stock components with adjustments.

I CAN see however that for my weight and riding terrain and style, that the front springs would be light for me. I could probably live with the rear.

Everyone (and where/conditions we all ride is different) and that deserves some consideration.

And suspension tuner went with the Racetech rear, and revalving, but left front alone (slightly softer) but also revalved.

The bike oversteered REALLY bad for me when I was in a soft, sandy loam. In fact, it was downright scary.

We're putting in the stiffer front springs next week, but I expect that should cure it, as I think with me being a 6ft lard ass, the stiffer rear and weaker front, I think created a geometry issue, causing oversteer. As standing up, I tend to overweight the front, even with 7/8's raised bars.

This bike was really built for a person averaging around 180 according to the engineers I spoke to in Japan. (I speak Japanese).

Yah ,i 'm actually very happy with the way the bike handles, although I haven't yet had the oppportunity to ride it much off-road. I'm probably reading to many motorcyle chat sites, which keep telling tme I need to put on a bigger spring. I think I need to do less reading and more riding.

Jeff: I can see how that would happen.

There is somewhat a rule of thumb in checking the balance set-up on a bike.

Have a friend hold you upright and you stand on the pegs.

When you load/unload your weight on the bike compressing both the front and rear suspension, the bike should sink equally both front and rear.

You can probably do it yourself if you can find something to get your feet up on an unweight the bike.

One other nice thing to add is fork bleeders. ...and it's not so apparent when it is cold, but when it is hot and/or you are into heavy bumps, the forks heat up significantly. When you pop back out onto smoother terrain the first few inches of travel can stiffen-up (i.e. have a higher "False" pre-load).

The result is front end "push" turning into light choppy bumps and/or left-right transition in smooth, slippery conditions.

The bleeders allow for the release of the compressed air (expanded from the heat) and relax the suspension back to "normal".

I assume someone makes them for the WR. I have them on my X. Try it - You'll like it.

I have the bleeders on my wr, but I was geting serious oversteer, not understeer.

I'd rather have understeer, as I can shift weight forward to compensate.

I read that... * bonks self on head *

Seems somewhat contradictory to me.

If you are overloading the front end it would generally understeer (dive into corners).

What I am hearing is you get into corners and the bike is getting crossed-up (trying to steer itself OUT of the corner instead of "through").

...and again, I'm no suspension wizard. Maybe the heavire spring will allow the front simply to track more evenly (vs exhibiting a compression and rebounding action).

Can we get a slo-mo video ?

Sounds like jeffpack1957 says his front wheel was all over the place in the sand, giving the feeling of no control, as if it had a mind of it's own.

As a backyard experiment, try lowering the fork tube height 5mm, assuming you have that much fork tube still above the top triple clamp.
If it feels more stable under the conditions that gave you a bad feel, then you know getting the front higher via tube height or a stiffer spring would help.
You probably already know you will need to experiment (AKA test).

I've found it only takes a millimeter or two in the wrong direction to give a bad feel under certain conditions, and I typically settle on the best compromise, favoring straight line stability. :)

thats part of my case as well, given tuner raised my tubes 10mm I think.

He's coming by saturday, so we'll get it figured out. Probably reset tubes to zero, and put in the stiffer springs, and go from there.

Jeff, don't know if you are on an X or R but if you are going through Maple Valley you can try my 220 lb MotoPro tuned R. PM me ahead of time to see if I will be around.

take your bike to Mattawa and test it out? :)

I never realized there were so many tuners in the greater area.

MotoPro
Konflict
KFG Racing
DuVall (or something like that)(Enumclaw)

and I'm sure there are more.

PS: Mines an R.

Chief, I'd be interested in what your Moto Tuned 220 R is all about. I'm 230 on an x and trying to decide on suspension mods.

jeffpack1957 wrote:

take your bike to Mattawa and test it out? :)

Unless I get the FE570S Berg I want by then, I will be in Odessa with it;)

mordicai wrote:

Chief, I'd be interested in what your Moto Tuned 220 R is all about. I'm 230 on an x and trying to decide on suspension mods.

Custom springs and valves front and back for my weight and riding style (Enduro with some packing). One inch drop. The drop is in the springs with stock link.

The biggest thing to know about MotoPro is you have to call. Go to the website for a good explanation but try to steer away from spring. See above where Jeff and I are talking about the biggest scramble in the US going off. 1400 bikes and seems like half are MotoPro tunes. So check out the website and you can talk to John about it he is just really busy so call. You can mention Kurt Smith and he can go into detail about what he did for me.

Thanks Chief.

Jeff: I would consider baselining the bike with the OEM springs and the stock (flush tube) setting before you change the springs.

In fact it may be that an incremental fluid, preload setting, or higher viscosity fluid may be perfect.

Either way, as YZEtc says, make SMALL, INCREMENTAL changes and test the settings over a range of terrains.

All things suspension related are a trade-off.