DragBikeMike
Serious Thumper
Offline
SuzukiSavage.com Rocks!
Posts: 4406
Honolulu
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Again, thanks Gary and Hiko for your latest advice and comments.
Since the grease test confirmed that the rear shocks were bottoming on the softest preload setting, and not bottoming but jack-hammer rough on the stiffest preload setting, it was evident that I needed to be somewhere in between. I decided to try and set the rear end up using Gary’s guidance (30% race sag, 8% static sag). That would be 20.5mm race sag and 5.5mm static sag. The closest I could get to the desired values was the 3rd preload setting, which resulted in 19mm race sag and 4mm static sag. Gary said the springs are too soft and the static sag measurement supports that.
Using Gary’s setup guidance made a noticeable improvement. Now it’s tolerable. I did the grease check and after 50 miles of Oahu’s signature potholes, it is using about 85% of the total rear shock travel. It never bottomed out, and the constant jack-hammer effect I experienced with the stiffest setting is reduced to a sporadic jack-hammer effect (only occurs on really rough pavement). Not being a suspension expert, or even a suspension rank-novice, all I can say is its not nearly as bad as it was. I could have simply just started trying each setting to see how it felt, but I wanted to see what I could learn. I’m likin Gary’s setup advice. When I change out the shocks, I have a better idea of how to set it up. I decided to go with 11.5” Progressive 412 shocks with 90/130 springs. They’re cheap, readily available, and basically plug-n-play. Just about right for my rudimentary skill level.
Now I’m gonna try Gary’s setup procedure on the front forks. I’ve been riding it around with a zip tie on the fork tube so I can get a feel for how much the forks travel. They’ve been using up about 4.83”. That’s 97% of the available travel (5.00”). I’m gonna try and set the preload so that I can achieve the correct race sag (1.5”) and see what I get for static sag.
As it sits right now (totally stock) it has 2.19” race sag and 1.54” static sag. Seems like I will have to add a lot of preload. So, now I have a question regarding the oil level. The factory manual calls for 75mm. Is there any merit to fiddling around with the oil level on the box-stock forks? I was planning to leave it alone for now. But once I add more preload, and improve race sag and static sag as best I can with the stock springs, would there be any merit to lowering the oil level?
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