Feature Article
Adjustment locations: Forks Rebound adjustment (if applicable)
is located near the top of the fork. Compression adjustment (if
applicable) is located near the bottom of the fork. Spring
preload adjustment (if applicable) is generally hex style and
located at the top of the fork. Lack of Rebound Symptoms: •
Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and
traction • The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting
the turn causing fading traction and loss of control. • When
taking a corner a speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss
of traction and control. • Aggressive input at speed lessons
control and chassis attitude suffers. • Front end fails to
recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces. Solution:
Insufficient rebound. Increase rebound "gradually" until control
and traction are optimized and chatter is gone. Too Much Rebound
Symptoms: • Front end feels locked up resulting in harsh ride. •
Suspension tucks in and fails to return, giving a harsh ride.
Typically after the first bump, the bike will skip over
subsequent bumps and want to tuck the front. • With
acceleration, the front end will tank slap or shake violently
due to lack of front wheel tire contact. Solution: Too much
rebound. Decrease rebound "gradually" until control and traction
are optimized. Lack of Compression Symptoms: • Front-end dives
severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or during
aggressive breaking. • Front feels soft or vague similar to lack
of rebound. • When bottoming, a clunk is heard. This is due to
reaching the bottom of fork travel. Solution: Insufficient
compression. Increase "gradually" until control and traction are
optimized. Too Much Compression Symptom: • Front end rides high
through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide. It should
maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering
geometry to remain constant. Solution: Decrease compression
"gradually" until bike neither bottoms nor rides high. Symptom:
• Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to
incorrect oil height and/or too much low speed compression
damping. Solution: First, verify that oil height is correct. If
correct, then decrease compression "gradually" until chattering
and shaking ceases. Symptom: • Bumps and ripples are felt
directly in the triple clamps and through the chassis. This
causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps. Solution: Decrease
compression "gradually" until control is regained. Symptom: •
Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or
entering turns. Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until
control is regained. Adjustment Locations: Rear Shock Rebound
adjustment (if applicable) is located at the bottom of the
shock. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located on the
reservoir. Spring prelude is located at the top of the shock.
Shock: Lack of Rebound Symptoms: • The ride will feel soft or
vague and as speed increases, the rear end will want to wallow
and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers. • Loss of
traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock
returning too fast on exiting a corner. Solution: Insufficient
rebound - Increase rebound until wallowing and weaving
disappears and control and traction are optimized. Shock: Too
Much Rebound Symptoms: • Ride is harsh, suspension control is
limited and traction is lost. • Rear end will pack in, forcing
the bike wide in corners, due to rear squat. It will slow
steering because front end is riding high. • When rear end packs
in, tires generally will overheat and will skip over bumps. •
When chopping throttle, rear end will tend to skip or hop on
entries. Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound
"gradually" until harsh ride is gone and traction is regained.
Decrease rebound to keep rear end from packing. Shock: Lack of
Compression Symptoms: • The bike will not turn in entering a
turn. • With bottoming, control and traction are lost. • With
excessive rear end squat, when accelerating out of corners, the
bike will tend to steer wide. Solution: Insufficient
compression. Increase compression "gradually until traction and
control is optimized and/or excessive rear end squat is gone.
Shock: Too Much Compression Symptoms: • Ride is harsh, but not
as bad as too much rebound. As speed increases, so does
harshness. • There is very little rear end squat. This will
cause loss of traction/sliding. Tire will overheat. • Rear end
will want to kick when going over medium to large bumps.
Solution: Decrease compression until harshness is gone. Decrease
compression until sliding stops and traction is regained.
About the author:
Mark Thompson raced motorcycles and managed race teams for over
20 years He now runs a number of websites including
www.worldoftheweird.com and www.trackbikes.co.uk
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