17-10-12, 05:56 PM
Yes its the 2006 model. When I bought it everything had been set to hard, probably because the previous owner was bigger than me (doesn't explain why the rebound and compression had been stiffened though).
There was no alternative, I had to go through the whole set the sag etc routine with a friend and a tape measure. The bike is under a cover at the moment so I can't be sure of all of the settings, but the front preload ended up on four rings, and the shock is on the softest setting. I set the compression so that the forks and shock actually move rather than feel like they are made out of concrete. I started on the default settings and then kept reducing the compression damping until they felt right when the bike was stationery. The rebound settings were left as standard, or slightly softer as I recall. I won't know whether further adjustment is needed until the next long Sunday run, as it will all behave differently once it all gets warm.
At the end of the day suspension should absorb bumps and braking smoothly, and then return to position smoothly and quite quickly. The reason for this is that if you go over a series of bumps, or have a combination of braking and bumps, then all that will happen is that the suspension will undergo compression before the rebound damping has allowed it to return to the top. Too much of this and effectively you are altering the geometry and reducing the suspension travel, if that makes sense.
It's why some bikes with stiff suspension handle like barges when under pressure, suspension should be compliant and controlled for the road. Tracks are different as there aren't the bumps to contend with.
That is the difference between super slick cool running friction free expensive suspension, and the cheap stuff. At the moment the achilles heel is the rear spring, but that looks solveable.
Rob
There was no alternative, I had to go through the whole set the sag etc routine with a friend and a tape measure. The bike is under a cover at the moment so I can't be sure of all of the settings, but the front preload ended up on four rings, and the shock is on the softest setting. I set the compression so that the forks and shock actually move rather than feel like they are made out of concrete. I started on the default settings and then kept reducing the compression damping until they felt right when the bike was stationery. The rebound settings were left as standard, or slightly softer as I recall. I won't know whether further adjustment is needed until the next long Sunday run, as it will all behave differently once it all gets warm.
At the end of the day suspension should absorb bumps and braking smoothly, and then return to position smoothly and quite quickly. The reason for this is that if you go over a series of bumps, or have a combination of braking and bumps, then all that will happen is that the suspension will undergo compression before the rebound damping has allowed it to return to the top. Too much of this and effectively you are altering the geometry and reducing the suspension travel, if that makes sense.
It's why some bikes with stiff suspension handle like barges when under pressure, suspension should be compliant and controlled for the road. Tracks are different as there aren't the bumps to contend with.
That is the difference between super slick cool running friction free expensive suspension, and the cheap stuff. At the moment the achilles heel is the rear spring, but that looks solveable.
Rob