How To Set up High and Low Speed Compression on a Dirt Bike Shock

so if you clicked on this video then chances are you want to know what high and low speed compression are what they change and when you should adjust those and that's we're going to cover in today's video all right everyone thanks for checking in i am chase here at rockymountainatvmc and today we are talking all about high and low speed compression on the shock on your motorcycle now it's no secret that most riders when they adjust their suspension on the shock they either adjust the compression or the rebound but most riders never touch their high-speed compression and you know really the biggest reason is just because people don't understand it that well so we're going to talk about that in this video today a lot of riders might think their suspension is too soft in the shock or too stiff and they'll make adjustments with the compression but they never actually touch the high speed compression and chances are a lot of times a simple twist of that high speed adjuster can fix the issues that you're having you just have to remember that low and high speed compression they go hand in hand so you want to utilize both you don't want to just do all your compression adjustments and not touch your high speed now the great thing about suspension is you can always go back to your base setting and when it comes to compression and rebound we have a great video on that as well so if you're trying to dial in your whole suspension setup when we're done here give that a watch but before you get started and you make any adjustments the important thing is have a base you want to make sure you know where you're starting so either look at your owner's manual if you're not sure or you can ask your suspension tech and they'll tell you what your base settings are that way no matter what changes you make whether you make a change and you don't like it or you just forget what changes you've already made to the bike you can always go back and start over that's just going to give you some peace of mind but don't be afraid to adjust your suspension and see what it does so before we dive too far into this video let's just real quickly cover the basics of your shock anatomy and where your load and high speed adjusters are so your low speed adjuster and again this could be different depending on what shock you have but on most bikes when you look at your shock up here at the top your low speed adjuster is going to be the clicker that you use a flat blade screwdriver for your high speed adjuster is going to be this outer nut normally it's going to be either a 14 or 15 or a 17 millimeter that is your high speed it's also important to know that when you're adjusting your low speed okay that's going to be in clicks you're going to feel it click and sometimes if it's quite enough you can hear it click as well but with your high speed adjuster it's not going to click it's actually just a smooth motion and when we talk about high speed you're going to hear you're going to hear us say either a half turn a quarter turn or even eighth of a turn so they're going to be adjusted a little bit differently but on both of these if you go in or clockwise that's going to be stiff and stiffening those up if you go counterclockwise that's going to be softening those up so next up let's just talk about what makes low speed low speed and high speed high speed i think this is where riders get the most confused and have the most doubts about adjusting their suspension a lot of riders confuse high speed with the actual speed that you're moving on the motorcycle wrong that is not what high speed is referring to what high speed adjustment is referring to is how fast your shock is traveling through its stroke especially the entire length of the stroke so when we're talking about high speed adjustment or high speed compression what we're referring to is if you're going you hit a steep jump face at high speeds your shock is compressing all the way through the stroke quickly or maybe you're going through some rollers or some whoops that are close together and you're hitting those hard that's a high speed movement or maybe you over jump something you have a sudden impact where the whole shot compresses quickly or even in sometimes you don't have to be going at higher speeds you'd be coming out of a corner and there'll be some acceleration chop that's got some square edges to it in that situation you get some high speed compression there as well now with low speed a very common term that you're going to hear is called wallowing and what we refer to when we say that word is when you're accelerating out of say a corner maybe on the start straight your bike's going to squat especially when you're really hard on the gas i like to think of it as a muscle car when you see a really fast car accelerate the front end wants to lift up the rear and squats but your motorcycle is doing the exact same thing and a lot of times what will happen when a bike is wallowing is it squats too low you get kind of a vague feel it might start go start to go side to side and you don't feel like the bike is tracking straight that's a good indicator that your low speed compression is too soft and you want to stiffen that up now on the ver on the other side if you're accelerating down a star trader or start and you feel like the bike is high you know another term we use a stink bug or as you're coming into a turn if the bike's not settling in that corner that's an indicator that your low speed compression is too stiff and you're going to loosen that up now some good advice that i have when you are adjusting your suspension is i like to call it go big or go home you know one click on your low speed adjuster is really hard to feel the difference unless you're really just fine tuning your suspension so what i always recommend is go three to four clicks at a time and maybe you go too sick for too soft well the good news is you can always just go back out one or two clicks and find that happy medium so i'd say go three to four clicks on your low speed adjuster now another snare that you might find yourself in is in rollers so if you're going through a set of rollers that are nice and rounded there's a lot of space between those if you feel like the rear end is low and you're kind of getting maybe some side to side kicking that's an indicator that your low speed compression is too soft and go in a few clicks to stiffen it up and vice versa if you're going through those same rollers and you feel like the rear end is staying too high and it's not absorbing those rollers then go a little bit softer so next let's talk about high speed compression and like i mentioned earlier what high speed compression is you have your shock as your shock compresses on those low speed instances you have a needle and seat that's inhibiting the oil that's flowing through that but on the other side of that you have a valve stack that's pressed against a coil spring that's putting tension on that and when you adjust your high speed adjuster you're changing the amount of tension on that coil spring so that's what you're adjusting and that's what's going to help with those high speed compressions so that's really in a nutshell how your shock is working for you now let's talk about when you might notice that you need to adjust your high speed compression if you're going on a track or whatever it is that you're riding if you're going through some rollers that are close together maybe square edgy and you feel like the rear end is too low and it's packing maybe getting a kick from side to side that's an indicator that's your high speed compression is too soft or if you hit an abrupt face on a jump and you feel like you're blowing through the stroke and it's bottoming or you come off a jump you over jump you come down hard you're blowing right through the stroke those are indicators that you're too soft and you want to go stiffer on the high speed now on the flip side of that if you go off a jump and you land and you feel like you're not utilizing the entire stroke or maybe you're coming up with some big big braking bumps at a high speed and the first braking bump that you hit you get a bad kick or maybe the bike wants to just deflect that's an indicator that you're too stiff and that's kids or in that case you want to go a little bit softer on your high speed compression now one other scenario where your high speed compression might be too stiff is if you're coming out of a corner and you have some square edge bumps and as you accelerate you feel like the rear end is really harsh and it's not settling there that could be an indicator again that you're too stiff and go a little bit softer now as far as the adjustments that you're making with your high speed compression we talked about your low speed earlier how i say go three to four clicks at a time your high speed adjuster is a little bit more sensitive than your low speed adjuster but even still like i said earlier you've got a half turn a quarter turn an eighth of a turn i would say to really feel the difference in those adjustments do a half turn at a time because if you go too far you can always go back just a little bit and you know find your happy medium and meet right in the middle but i'd say go half turn that way you really feel the difference that you're making the biggest thing here that i'm talking about though is you have to remember that there are so many variables when it comes to suspension there's a lot of things that are happening all at once with your shock and there you could have an instance where you have a high speed and a low speed compression going on at the same time so the best advice that i can give you is just you know tinker with things try making an adjustment start with your compression only and if that doesn't fix it go to your high speed compression adjust one thing at a time that way you know exactly what change you made and if it doesn't work you go back and then you try something else well like i mentioned earlier in this video you can always go back to your base setting you can always start over so if you're not quite sure if you don't like what's happening go back and start all over but these are just kind of some simple ideas and some simple ways for you to know one what your high speed and low speed compression do while you're out there riding and don't be afraid to try and adjust those and see if you can make your bike set up even better because that's why you want to be able to adjust those is to get more comfortable and have more fun on your bike and that's it those are kind of the basics of your low and high speed compression how it works in your shock and those are just a few examples of helping you know what you might need to adjust and the best advice i can give is experiment with it as long as you know what your base is you got nothing to lose you can just go back to your base setting and start all over again and that's the beauty about suspension you've got nothing to do but make it better for yourself and you owe it to yourself to go do that so next time you're out riding having a good time even if you feel like your shock is set up pretty good make some adjustments just so you can kind of feel what those adjustments are going to do for you but if you guys do have more questions or comments we want to get those answers so make sure to leave those below and if you guys like this video remember we have that compression rebound video where we cover those topics as well we have a lot of other great tutorial videos and instruction videos or bike builds or how to's everything on our channel that you're going to need to have a good time i'm chase here at rocky mountain we'll see on the trails you

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 62,952

Rating: 4.9669843 out of 5

Keywords: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, rmatv, rmatvmc, motocross, rockymountainatv, dirt bike, dirt bike high speed compression, dirt bike low speed compression, high and low speed compression explained, motocross suspension setup, motocross suspension tuning, adjusting dirt bike suspension, Adjusting Dirt Bike Suspension High and Low Speed Compression, dirt bike shock adjustment, setting up dirt bike suspension, mx suspension tips, How To Set up High and Low Speed Compression on a Dirt Bike Shock

Id: 9H0513NHEDw

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020