Tech Tips: Setting Up and Adjusting Motorcycle Forks

you hey this is Michael Lindsey from vinyl MX we're down here at shop Rome our sports day previously on tech tips we've gone through air Forks and some of the setup tips today we're gonna go a little broader on suspension and talk about the clickers what they do when you should and when you shouldn't touch them so today we're dealing with a modern-day cartridge fork this is what the majority of you will find on your motorcycles and they're very simple the compression is usually located up top and the rebound down below they're easy to identify on the fork because it will usually be a C or comp which stands for compression while the rebound side will have a T or 10 which actually means tension the compression side of the fork is when the fork is compressing when it is actually going through the down part of its stroke that's what the compression adjuster is affecting so if you turn it clockwise or in its closing down the valve and restricts oil flow meaning it will go through the stroke slower if you turn counterclockwise and open that adjuster it will allow more oil flow which will allow to go through the stroke quicker so now identifying when to turn the compression adjuster this can be a little bit finicky because some people might think they're on the soft side when they're actually too stiff and some people might think they're too stiff when they're actually on the soft side of things one of the easiest way to identify it if you're struggling is to have a rubber band or a zip tie on one of your fork legs so you can see how much travel you're using realistically the majority of modern-day full-size buy Forks are around 12 inches of travel well there are meant to be 12 inches for reason not to use eight not to use 10 it's to try to utilize the maximum amount of that stroke even top pros will find that their systems bottom a couple times a lap depending upon their setup if not very close to using up the whole stroke so if you run something allows you to check the stroke length and you still have say three inches left to travel you're probably too stiff you could afford to go softer and use up more range of your suspension so we've mentioned how to identify a little bit the fork is too stiff now another interesting thing is when the fork is so soft that it feels stiff some people run their settings so soft that you actually use up the stroke so quickly that you enter the bottoming area of the fork a too quick of a rate and then the fork ramps up and gets harsh lot of things all happen for people in these situations also under heavy braking will be the bike feels twitchy because the bike becomes unbalanced because there's so much weight on the front end as we just went through there's a lot of causes and situations that can make the fork feel different ways and sometimes it's really hard to identify whether you are too stiff or too soft honestly when you're starting out there's only really one way to accomplish this you have to start adjusting the suspension and figure out what it does a lot of people will get a little worried that they're gonna mess up their stuff so they'll only make one or two clicks here and there and they really can't identify it even real seasoned test riders can't always feel the difference in one click and what do we mean by a click you hear people say 10 12 14 it's very Universal in the suspension world that a click is talking about going all the way stiff if you turn it clockwise far enough the adjuster will eventually bottom out then when you start coming back counter clockwise you'll feel a click that is 1 click then 2 clicks 3 clicks some adjusters work on quarter turns some work on half turns but either way you're feeling that click when it settles into the groove so if I'm talking about 10 clicks out and I want you to go to 12 you're gonna be 10 clicks out counterclockwise from the start so typically on most cartridge Fork she'll find the compression adjuster located in the center of the cap offset from that you'll find an air bleed screw when turn counterclockwise and unscrewed it will release any built-up air pressure in the outer chamber now what this does is if the fork is fully extended and you release this bleeder valve the PSI in the outer chamber of the fork will go to 0 this is really important because any kind of temperature change whether it be from operation or just the conditions around you can cause pressure buildup in the outer chamber the easiest way to think of this is if the pressure in this chamber has only built up to one or two psi that may not seem like much but as the fork is compressed through the stroke the volume in which this pressure is in shrinks so the pressure builds this will actually create more damping force to the stroke so when some people feel like their Forks are getting harsh throughout a moto or later in a day it's because the heat has built up enough that the pressure has rise in the fork so between Moto's it's always really good to just take a quick second to bleed these Forks to release the pressure and keep your fork working consistently so now let's talk about the other end of the stroke the rebound this seems to be one that people get a little more confused by and seem to play with less the rebound is very simple so as we said this is the compression of the stroke the rebound is when the fork extends so how does the adjuster work in this case if you turn the adjuster clockwise tightening it it will restrict the oil flow meaning the fork will extend slower it will rebound slower if you go counter clockwise and open that adjuster it will allow more oil flow on rebound the fork will extend or rebound quicker so this one's also a little bit different for people to understand and something you really have to still play with the learn I implore the same as compression to try large changes to figure it out same thing when I say ten clicks I'm talking about going all the way clockwise until the rebound adjust your bottoms out and then ten clicks is the counterclockwise motion from fully bottom down if the fork rebounds too slowly it will feel planted initially but say as you hit a long section of breaking mumps the fork may begin to pack because as it hits each obstacle the fork will compress and it will not rebound quick enough before hitting the next obstacle meaning the force will keep driving the fork deeper and deeper into the stroke without recovery after a while the fork will get so deep into the stroke you're using the later stroke travel or the damping there and it will feel really stiff and harsh so in this case you would speed up your rebound so between each obstacle the fork can extend quicker to take on the next obstacle without getting so packed down now by reversal if the rebound is too quick it may have a springy feel for every bump you hit it might and back to quick and then when going into corners as you settle into the rut the bike may be topped out because the fork extends with so much force it doesn't want to settle as I said honestly anybody can sit there and give you advice and tell you what clickers you should and shouldn't run but everyone is different and everybody needs to learn how to do this for himself if they want to properly set up their bikes so honestly the best thing to do is keep very solid notes because the worst thing that can happen is if you try a lot of different settings and it just flat-out gets worse just go back to your base setting you always want to keep whatever your best or what you consider your base setting is Rin down so if you make a mistake or an error or you just flat-out get confused on what made something do something different go back to your base and start from scratch so another thing to remember is that compression and rebound adjustments can slightly affect each other in the sense that say you go softer on compression and you start to use more of the fork you may need a little bit quicker rebound to get back that travel between obstacles vice versa if you go stiffer on compression you may need to slow down the rebound slightly so you'll settle more in the corners and not top back out as quickly so honestly the ifs and buts on when to make these decisions and what clickers to change can be quite a bit to take on so today we've tried to keep it very simple and digestible by just focusing on the Forks in our next episode we're gonna dive into a shock talk about those adjustments while high and low speed is so until then check out vital MX comm for more tech tips and if you have any questions anything we can help you with throw them in the comment section below

Channel: Vital MX

Views: 208,339

Rating: 4.9337749 out of 5

Keywords: Vital MX, VitalMX.com, motocross, supercross, dirt bikes, mx, motorcycle, Tech Tips, How-To, How To, Chaparral, Vital MX Tech Tips, Wrenching, Adjusting, Adjustment, Forks, Fork Adjustments

Id: s5MoyYGBp0s

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2018