Understanding Base Suspension Settings with Geoff Ballard | MXstore.com.au

all right Jeff Ballard here I wanted to date to try and run through a couple of the really basic but very very important setups on suspension and sag of a bike hanging around the pros having a race team for many years we got to know the importance of it and learn a lot from it and then learn a lot too from other top riders who came in through the team but today you can see if you go to an off-road or whatever that the guys spent so much importance on the SAG of the bike on the rear and they check it constantly so it is a really really important thing to make the bike balanced and setup well and and you can cheat things a bit to make a bike steer better or if it steers too tight on you and you're wanting the bike to sit a little lower you can fudge things a little bit but it's really important to get a certain amount of spring pressure on the spring which helps push the swing arm back down and give you traction so you can't just back the spring off it doesn't really work that way you know the only way to really do it properly is to get the bike set up for you and most of them come pretty well set up for further an average weight rider so if you're out of that realm and you're a really like I or a real heavy guy then you know you're going to benefit a lot by changing the springs so this is a this is a new knighting model WR for 50 n and most the time I don't need to change the spring but I've checked the the different settings of this bike and for me the spring is a little bit heavy I don't generally wear a bum bag or or any carrying water or anything so most of the time I'm just the way I am now without with obviously a helmet and everything so it's good to check your sag when you're the way that you would be riding so in a general sense it's about a third of the travel of the bike so a TT R or something a bit more trial bike if you've divided into three that's about how much it should sag with you sitting on the bike so there's a formula worked out and basically if you sit on the bike and get it so that it goes down to 100 millilitres if it's only going down let's say 90 generally 90 to 100 but if you need to back the spring off to get it lower it's a castellated nut at the top and you just release that and hammer it around or sometimes you can push it around but you need to get the base setting first once you do that then you see what the bike sags at once you've done that and you know in a general sense that's usually between 30 and 40 and most the time I'm around about 35 it depends again on the steering of the bike and some of those things but in this instance for this bike I'm running about 35 or 36 so a lot of guys I've noticed over the years they they say hey you know I don't ride too fast and I I don't like a harsh so I just back the spring off but and what happens in reality is the bikes it's lower and there's a linkage with most of these bikes and so when you it's designed so that when you're at the the top end of the extended part of the travel then you're in a really light part of that linkage and that's what makes it work better in small bumps and then as you go down it it stiffens the rate through the linkage so if you back it off the bikes it's too low you're actually in a really bad area and the bike will be harder not softer so really important to get it right once you've got the spring right then you don't need to go through all the different formulas again in my opinion you just go to you just keep checking the bike for you know this the bike sag so pretty important stuff it'll make riding so much more fun if you get that right and you know your confidence will go up because you can you can tune it so that the bike as I said it steers better or whatever and you'll feel more comfortable on it with the fork most of the time if your average sort of weight then because you're basically sitting over the rear of the bike more you know the fork spring is often quite good and you don't need to change it anything out of that weight limit you know you probably will but the fork height is another thing that's quite critical and this bike stays incredibly fast in some ways I found it a bit too quick so I've extended they've dropped the fork through from standard probably five or ten millimeters and and it's really made a difference and I really like it so if you're out in the desert or something like obviously they drop the fork through and extend it more of a chopper effect and the bike tends to want to go straighter so you know it's just it's just a quick basic setup on it there's more on the internet and if you wanted to go into more detail but there's so much information that's in your manual so if you're having trouble with a setup or even if you're not just want to get some confidence go back to your manual have a look there's really good information in all the manuals now and just sort of get a base position you'll see here I've written down some of the standard clickers on here and on the fork too and because sometimes you can get lost you experiment a bit and you probably shouldn't vary too much from standard because there's so much work going into that and there's a lot of really good riders and experienced people setting these things so it's good to not get lost so the best way to not get lost is to always just leave your starting position somewhere that's easy reference in the manual or whatever but I just put it on the bike when I get a bike and then I'd know from there but the basic setup is very very important from there there's different things that can make a difference and there's plenty of things to keep you busy in in final setup but the most important is getting the suspension and dialed in fit for what you ride and your weight so have a look into it'll probably make you riding days a lot more fun and hopefully you'll have some enjoyment out there on the trails [Music]

Channel: MXstore

Views: 36,923

Rating: 4.9609122 out of 5

Keywords: motocross, riding, race, racing, ride, moto, mx, gear, parts, accessories, thor, fox, shift, tld, edit, yamaha, kawasaki, suzuki, ktm, Husqvarna

Id: -qJH5qEHQNQ

Length: 6min 0sec (360 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2019