Jotaman said:
Hi Lothar,
Thanks for that, can you confirm your compressed spring length (at rest), can you also confirm number of clicks on compression and rebound dampning - counting out from fully closed (for reference).
The RGS (YSS rear and standard front), is just harsh and not compliant.
The Jota is just plain scary - front and rear (Racetec front and wilbur rear)
Peter
Hi Peter,
not sure that will help you as I weight a lot more than you I guess. I can count the clicks, but to compress the spring completely, it would take me a second person, best 3 in total: 2 pushing the bike down and one measuring. I don't have access to that many people currently... But you can look up maximum travel on the YSS webpage I think.
More importantly though is the travel of the swing-arm compared to the rear-frame. If the full travel of the swingarm measured vertically above the rear wheel axle to the frame rails is - say - 10 cm, the bike shouldn't sink down more than 2 -3 cm when you climb on it. If you can't measure it, one could calculate it (would have to dig out some formulas to really do that, but should be possible...).
The way I set up the bike is typically like that:
-first of all make sure the front fork is fully relaxed: open all screws and nuts that hold the fork on the bike except for the upper tripple-clamp screws (read: axle nut, the screw that holds the axle in place at the lower end of the fork, fork brace and/or mudguard screws, lower triple clamp screws). Now take the bike off the center stand, pull front brake lever and compress the fork as much as you can several times. Next fasten the lower triple clamp screws. Repeat the compression of the fork again several times. now fasten the fork brace, compress the fork several times, fasten the mudguard screws, compress the fork several times, now fasten the axle (first tighten the nut, compress several times, then the screw holding the axle in place). Your front should work as easy as possible now.
-next: check the sage of front and rear without and with rider on. Front can be adjusted by spacers between the top-cap and the spring, the rear with the spring-compression-rings. If there is no sage without a rider on, spring preload might be to much. More important though is the sage with the rider on.
-now pull front brake and compress as much as possible. if you can fully compress the fork, you need to fill in more oil (less air-gap) until you can't bottom it out.
-now you check the following: warm the bike up on a ride so that the oil in the fork gets to a working temperature. Stop for more adjustments: if you pull the brake lever and compress the fork with a short but massive push, the bike needs to come up above the upper resting point and sink down to the upper resting point without waiving or a second move. if it does, everything is fine. if it waives/bounces a second time (or even more), the rebound damping is to low and you need to fill in a higher grade oil (or mix some higher grade oil with your existing one). If it does not flex out beyond the upper resting point, your rebound damping is to stiff and you need lower grade oil.
If front works fine, go to the rear and repeat the process. if that seem to work fine, go for a ride and first focus on the front again: When you brake seriously, does the front shatter or the fork bottoms out? if so, increase oil-level/reduce air-gap again. 1 cm can make a big difference, so be careful. Does it take bumps from the road easily or is it to hard for your wrists? To hard: wrong oil grade. if the bike gets lifted out to much after your front wheel left a pothole, your rebound damping is to low => higher grade of oil or spring is to stiff.
Same on the rear. Correct sage adjusted, make someone hold the bike at the front with front brake engaged while you push down the bike as much as you can and release it quickly (simulating a ride over a bump). if it goes a bit beyond the upper resting point and goes back to that point - rebound is set correctly. always start from fully open, so you see the result of wrong settings a bit more obviously. Now close the rebound damping by 5 clicks and check again (YSS has something like 50 clicks... Wilbers I think have just 12 or 15 or so; no quality difference here, it is just different. On Wilbers or ?hlins, please always just do 2 clicks at a time max.). Repeat that step until the bike does not go up beyond the upper resting point. now go 2 clicks at a time more open, until it does go beyond the upper resting point to go down to it again and stops there.
-Now you have the basic adjustment done and will for sure recognize an improvement already. Go for a ride and check if the bike waives in long curves. If so, close the rebound on the rear on each side by 2 clicks and check again. if its better but not yet gone, another 2 clicks closed etc. just until it stops waiving (on Wilbers and ?hlins always just 1 click at a time)
Have done several bikes this way, all to the satisfaction of the riders.
