This question is about the effects of suspension settings. i am real good with cars and using independent damping and rebound settings to tune a car with small deflection on a coned corse or race track (formula SAE member) but i was wondering in the world of off road racing what effect does the rebound and damping do.

i heard to keep a smooth ride over the whoops (to keep the rear of the bike from bucking around) you need to adjust the rear rebound. I know that you stiffen the springs if your bottoming out but what performs better in corners haveing stiffer front springs or should i stiffen the compression instead. without roll stabiliztion (anti-roll bars) i am out of ideas. My terrain is mostly whoops and tight twisty corners with dirt and some sand. No real jumps to speak off.

this all applies to my yfz i believe that being that these shocks are adjustable (compression and rebound) there is no real reason for me to buy after market shocks until i build/purchase after market control arms.

any case senarios, material i can read, or knoledge gained from experience would be appreciated

thanks

steven

 

sombody has to know how this stuff works?

 

In my experience, more compression and slightly softer springs helps in cornering, but then you're going to lose a bit on large jumps, and you may experience some packing in whoop sections. It's all about riding, making adjustments, riding some more and dialing it in.

You'll need to adjust more than rebound to setup for whoops. You want the shock to react to each whoop evenly. If it starts traveling less and less with each whoop, it is packing up and you may have too little rebound. But too much will cause the bike to buck.

 

How do you tell the difference betwwen the rear suspension packing up and rebounding to fast. both situaitons will try to end you voer the front handle bars right?

 

Not necessarily.

If the rear shock is packing up, that means it is no longer extending between each hit and your amount of travel is decreasing as you travel through the whoops. The shock is not doing it's job by rebounding to it's fully extended amount of travel to allow it to absorb the next hit.

If a shock has too much preload, it will feel like you're riding on a pogo stick. The seat is literally going to be bouncing up into your @$$, bucking from side to side and dropping the front end severely. This could send you over the bars.

The idea is to find the middle ground. You want enough rebound so that you can skim through the whoops with your shock extending enough in between hits to comfortably absorb the next whoop. Too little rebound and you will experience either packing, or the shock using it's full travel to absorb a small whoop, which you don't want. Because when the spring reacts and does rebound, this could also send you over the bars.

A general rule of thumb for rebound is, the faster the rider the faster the rebound. But too much rebound and it will feel like you're on a bucking bronco. Again, just ride and make small adjustments. This is on your YFZ, so you should only be making minor adjustments each way, and then riding before making them again.

The great thing about the YFZ shocks is you can adjust almost everything with a flathead screwdriver or allen wrench. So take one with you in your pocket or in your tool kit. Stop on the trail/track and try a few clicks stiffer if you feel the shock is not rebounding fast enough in the whoops, or a few clicks softer if it is starting to swap from side to side.

 

thanks I was wiating for a response like that.