Just bought a very low hour 2003 raptor. Never had a sport ATV before and noticed that on the stock settings, the rear shock is very "loose". More specifically, just bouncing the rear of the atv results in very little compression daming or rebound damping. Is this normal? It ride fine at high speeds over various terrains and handles well. Is it just that I can't "hammer" the rear suspension fast enough bouncing it by hand since it's designed to react to much faster and to more severe bumps than my old utility atv? Thanks for the help.

 

it should be soft but yet hard enoguh to soak the bumps... if you are bouncing up and down the road you got a problem...

 

if it works while riding it, and does not bottom out and handles well then leave it alone. Unless you would rather it feel good while stanting behind it jumping up an down? If it start bottoming out while riding it then have it revalved and rebuilt.

 

Ok guys....I get the picture. I was asking the question because other than the rear shocks on my drag car (which have equal damping and compression) most car shocks, sportbike shocks, etc. have perceptible resistance to cpmpression and rebound when you bounce them by hand. You know....when you push down the bumper of a car or the rack on a utility ATV, it returns to its original position rather slowly. I was surprised at the sport ATV rear shock that was so "loose" when manually compressed. I guessed that was because it is designed to absorb big hits at high speeds and so at the relatively low speed of me pushing on the grab bar, it offers little resistance.

The bike handles well and takes whoops and small jumps without bottoming.

Is it safe to assume I still have a good rear shock?

Thanks....

 

you can adjust it rebound very slowly if you want, just turn the flat head adjusting screw at the bottom of the shock. But be warned, when you slow it down it will bounce around more. The idea your talking about with drag cars is right you want the shocks to move back slowly, this keeps the car planted and helps traction, on the drag strip. On your Raptor the oppisite is true, when you hit a bump the tires leave the ground so you want the rebound faster so the tires get back on the ground as fast as possible and the shock is fully extended so it can absorb the next bump from a normal position. If the shock is too slow it will stay compressed longer and have less room to work and absorb the next bump. Set the dampning just slow enough so it is not slaming the swingarm back down, but fast enough it controls the preload of the spring, this will keep it from feeling bouncy and help in braking bumps, and reduce the tendency for side to side hop in the rough stuff.