Suspension Beginner questions

Aussie_power_sports
Edited Date/Time 9/10/2012 4:47pm
After sending my suspension away and getting it re valved, the tuner told me that the 2011 KTM's fork were known for being hard through the intial part of the stroke then soft.

When I asked a bloke at work who rides and has some suspension knowledge about this, he kind of laughed and said there is nothing inside the forks that can make it go hard then soft or vice versa. Can anybody explain to me about this, and what the tuner was talking about?
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lumpy790
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lumpy790 9/10/2012 6:19am
9/10/2012 6:19am
Yes .....that is what the valving does.
UpTiTe
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UpTiTe 9/10/2012 7:09am
9/10/2012 7:09am
Your compression setting will change will do it.
Factor E
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Factor E 9/10/2012 11:00am
9/10/2012 11:00am
If this guy called himself a tuner and gave that explanation than he is not a tuner. Valving, piston port size and fluid.
Get with PMR suspension in AUS.
Aussie_power_sports 9/10/2012 1:57pm
9/10/2012 1:57pm
The guy who did my suspension is one of the best in aus, he currently does the ktm Offroad team over here.

Can somebody explain the basics or point me to an article exclaiming it.

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aFACEdismembered 9/10/2012 4:39pm
9/10/2012 4:39pm
Aussie_power_sports wrote:
After sending my suspension away and getting it re valved, the tuner told me that the 2011 KTM's fork were known for being hard through the...
After sending my suspension away and getting it re valved, the tuner told me that the 2011 KTM's fork were known for being hard through the intial part of the stroke then soft.

When I asked a bloke at work who rides and has some suspension knowledge about this, he kind of laughed and said there is nothing inside the forks that can make it go hard then soft or vice versa. Can anybody explain to me about this, and what the tuner was talking about?
My buddy has the same forks with the same complaint. It's just a stock WP fork issue. On small bumps (braking/accel bumps) if you set it up to handle those it will bottom out on bigger stuff (jumps). If you set them up to not bottom out, the initial compression is harsh but bigger landings and hits are softer. It's a give and take setting them up. He hasn't had them revalved yet either so I guess it's not a big complaint for him, just something he can notice in set up and feel from other stuff he has ridden.
7GP
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7GP 9/10/2012 4:47pm
9/10/2012 4:47pm Edited Date/Time 9/10/2012 4:48pm
What your tuner is talking about is certainly possible.

You have to look at all the different things in the fork that affect the way it travels through the stroke. You have a coil spring and an air spring (oil volume) in the outer chamber. In the inner chamber there is a base valve sometimes mounted on an IC spring and a damper rod with mid/rebound valve on the end of it.

It sounds like you are talking about a harsh initial stroke and being soft overall. There are a few ways this can be accomplished. One scenario is that the fork could be under sprung or the oil height could be too low. This would cause it to be soft overall and the compression valving would be trying to compensate for the quick action of the soft fork with a lot of compression dampening causing a harsh feeling.

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