I'll start by saying I love my stark and overall it is the best handling bike I have ever had, however I feel it needs work in the suspension department to take it to the next level.
I'm 95kg(210lbs) Vet B speed and only ride MX, not really interested in info about enduro/woods setups. I am currently running a 58nm rear spring and 5.2nm forks springs (probably going back to 5.0). I am on my second revalve and while it is better, the improvements have only been minor.
Where I am struggling with it the most is in the small slower choppy stuff and the high speed big hits. In the small stuff it feels too stiff and transfers alot of feedback into the hands. In the big stuff it feels too soft and blows through. Anything medium size and speed actually feels pretty good. I'll add that it is mainly in the forks, the shock could be improved a bit but it is overall pretty good.
Any advice from someone with a stark who has felt similar and possibly solved it would be greatly appreciated.
It depend a lot of what your suspension tech did in your fork. The feeling that I had on the stark was the fork feel soft, it was bottoming easy and packing in rebound. The shock feel not too bad but need a heavier spring for a guy over 180pnd.
The .52 spring might be ok for you, if you feel stiff in the smaller stuff it can be wrong preload on spring or too stiff valving ( base valving)
For the bottoming resistance, it can be soft mid valve valving or fork oil quantity. You should have at least 350ml of oil per leg and you can increase to 380ml but I would suggest to make increment of 10ml.
I don't know the specifics of the first revalve as it was done by a shop I trust but I asked for more plushness overall.
It was only a very slight improvement so i got them to send me there midpost they make which converts the trampoline style float to a traditional style check spring float. It was sent to me with the comp stack already made and I made a small adjustment to the base valve to suit.
When I did this I also installed the 5.2nm fork springs, with 4-5mm preload and 350ml of oil.
My shock sag numbers are around 105mm race and 42mm static, on a normal bike that would say to me that the rear spring is probably ok or maybe slightly on the stiff side.
A friend has a completely stock stark with the heavy suspension, we rode each others bike back to back and while they were slightly different we both still had the same complaints from each bike. Maybe it could just be a stark thing 🤷♂️
I’m not sure what to tell you there. All I can say is mine feels nearly identical to my previous Yamaha before I put kit suspension on it, which was still good. ENZO does my stuff most the time. But my Stark suspension is still in stock form minus I set sag and set clickers to my liking.
Try adding more preload to the fork springs, this helped me significantly with holdup. With the stock settings I had a lot of issues with the forks blowing through the stroke and being much too soft overall, so I ended up going up four spring rates in the forks I believe and increasing preload to levels similar to the modern YZ-Fs. I believe midvalve “float” (it’s not really float because it’s the leaf spring style midvalve but I’m not sure what else to call it) was also reduced.
Shoutout to our own Slipdog for helping me get this thing dialed in!
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I'm not sure extra preload will help, I've always found this to make the small choppy stuff worse. If I could only fix one thing I'd want to fix the small stuff, I could deal with the bigger hits.
My midvalve is now a different style of midvalve with a normal style float setup.
You said you went up 4 spring rates, do you know the actual spring rates you finished on? And how much do you weigh? Thanks
The reason I say to try adding preload is you may be spending too much time deep in the stroke, which can sometimes give the illusion of the bike being too stiff when in reality it’s actually too soft. I believe we settled on .52 springs if I remember right when it was all said and done.
I’m about 155lbs but relatively fast, so I tend to like more holdup. These bikes (and really all e-bikes at this stage) tend to load the front end a lot, so you’ll probably need to go stiffer with the forks then you would intuitively think. Just some things to try, what works for me may not work for you but worth a shot if you’re looking for things to try.
I'm definitely open to trying different things, and I appreciate all feedback.
Maybe I've just got to throw my logic out the window with the stark but .52 forks springs on any other bike would seem way too stiff for 155lbs would it not?
The part that makes me think it's not too stiff and has me a bit confused is that it actually feels pretty good on medium paced medium size hits.
Edit, it's almost like the first 20% is harsh, the middle 60% is pretty decent and the last 20% is soft.
Hmm, that’s interesting, I’m wondering if some of the differences we’re experiencing are due to the change in mid valve type. The stiffer springs and increased preload feel fine to me on the track but I was having a huge problem with the forks blowing through the stroke when stock, and I didn’t realize how bad it was until we started stiffening the front end and I immediately felt way more confidence. Keep in mind the Stark has about 20lbs on a 450 so stiffer springs than normal are to be expected, and I think with the increased weighing of the front end it makes it even more necessary. That’s my theory anyways, take it for what it’s worth haha.
Yeah I agree on your theory with the springs which got me at the 5.2 springs, I'd normally run 5.0's on a 450 so up one rate for the extra weight of the stark.
What rate would you normally run on a 450?
I have a stark and had the same reactions. What I did was go on the RaceTech website and get a spring recommendation with there calculator. I went from .46 to .42 on the forks the rear was correct at 5.4..I ride offroad and ordered the Lanier midvalve to replace the trampoline valve that comes stork much more supple for off-road also using only 12 face shims. The rear is way to stiff in stock form and needs revalve with softer compression and rebound. The suspension does breakin in about 5 hrs so it does feel better after a bit if you can wait. Double check fork alignment, clamp torque, chain tension and linkage bearings.
Ive got almost 20hrs on it now so should be well run in ha ha.
For offroad I can definitely understand going softer on the springs but the consensus seems to be stiffer for mx.
I'm hesitant to trust the racetech calculator as it also tells me to go softer while everyone else is saying stiffer. And a few times I've used it and it hasn't even had the bikes stock spring rate right so my trust in it is low.
It's the conflicting information I get from my research that's confusing me, some are saying go stiffer and some say go softer.
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