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US
First step to upgrading suspension?
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Find a reputable tuner
Send to tuner or drop off is someone local is good and let them know your likes and dislikes with it currently.
They will ask your weight, age, riding ability and type of riding you do
They will finish and send back to you
Follow their sag recommendations
Ride bike
Check sag
If there are still things you are having trouble with, call the tuner and see what they recommend for adjustments
If those don’t work, most tuners with have you take the suspension back to them so they can put in some new setting for you.
Get stock stuff set up for your weight and speed and test it till you know what you are doing.
When that isnt enough, buy better stuff. And then keep it.
We are running 7 year old forks, because they work ( Supermoto not MX) and have tried to make modern ones work as well and not succeeded .
And use stuff you can get support on locally.. nothing better than a day at the track with a guy who knows what to do just by watching you ... dont be sucked in by big names, who you never get to see.
I have had heard good stuff about Lainer , they were involved in supermoto over here, and have MX stuff too, now working on the west coast.
The Shop
Can you feel a difference when you adjust the clickers or change the sag?
Can you REALLY feel it?
Or you you think you feel it?
Until you know those answers, don't spend a dime
A good set up stock suspension is enough for 99.9% of us..
Now, if you have money to waste by all means it’s your money and do what you want with it.
On my newer bike I’ve just changed the springs and set the clicker settings from the manual. I’m happy with it so will ride as it is for now.
Also get your static sag and rider sag dialed in. Grab a sag scale, great tool to have.
When you set your sag, do it in your riding position, that makes a huge difference. I stand probably 90% of the time. I set everything sitting once out of curiosity and it handled like shit.
Pit Row
On a side note since we are talking about suspension, it always amazed me with suspension how people will look for everything including bar clamps to get that perfect setup but pay no attention whats so ever to the front wheel and installing it properly to see that it doesn't bind the forks when they compress. It makes a difference if you take the time to line it up properly.
RT chart says my '14 KX250 forks are 2 rates too stiff (155 lbs, B rider) but my 16 year old son (145 lbs, fast B rider) says it's a hair too soft. Who to believe?
Find out what "adjusting" people are doing -stock- and see what you learn by trying that yourself.
Look into the opinions that folks on the same bike in your regiaon have and where/who they go to for Suspension work...
See if they're happy.
See if or what differences it made.
Try their bike if you can and see if it's different.
Good Luck!
Go testing with a friend and have him turn the clickers for you. Tell him to throw you a curveball every now and then by not making any changes - see if he can trick you.
It is my belief that stock suspension is pretty darn good these days, for the most part. Get it dialed in first and then see if you really need anything else.
- set your clickers to the factory manual or specs that MXA uses in their test.
- Set the SAG, both static and rider sag. That will tell you if you need a stronger or lighter rear spring. It’s very important to get the SAG numbers correct so that the bike is in balance.
- The race tech Spring chart is on the light side. You can mess around with it and put in different rider weights different rider abilities and the fork springs tend to stay the same. So I don’t think it can be trusted.
- If you have to go to heavier springs, increase your rebound a couple of clicks.
- you’re gonna have to verify set up and balance whether you send your suspension in or not. So you might as well do it first and see how much better the bike works before you send it in.
- On your forks, change the fork oil and set the oil level so that you have a known baseline of what you’re working with. It’s impossible to make sense of changes if you don’t know where you’re starting from.
- Take notes of your baseline and any changes you make. Trusting all this to memory just leads to confusion.
- The one time (20 years ago) I sent all my suspension in to get worked, I sent a full page of notes I’d taken about how the suspension worked in G outs and stutter bumps, bigger and little whoops, jumps, etc. The results were good.
- pick a time you’re not pressured to be in a hurry, go to the track, make some laps, make some changes and take more laps, and keep repeating. just to see what works or what you can learn.
- Good luck and have fun.
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