suspension setting help

[Wooly R6]

Right - i am about 15 1/2 stone and the manufacturers setting in the manual are usually for an 11 stone rider usually.

what should i do to the suspension - just alter the preload a notch or two?

and what about a pillion - preload a bit more and rebound a bit?

[the grim reaper]

It's a bit more scientific than that but easy to understand once you know what each setting on the suspension does.

Preload - Pretty much what it says, it preloads the suspension so that the force required to get the suspension moving has to be greater, i.e 15.5 stone of rider

Compression - Controls how fast the suspension is allowed to move when you hit a bump in the road

Rebound - controls how fast the suspension is allowed to move back into it's original position.

So, if you wound off all three, you'd end up with suspension that requires little force to get it moving, moves fast when you hit a bump and rebounds very fast i.e a pogostick

If you increased all three you'd end up with a bike that requires huge force to get the suspension moving, suspension that moves very slowly when you hit a bump and then rebounds very slowly from what little movement has happened i.e your old raleigh racer

Looking at what your, erm, increased mass does to the bike, when you hit a bump, your mass on the bike actually increases the force applied to the suspension so a bit more preload would help.

However, that's not all, the increased force will mean that the suspension also tries to travel faster, so a bit more compression would help.

You also don't want the wheel slowly returning to the original position as you'll hit the next bump and the front wheel will still be travelling downwards, jarring the bike. So, basically increase this as well.

The best way is to play with ONE setting and then go out for a ride down a bumpy road. Then repeat with the next and the next, once you are happy.

Cheers

Grim
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[Wooly R6]

thanks lots