Fine tuning suspension..what a difference

Well I feel like a bit of an idiot.

I know what sag a should have, and when I got my suspension rebuilt and tinkered with, some time ago, I ASSUMED the guru had set the preload fairly close, as he has done in the past with my other bike. He didn`t need the bike, as through mathematics, it can be worked out pretty close at his shop.

Now I will say, that I don`t blame him in the least for it not being set.

Fast forward, to when I dropped my bike going to work a couple of months ago, and now the penny has dropped, as I`m very confidant, it was the main reason, along with bad tyres, that I dropped it.

On my recent visit to Brisbane, I went and saw my suspension bloke, and told him I was having real problems going around corners after having the rebuild, and explained what the bike was doing, and he said...have you set the sag?
Straight away I wanted to pull my head into my shell and hide. We checked it on the spot, and the sag was at almost 60mm. Screwed it down to 30mm. Guess what...it goes around corners now.

I decided to check my DRZ rear as well yesterday. After researching, it is supposed to be around 100mm, it was set at 135mm. Once again, what a difference.

So the moral of the story is, if you haven`t, go and do it right now!!!!

But front suspension is magicians work

It was the forks on the bandit that I didn`t check.
The rear shock is a modified gix that was correct already. So they both weren`t working properly together.

I just found out you can`t adjust front preload on the DRZ, only damping, which I thought was strange. But now I`ve set the compression and rebound on that to suit me, along with sticky street tyres. I feel there`s not too much out there that can out do a chook chaser in a tight corner situation set up properly.
The Bandit and it don`t even come close to the same category.

mtbeerwah wrote:I just found out you can`t adjust front preload on the DRZ

Yes you can.  Fork caps off, 20 cent pieces down the fork till its right. If it costs you more than $1.20 per leg ($3 if you use 50's) you need to respring

#Tag wrote:

mtbeerwah wrote:I just found out you can`t adjust front preload on the DRZ

Yes you can.  Fork caps off, 20 cent pieces down the fork till its right. If it costs you more than $1.20 per leg ($3 if you use 50's) you need to respring

cheers mate,
I did mean without shimming.
 Just traditional screwing down on the run.