Sag settings

[stringman]

First off a disclaime. I dont really know anything about suspension.

I have had several tracers now. last one had a nitron rear shock and hagon progressive springs and I was happy with that.

I killed that bike so now have a GT. This came with ohlin cheapy shock with a spring for 30 stone! ( I weigh about half that ) and had been lowered. I hated how it handled.

I recently bought a new spring for the ohlins (115lb) and a set of used Andreani cartridges ( rated for 190lb weight) and took them to a suspension shop to be fitted/set up and back to the original height.

The bike does feel so much better but I was a little dissapointed that he set the bike up without me being on it. Now to be fair they are a proper suspension shop that only do that so maybe he didnt need me their ( he had my weight)

The staic sag was 31mm front and 15mm rear 

the front compression was 2.5 turns out remount 1. 25 turns out

the rear rebound was 10 clicks out.

Obviously the proof is in how it rides but do these settings sound in the correct ballpark?

TIA

 

 

[betoney]

1 hour ago, stringman said:

I recently bought a new spring for the ohlins (115lb) and a set of used Andreani cartridges ( rated for 190lb weight) and took them to a suspension shop to be fitted/set up and back to the original height.

The bike does feel so much better but I was a little dissapointed that he set the bike up without me being on it. Now to be fair they are a proper suspension shop that only do that so maybe he didnt need me their ( he had my weight)

Obviously the proof is in how it rides but do these settings sound in the correct ballpark?

I have ordered shocks that came delivered with spring preload and damping already set, of course you can fine tune from there.  If you have questions, the best option would be to ride in and have them check, it should only take them a few minutes.

[Sunde]

Even if there are general settings that you should aim for when setting suspension, at the end of the day it also comes down to your preferences. So if you "feel" the need to make it softer/harder/faster/slower i'd just do it. Dial it in the way you like it

Keep the settings set up by the shop as a baseline. Or take it to someone who will adjust it whilst you are on the bike etc. But again there is not 1 "correct" setting. It varies on preference, skill etc. 

[stringman]

thanks for the replies.

Its just everyone says set the sag first and I wondered what range that initial setting should be

thanks

[OZVFR]

Just to clarify:

Setting correct ect sag does not change the softness or hardness of suspension. You can’t change the spring rate by preload. 

It just sets the shock or forks to have the correct amount of up and down travel. Or in other words it sets the suspension to where it will have the most amount of control. 

Changing rebound will change how it reacts, but not preload. 

[stringman]

OzVFR 

thanks for that, that makes sense. the rear shock is a cheap ohlins so only has the rebound adjustment.

When I can get out to have a play i will see what its like

 

[betoney]

54 minutes ago, stringman said:

OzVFR 

thanks for that, that makes sense. the rear shock is a cheap ohlins so only has the rebound adjustment.

When I can get out to have a play i will see what its like

 

Don’t mistake bouncy with comfortable, bouncy is too little rebound damping, adjust it so it is very controlled in corners.  It might feel “cushy” with minimum rebound damping… until you go through a fast corner and it feels like sitting on an exercise ball. 

[piotrek]

14 hours ago, stringman said:

Its just everyone says set the sag first and I wondered what range that initial setting should be

The preload setting will be unique to you and whatever other load there is on the bike... so that will be your initial setting. Measure the sag and adjust preload as needed.

Get assistance from someone, or buy a tool like Motool so that you can do this easily on your own. 30% of suspension travel is your target.

Edited July 27, 2022 by piotrek