Motorcycle Suspension:
Trouble Shooting Suspension Problems.
Adjustment locations: Forks
Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located near the top of the fork. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located near the bottom of the fork. Spring preload adjustment (if applicable) is generally hex style and located at the top of the fork.
Lack of Rebound
Symptoms:
? Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and traction
? The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting the turn causing fading traction and loss of control.
? When taking a corner a speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss of traction and control.
? Aggressive input at speed lessons control and chassis attitude suffers.
? Front end fails to recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces.
Solution: Insufficient rebound. Increase rebound "gradually" until control and traction are optimized and chatter is gone.
Too Much Rebound
Symptoms:
? Front end feels locked up resulting in harsh ride.
? Suspension tucks in and fails to return, giving a harsh ride. Typically after the first bump, the bike will skip over subsequent bumps and want to tuck the front.
? With acceleration, the front end will tank slap or shake violently due to lack of front wheel tire contact.
Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound "gradually" until control and traction are optimized.
Lack of Compression
Symptoms:
? Front-end dives severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or during aggressive breaking.
? Front feels soft or vague similar to lack of rebound.
? When bottoming, a clunk is heard. This is due to reaching the bottom of fork travel.
Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase "gradually" until control and traction are optimized.
Too Much Compression
Symptom:
? Front end rides high through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide. It should maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering geometry to remain constant.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until bike neither bottoms nor rides high.
Symptom:
? Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to incorrect oil height and/or too much low speed compression damping.
Solution: First, verify that oil height is correct. If correct, then decrease compression "gradually" until chattering and shaking ceases.
Symptom:
? Bumps and ripples are felt directly in the triple clamps and through the chassis. This causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until control is regained.
Symptom:
? Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or entering turns.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until control is regained.
Adjustment Locations: Rear Shock
Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located at the bottom of the shock. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located on the reservoir. Spring prelude is located at the top of the shock.
Shock: Lack of Rebound
Symptoms:
? The ride will feel soft or vague and as speed increases, the rear end will want to wallow and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers.
? Loss of traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock returning too fast on exiting a corner.
Solution: Insufficient rebound - Increase rebound until wallowing and weaving disappears and control and traction are optimized.
Shock: Too Much Rebound
Symptoms:
? Ride is harsh, suspension control is limited and traction is lost.
? Rear end will pack in, forcing the bike wide in corners, due to rear squat. It will slow steering because front end is riding high.
? When rear end packs in, tires generally will overheat and will skip over bumps.
? When chopping throttle, rear end will tend to skip or hop on entries.
Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound "gradually" until harsh ride is gone and traction is regained. Decrease rebound to keep rear end from packing.
Shock: Lack of Compression
Symptoms:
? The bike will not turn in entering a turn.
? With bottoming, control and traction are lost.
? With excessive rear end squat, when accelerating out of corners, the bike will tend to steer wide.
Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase compression "gradually until traction and control is optimized and/or excessive rear end squat is gone.
Shock: Too Much Compression
Symptoms:
? Ride is harsh, but not as bad as too much rebound. As speed increases, so does harshness.
? There is very little rear end squat. This will cause loss of traction/sliding. Tire will overheat.
? Rear end will want to kick when going over medium to large bumps.
Solution: Decrease compression until harshness is gone. Decrease compression until sliding stops and traction is regained.
Mark Thompson has spent the past 20 years racing motorcycles and managing Race teams and riders. He now runs the Trackbikes Website along with a number on Internet Ventures
Latest News
Buell Blast 2007-2008 Motorcycles Recalled for Fire Danger US Recall News (press release), CO - Summary: BUELL IS RECALLING 1307 MY 2007-2008 BLAST MOTORCYCLES. THE FUEL TANK MAY EXPERIENCE SOME LOCAL DEFORMATION UNDER HIGH-HEAT CONDITIONS THAT CREATES ... |
Motorcycles might get own lanes next year Jakarta Post, Indonesia - The city administration plans to establish motorcycles lanes and change operating hours at certain state and private institutions in an attempt to ease ... |
Man dies in trail bike accident New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - Mr Shaw said it appeared three trail motorcycles had been travelling away from Clyde when two of them driving in the same direction collided. ... Two road deaths ruin hopes of third perfect weekend Trail bike rider dies in collision Oamaru teen killed in crash |
Motorcyclists deaths cause for concern San Angelo Standard Times, tx - But there was one conspicuous exception to the fall in traffic deaths and in its own way related to high fuel costs - motorcycles. ... |
Commercial Use of Motorcycles Peace fm Online, Ghana - Madam Obenewaa Frimpong said although the motorcycles have been there for sometime, it was not very popular until the traffic situation in the area recently ... |
Timpview product returns Salt Lake Tribune, United States - Two years ago, while he was racing the Lites Class for 250cc motorcycles, Anderson won this event at Miller Motorsports Park. Last year, after moving up to ... |
Scooter business is fuel-driven Hagerstown Morning Herald, MD - "We had people showing up in our showroom that would have never looked at motorcycles. "... They were first-time buyers. They were a lot of people who rode ... |
Lakeville motorcycle driver is charged in crash that killed his friend Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN - A Lakeville man faces criminal vehicular homicide charges days after his friend was killed in an early-morning Labor Day motorcycle crash. ... |
Travel Scene: South Dakota's just a day away Post-Bulletin, MN - While we're not big on motorcycles, they're popular with many others, and several hundred thousand bikers converge on Sturgis, SD, every August. ... Crazy Horse Memorial marks 60 years of construction |
The law of the road Business Standard, India - Now he has seven motorcycles lined up outside his home. It hardly takes any effort to find Hemant Sahai’s house. All the chrome glistening in the morning ... |
Resources
-
How To Turn Used Cars Into Ca$h With Your Computer
learn how to make money with used cars, used Motorcycles, used boats, used motor homes, scooters and more. Start your own used car business, profit from used cars. This is the perfrect homebased business.