[Rooster]

I've played with my suspension settings a little bit and found I could really get the bike to sit down and slide a lot more controllably with the adjustments, but it's left me wondering what other people are running on their bikes.

On my 2004 CRF450 I found that setting compression to full soft, and rebound to full hard with 3.75" of sag helped the bike a lot. I also went up (hard) about 12 clicks on the forks compression and 4 clicks on the rebound. These "to the max" settings don't really leave me any room for adjustments now though, but damn the rear end chatter really disappeared.

Before I go and have the suspension revalved to give me some adjustment room, what are the rest of you all doing for settings. :hmmm:

Oh yeah, I'm probably an intermediate level rider, and I weigh 190-200 lbs.

 

[K-9]

susp.

on my 04 crf 450, just about everything is turned in all the way, & I get by. If KTM knows what they're doing then you need to revalve! I sat on their new 450 smr, & holy-crap! slow slow & slow valving, it feels like they got motorhoney in those forks, but they make some of the best s/m factory bikes, just my observation.

 

[Canadian_SMR]

Humm, i run an 03' crf 450 and we took it in to a shop and got them to revalve it and lowerd the front an inch, *stock height on the rear*. My dad just picked up a KTM 525 SMR, and the stock suspension feels ok untill you ride it, the front end is like a barn board and you cant get any good feeling out of it, No real sence of when its about to let go when your really pushing it. so were going to have to revalve that was well.

 

[K-9]

is the 525 too stiff(too slow valving), I just sat on the 450 smr after it came off the track & it moved slower than a roadrace bike.

 

[Canadian_SMR]

Yea i did find it alittle stiff, and very unresponsive, like when your coming hard off a strait and hammer on the brakes, the suspension goes down but it dosent give you any increased feeling wile you get to the bottem, and mid cornor i found there just isent any feeling from your tire, no real feed back other then the way the bike slides. Im not real expect on suspension work, but i think we need to soften it up abit and try to give it a much more progressive feeling. Hope that helps? :hmmm:

 

[RichieB]

Rooster

Make sure you weigh yourself with all your gear on before you have the
suspension. 30+lbs makes a big difference.

 

[Big Zero]

I have a YZ426F with stock forks and shock. I have the compression on the forks set at full stiff. The rebound is at full soft. The rear is just the opposite. Full soft on the compression and nearly full hard on the rebound.

I ride the bike with a much more roadrace style. I tend to really abuse the front tire, and am relatively easy on the rears. I mostly strait line brake for the corners, with little backing it in technique. Some of the guys who back it in are shit slow in comparison, so who is right. We have had a couple guys come out who raced the AMA series, and I can hang pretty well with them, and I am actually a little faster through the corners then they were. They have me totally out gunned HP wise, so within a few laps, they start to pull away, but I haven't really seen that the backing it in technique is that much better. The guys who back it in well go fast, but not everyone who "backs it in" really do it how it is supposed to be done. If you watch Henry and Ward, they back it in, but carry a tremendous amount of corner speed. They don't even take the foot off until the apex of the corner. There is such a subtle change from the sideways slide to the accelleration off the corner, it really is cool to see. If you watch, the bars are crossed up, then they turn the bars in just about the time the foot comes off. They do it so well, it is really fast. The guys around here that back it in, go like hell, slide the bike in sideways to nearly a complete stop, then turn and accellerate off the corner. They almost come to a complete stop before turning to accellerate. (not fast).

It is really hard to set up the bike, or tell anyone else how to set up their bike, when everyone has a different riding style. If you can back it in well, the stiffer the front, the better. (definitely revalve) If you ride it into the corner, you need the front to soak up some of the little bumps in the track, (maybe should leave the valving alone) I have heard leave the length stock and revalve, I have also heard to lower but no more than two inches and then revalve.

You have to find what works for your particular riding style, weight, and ability.

Good luck.

paul G

 

[Canadian_SMR]

^ yea for the most part thats what id do, just see what works best for you, i havent been keeping my front end totaly stiff, we actualy softend it up, becouse you lose so much feeling and you just really need progressiveness, but match it to your riding, Quick and easy fix. take it to a shop that works on SM and ask them to set it up how they set there racers up, or if you know a racer just get his set up. Thats what i did to start, *worked off one of the quickest rider in canadas suspension set ups, cuz hes a friend and then made some ajustments to fit my riding, and now im very happy*

 

[rookie517]

just crash on my newly motarded xr4 this morning

i had set full hard comp and full soft on reb (fork)
and full soft comp and full slow reb (shock)
i had new dunlop gpr70 on, 30psi
i slip out just taking a quick right bend

what is going wrong here??

 

[crash790]

Full soft Reb on forks? Doesn't that make it kind of bounce or un load after you let off of the brakes?

I have a YZ426F with stock forks and shock. I have the compression on the forks set at full stiff. The rebound is at full soft. The rear is just the opposite. Full soft on the compression and nearly full hard on the rebound.

I ride the bike with a much more roadrace style. I tend to really abuse the front tire, and am relatively easy on the rears. I mostly strait line brake for the corners, with little backing it in technique. Some of the guys who back it in are shit slow in comparison, so who is right. We have had a couple guys come out who raced the AMA series, and I can hang pretty well with them, and I am actually a little faster through the corners then they were. They have me totally out gunned HP wise, so within a few laps, they start to pull away, but I haven't really seen that the backing it in technique is that much better. The guys who back it in well go fast, but not everyone who "backs it in" really do it how it is supposed to be done. If you watch Henry and Ward, they back it in, but carry a tremendous amount of corner speed. They don't even take the foot off until the apex of the corner. There is such a subtle change from the sideways slide to the accelleration off the corner, it really is cool to see. If you watch, the bars are crossed up, then they turn the bars in just about the time the foot comes off. They do it so well, it is really fast. The guys around here that back it in, go like hell, slide the bike in sideways to nearly a complete stop, then turn and accellerate off the corner. They almost come to a complete stop before turning to accellerate. (not fast).

It is really hard to set up the bike, or tell anyone else how to set up their bike, when everyone has a different riding style. If you can back it in well, the stiffer the front, the better. (definitely revalve) If you ride it into the corner, you need the front to soak up some of the little bumps in the track, (maybe should leave the valving alone) I have heard leave the length stock and revalve, I have also heard to lower but no more than two inches and then revalve.

You have to find what works for your particular riding style, weight, and ability.

Good luck.

paul G

 

[Big Zero]

The idea behind the full soft on the rebound up front is to get the tire to track back to the ground after going over bumps in the track surface. I tried to get the front to soak up the bumps by softening the compression, but that didn't work. The soft rebound really does the trick to get the tire back to the road. I don't notice the bounce back up you have mentioned due to the fact that I use the road race method more, and therefore, trailbrake a lot going into the corners. I seldom let the brake off abruptly enough to create the bounce effect.

If you are running 30 pounds of air in the tires,no wonder you went down. I have been running about 20 to 22 lbs in the Maxxis slicks I have on my bike. I have hardly had a wheel slip.

I am afraid that if I have the forks revalved or mess with the oil weight, the forks will be too stiff, and I will lose the feel I get from the front end the way it is right now. I would hate to spend a gob of money getting the forks done, only to find that they don't really suit my riding style.

Later

Paul G

 

[crash790]

What keeps the front tire from bouncing into the air at full extention?

 

[brian]

I have just learned this past month what works best for me (gonna get new springs) my front is 1 click off full compression and the same with rebound...the rear is the same.... the front has always stuck like shiz to a blanket but my rear was sliding out, until someone told me to crank up the rear all the way.....voila.....I can now crank the throttle in second hard over w/o the rear sliding out (I better go knock on wood after I said that) :laughingr I'm 252 with all my gear on and 22-24 lbs seems to work for me....at 30 I think the tires need awhile to heat up ??? so cold tires with that pressure might ? be the problem......

 

[K-9]

susp

I have yet to see a "dirt bike" that has slow enough rebound stock, not including some of the s/m factory bikes, I don't know how some of you guys get away with soft rebound for racing. S/M tracks typically mean 85-90% roadrace(although bumpy) & a dirt or motocross bike fork just won't slow down enough, I put thicker oil in my 04 crf's forks(7-9wt. I think) but you can also have seperate wt's for comp. & reb.
No I don't know about all makes, so there may be a couple out there, but I haven't seen them in the top 5

 

[rookie517]

the front has always stuck like shiz to a blanket but my rear was sliding out, until someone told me to crank up the rear all the way.

full slow reb ya mean??

 

[K-9]

Brian, your welcome

 

[brian]

Brian, your welcome

:FU: I need all the help I can get....your buddy is pretty dam fast..... :thumbup:

 

[Colrob]

Spring Rates

I am yet to go down the settings trail as yet, but what I have done is changed my front and rear springs to stiffer ones. The front I found way too spongy as all my friends will tell you. :infrandom So we put some way stiffer omnes in the front and a little bit stiffer in the rear. It has made a huge difference. I would much rather spend money on good suspension before go fast gear any day. Its no use being able to go really fast in a straight line if the thing won't turn.

I did the same as Canadian SMR. Found out what the fast guys were running and followed their lead.

Now I have to start adjusting to see what works and what doesn't. I have the same problem as Brian, this thing just wants to spin all the way out of the corner. Should try that on a sligtly damp track. Sure does get the pucker grabbing onto the seat :laughingr

Good thread, this could be reallt interesting, especially if some of the well set up riders would contribute as well.

 

[red916]

I have a 450smr and am wondering what sag to run.

 

[nevadaoutlaw]

I know this may be a question that could have many answers, but how about a "generic" baseline suspension setup for the Sportsman class? Just something I can start with then go from there?