Effects of riding style on suspension

[Anssi]

Hello,

I've now been riding for almost four years (I'm 27 now) and have read all about suspension and fiddled with mine.

What is the problem now is that I think I'm "riding around" problems in my suspension setup, and having some problems that I think are suspension-related when they're not. Much of the discussion on this forum has been about the technical side of suspension, so I hope to start a conversation about how you have to adjust the suspension to your riding style or how your riding can help or hamper the suspension.

A good example is that I rode my -02 520 SX for almost a year, always going harder on the compression since I bottomed hard, until I realized I'm supposed to gas it while landing (I knew the theory, but never realized how much it mattered until I started consciously twisting it). Of course, much of the bottoming happened when I was thinking "oh ****, I'm gonna flatland this", and let go of the throttle in a reflex reaction (not enough to make me nose-dive).

Another example is fork settings when braking. At 200 lbs, I can make the front bottom or hit the "air spring lock" even when I set the compression so bloody hard that it jars my arms on most bumps. When I say "I can", I mean that I put more weight on my arms. When I do proper braking with pretty straight but flexible arms, this doesn't happen.

In general, I think I've had my suspension set too hard on the compression side just to pretty much eliminate bottoming, and have therefore made it harder to ride in other parts of the track. I even had it revalved for a bigger guy, even though I think the standard shims might just have been enough to make the suspension work just using the clickers.

Please comment if you have anything to say or similar examples where suspension settings and riding styles clash.

 

[marcusgunby]

Style has a massive effect on suspension action, a friend has a 2002KTM125sx-it is so harsh when i ride it-it deflects and doesnt track well.When he rides it floats across bumps doesnt kick under breaking or anything bad.The worse thing to do is to lock the rear wheel when in breaking bumps-no suspension will work with a locked rear wheel.

 

[JTT]

I agree 100%, there are no "magic" or "right" settings. The rider plays a huge role. For those competing, it would be wise to combine "what feels good" with "actual lap times" as well...sometimes the two do not meet :)

 

[bclapham]

i know what you are saying about riding around the problem, my suspension feels so stiff that i seem to spend most of my time standing up, even around a lot of the corners and i dont think i have ever bottomed it. i get the big jar when i land from jumps, but i think this is more to do with not landing front wheel first and getting the slapdown effect. However, a very experienced rider rode my bike the other day and although he is 50 lbs lighter than me, he said though my setup would have been much stiffer, but he is super smooth so this may explain some of this.
I think my best way forward is to get a custom setup that is designed for me and take it from there and learn to ride with that, i am currently in no mans land with my clcikers and its easy to make things bad when trying to make it better, for example i back my compression all the way out to get rid of some of the stiffness, but this made it stiffer since the rear was packing.
i think a good suspension setup will make more people much faster than a good motor, but engine mods are much easier to evaluate and bolt on in my opinion. unless you have a lot of experience, getting a good suspension setup is more than a one man job, but when i have talked to people at the track they either dont even know where the clickers are, or have many misconcieved ideas and opionions on what they think they know! like you say, i could be having a certain problem and come here for a solution, and make those changes, but if the problem is because i am doing soemthing wrong with the riding technique, although i have solved that problem, the adjustments might make me worse elseware on the track.

what am i saying, er well i dont know...i am just mumbling out aloud!:) thanks for listening!

 

[ElsinorErnie]

Reading this thread also brings up something I've learned by adding many knots to my head and that is when we specify to our suspension tuner that we want things to be "plusher", we have to be careful that we don't get EXACTLY what we ask for sometimes and learn to trust the guys that make their living revalving and experimenting with suspension. What I mean to say is that if as beginners or early intermediates we specify "plush" settings, we may only ride at the potential of the bike up to the point where it still gives us a "pantywaist" feel over obstacles. As you desire to get faster (and that's what differentiates true motocrossers from your common, decal laden pit squid) you realize that settings that seem overly stiff for riding at a slower pace can sometimes become cosmically magic when we push the bike harder than our sense of self preservation seems to want to go. Can you say "Warp nine Mr. Sulu?" Sure, I knew you could....

 

[bclapham]

i am with you earnie....i have definately felt that the faster i go, the better things are, the more i ride the better i feel, especiallly with arm pump. i havent been having this 4-stroke envy recently either because i am getting more bike time!

 

[Anssi]

Thanks for the replies. The next thing I'm going to do is get some video of the parts of the track where I think I might benefit from some suspension adjustments.