Floating on a Cloud

holeshot

Crazy Russian
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Jan 25, 2000
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“Yep, I’m gonna take my suspension to the XYZ Boinger Shop and then she’ll ride like a Hovercraft fo’sho.” That’s the kind of stuff I hear when someone is about to fork over 500+ hard earned dollars to get their suspension “done” (and their wallet “well done”).

Case in point - I was having a casual chat with a guy at the track, and he says, “Yeah, I just spent 500 bucks to get my suspension done, but I don’t know…….”. A moment of remorse and dejection initially wash over his face, but no more than a few seconds later, his face lit up and it’s like he’s seen Nirvana. “ Ooooooooohhh, it’s like I’m floating on a cloud now”. Then his mouth purses and his eyes close like he’s getting a nice warm enema …“Aaaaahhh”. Now, when I’m watching this Oscar performance, my first thought is that he’s doing everything he can to convince himself that it was money well spent (to lessen the sting).

Okay, okay … a 150 lb slow guy needs a different setup than a 250 lb fast guy … it’s common sense. So suspension tuners are still needed. If you have friends, relatives (including illegitimate children) in the suspension biz, there’s no need to get defensive.

But what really bugs me is when someone says, “I had the suspension done on my new bike before I even rode it”. What the ….? How did he know what he needed and how did he know if it was better if he didn’t even ride the bike first? This makes no sense to me and, in my opinion, the guy did this so he wouldn’t have to go through the disappointment of spending big bucks and having the suspension come back worse than stock. What you don’t know can’t hurt you.

And then we have that famous line -“The stock suspension on my new bike is better than my revalved, gold plated megabuck suspension on my old bike (from last year)”. Well, maybe your suspension tuner isn’t that great after all.

You can do a shim shuffle, but in the end, all your suspension does is go “up, down, up down, boing, boing, boing.” There’s no magic – leave the “floating on a cloud” part in your dreams.


:fft:
 

holeshot

Crazy Russian
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Jan 25, 2000
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Filthy_McNasty said:
So is it actually OK when my rear suspension kicks my arse all the way up into the clouds? ...

No, it's not OK.

When I rode my Honda over rough ground recently, I was ripping through in second gear and the rear suspension was kicking my arse through the clouds and into the stratoshpere.

Then I went through the same section again (without even touching a clicker) in third gear, standing with my weight back, going a bit faster and then bike floated through (comparitively).

The bike kicks my arse through the clouds when I don't ride it properly.

A suspension shop can't fix crappy :uh: riding.
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
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Dec 26, 1999
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Case in point the idiot that had "done" the suspension on the CR85 I bought for my son is supposed to be pretty well respected in Houston. Well OK the kid was a lard butt but still the setup was total crap. The springs were heavier than what I have! The valving was hard to soft which I guess was to counter the springs? Heck who knows but a trip to my local MX Tech rep resolved everything, thank goodness we got the stock springs with the bike!
 

oldguy

Always Broken
Dec 26, 1999
9,411
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Back a few years ago we bought a CR125 from Richard Roarer and since he was a bit heftier then my 100 lb son who was going to race it off it went to MXTech. That bike set the level for all future suspensions!!!! :ride: The problem came in when he graduated to my 250F and I thought I'd ride his old bike. Well I am probably a bit heftier then RR and my first time leaving the ground on that thing reminded me of the bike I rode back in the mid 60s. I think after I compressed everything it was pretty close to the old 2 3/4 inch of travel from the not so good old times. :yell:

Now that he has picked up his speed and gained a few pounds (yeah right still under 150) he planned to send his YZF450 suspension in but 2 rides in the stock set up and he said it couldn't have been set up better for him. :ride:
At least this time around I could afford to pay his food bills for a couple weeks.
 

Patman

Pantless Wonder
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Dec 26, 1999
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I was thinking back to my first MXTech experience. In 1996 I picked up a new KTM360, a great bike but like most others had some flaws for my use. It had Ohlin's shock which I thought was IT and the 45mm Maz Magnum fork which blew through the first bit of travel real easily. So I send both front and rear off not expecting much improvement for the rear and hoping for something on the front. What I got was the cloud ride! The shock was shockingly better and the fork was better than I could have hoped. Over the years I have found from personal experience as well as the mistakes of others that the biggest factor in making changes to a bike (engine or suspension) is to be HONEST with the people doing the mods and yourself. If you wish you were Bubba and figure his power and suspension setup is what you need you will be disappointed. If on the other hand you realize you are Joe Blow rider and that the benifits of having the bike setup for you and the riding type you do are only going to work if you are honest about your needs and abilities.
 

Rich Rohrich

Moderator / BioHazard
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Jul 27, 1999
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Patman said:
Over the years I have found from personal experience as well as the mistakes of others that the biggest factor in making changes to a bike (engine or suspension) is to be HONEST with the people doing the mods and yourself.

This couldn't be more true. Getting good usage info is critical to hitting the intended target. I got a real lesson in this when I was working on building an MX pipe for my CRF a few years back.

I did all the painstaking math and simulation stuff to figure out the "proper" dimensions, and right before I built the pipe I got the bright idea to actually hook up my data acquisition system to the CRF450 and record the rpm data from some laps at our practice track just to be sure I was on target.

Once I got home and looked at the data I had to redo all the math because I tuned the pipe based on where I thought I would be in the rev range, but the reality was WAY different. It made me understand why I wear out the pilot jets so often. :whoa:

The histogram below tells the sad story.

Reality isn't always flattering but it is REAL and incredibly helpful when you are trying to improve on an existing setup. ;)
 

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mkelly04

Member
Jul 27, 2007
196
0
holeshot said:
No, it's not OK.

When I rode my Honda over rough ground recently, I was ripping through in second gear and the rear suspension was kicking my arse through the clouds and into the stratoshpere.

Then I went through the same section again (without even touching a clicker) in third gear, standing with my weight back, going a bit faster and then bike floated through (comparitively).

The bike kicks my arse through the clouds when I don't ride it properly.

A suspension shop can't fix crappy :uh: riding.

The bike should be adjusted to your riding style, not the other way around. :bang:

If that means the suspension needs work then so be it.
 

happyj22

Member
Nov 4, 2007
16
0
i have had a lot of suspension work and i've come to realize that i don't need all that nice stuff when i get a new bike i just set the stock suspension to my riding i know it sounds stupid but i don't really notice a difference and i've been riding and racing since i was young. but i only weigh 160 pounds lol. :laugh:
 

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