Sent my suspension to Jeff for a revalve (shock) and Gold Valves installed in the forks ('95 200H). When I got them back it seemed that the rebound and low speed compression were in the ball park, but the high speed compression front and back was very harsh. I'm 230lbs and had just installed .43kg Eibach XR400 fork springs and an Eibach 5.2kg shock spring and then sent my suspension off to Jeff.
I talked to Jeff and again sent them back to him for an adjustment of the valve stacks to "dramatically reduce high speed compression damping" on both the shock and forks. When they came back they were significantly better, but were still too harsh.
I set out on my own to tackle the problem and save myself another $46 shipping charge of sending them back to Jeff. I noticed that the Eibach shock spring was significantly longer than the stocker and was just too stiff for my riding style, so I changed it back to the stock spring.....much better.
Jeff uses 7.5wt oil in the forks and I had the preload set at 5mm. When I took the Gold Valve stacks apart I compared the Race Tech chart to the stacks Jeff set up. Jeff uses a 2-stage stack (which I wanted to stay with). He had a cL7 low speed stack in one leg and a cL9 stack in the other. I figured that those tiny oily shims are easy to stick together when working on them and he inadvertently had two .15x17mm shims sticking together during assembly of one of the forks. I averaged them out to cL8; I wanted to stay reasonably heavy on low speed compression. On high speed he had cH9. I felt that this was probably way heavier than I wanted and set them up for cH3, which is way on the light end of the scale. I had heard that the 10mm transition shim can create mid stroke harshness so I went with a 12mm transition shim.
I spent today riding my new setup in fast desert trails, sand, whoops, and various sized lava rock fields. I ended up with the forks set to 12 clicks out. 8 clicks is great for big and fast whoops but too much for everything else. 12 was only a very slight penalty in the big whoops. 16 out caused a little wallowing in the whoops and a few other places so 12 is a very good all around setting. The shock seems to work best with very little compression (as far as the clickers are concerned). I settled on 18 out. For rebound I chose 10 out as a good everything setting. 4 out got the rear end kicking badly from packing....in the rocks as well as the whoops. It also caused compression harshness from the packing. I have my rear spring preload set up for just over 4" of total sag. It just seems to work better overall at 4"+ with my weight.
I'm relieved to finally have my suspension set up the way I want it. I can already tell the difference and ride with more control in the nasties and way more relaxed at speed.
I talked to Jeff and again sent them back to him for an adjustment of the valve stacks to "dramatically reduce high speed compression damping" on both the shock and forks. When they came back they were significantly better, but were still too harsh.
I set out on my own to tackle the problem and save myself another $46 shipping charge of sending them back to Jeff. I noticed that the Eibach shock spring was significantly longer than the stocker and was just too stiff for my riding style, so I changed it back to the stock spring.....much better.
Jeff uses 7.5wt oil in the forks and I had the preload set at 5mm. When I took the Gold Valve stacks apart I compared the Race Tech chart to the stacks Jeff set up. Jeff uses a 2-stage stack (which I wanted to stay with). He had a cL7 low speed stack in one leg and a cL9 stack in the other. I figured that those tiny oily shims are easy to stick together when working on them and he inadvertently had two .15x17mm shims sticking together during assembly of one of the forks. I averaged them out to cL8; I wanted to stay reasonably heavy on low speed compression. On high speed he had cH9. I felt that this was probably way heavier than I wanted and set them up for cH3, which is way on the light end of the scale. I had heard that the 10mm transition shim can create mid stroke harshness so I went with a 12mm transition shim.
I spent today riding my new setup in fast desert trails, sand, whoops, and various sized lava rock fields. I ended up with the forks set to 12 clicks out. 8 clicks is great for big and fast whoops but too much for everything else. 12 was only a very slight penalty in the big whoops. 16 out caused a little wallowing in the whoops and a few other places so 12 is a very good all around setting. The shock seems to work best with very little compression (as far as the clickers are concerned). I settled on 18 out. For rebound I chose 10 out as a good everything setting. 4 out got the rear end kicking badly from packing....in the rocks as well as the whoops. It also caused compression harshness from the packing. I have my rear spring preload set up for just over 4" of total sag. It just seems to work better overall at 4"+ with my weight.
I'm relieved to finally have my suspension set up the way I want it. I can already tell the difference and ride with more control in the nasties and way more relaxed at speed.
