How soft is too soft??

[ozmxracer]

Hi Jeremy,
I have a '01 426 with standard springs F & R / Race tech gold valves and shims to suit my body weight (80kg).
I mainly race Grass track MX which doesn't involve a lot of big jumps,biggest may be 10-20ft in the air and about 40-50ft long.
What I would like to know is should you concentrate on the suspension not bottoming when setting up for a circuit or should you focus on keeping it plush(soft) over the faster sections and how soft is too soft if it doesn't bottom out :think ?
Also do you think that softening the suspension when racing in the mud is the right way to go? (as well as tyre pressure etc)

This suspension tuning really does your head in sometimes!!
BTW 'I live in Australia'

 

[Jeremy Wilkey]

OZMX,
Really soft and over plush can be unstable. I would tell you to set it up to bottoming midly on the bigest jump and then tune from there.
Regards,
Jer

 

[SATxMotoX]

For what it's worth...

I'm not Jeremy, so please take this for what it's worth...(which some would probably say nothing! ;) )

My understanding of suspension tuning is that you want your suspension to bottom on the harshest part of the track. However, you NEVER want your suspension to harshly bottom. For example, if the double you are talking about is the harshest jump on the track then you want your suspension to bottom, or come close to bottoming out, while negotiating it. That way you are getting the full travel of your suspension throughtout the whole track.

Also, as I understand suspension tuning, you want your overall ride to be plush, rather than hard. However, you don't want it too plush. Tuning your suspension is apparently something that you have to do for each track you ride in addition to when the conditions change. I can tell you that I don't do that...I've just got my suspension setup to where I like it and I don't think I want to muck with it much more.

In any case, hopefully Jeremy will respond and give you a better answer. I just felt inclined to throw in my 2 cents.

Good luck.

 

[JTT]

I too am no expert, but here's my 2 cents worth....Sat is right in that you want your suspench to bottom at least once per lap usually. Take care when softening too much that you don't get to the point where the wheels are deflecting off the ground (and loosing contact). Too soft can also be wallowy (or unstable, as Jer mentioned).

As for mud, generally you set up stiffer to compensate for the additional weight of the bike when covered in mud (which can be substantial).

Hope this helps some.

 

[ozmxracer]

Thankyou

Thankyou for all your suggestions they have helped me and I will try to get the suspension setup on the softer side of hard ifyou know what I meen:)

Thanx again
OZmxracer