Race Sag/Sag - Preload Adjust ??

[zewcrew]

I am getting back into MX after about 16 years and am working on setting up my bike's suspension for me. (99 cr125) The current spring is stock and is supposed to be for a 170 lbs rider. I weight just over 160 with my gear on, so I think it should work for now. I'm trying to set my race sage, but am a bit confused.
My book says race sag should be 3.7" I came up with 3.2"
and sag should be .7" and my result was 1.125".

So if my understanding is correct, in order to increase my race sag, I need to reduce my preload by making my current spring longer. But if I do that won't I be increasing my sag as well throwing that way even more? Or is my thinking completely backward?

I haven't measured the length of the spring the way it's set up but the Standard length is 10.47 and minimum is 10.08. If Standard is 10.47 could it be longer or is Honda saying that's the max for that spring?

Any help/input/advice would be much appreciated.

 

[TWRT]

You need to give yourself more race sag. When you loosen the collar, the race sag will increase and the static sag may decrease. From the measurements you gave, you should be able to reach the required amounts.

 

[TWRT]

ummm, my thinking maybe off also. Do you have play in your linkage causing the extra static(free) sag?

 

[zewcrew]

All right...
I opened my spring up six turns which should be 9mm according to my manual. I switched to using mm to not have to deal with all of the decimals and fractional inches, so to further confuse things (myself especially)

I had a race sag of about 81mm (honda says 95mm) and a sag of about 28mm (honda says 17mm)
After adjusting my spring... and checking again I realized something and this could be further screwing things up or I could have a problem with my shock. When the bike is on the stand I can push the tire down toward the ground about 4cm. That changes things drastically. If I lift up on the tire while it's on the stand and let the suspension push it back down it stops at that -4cm mark.
SO....
If I push the tire down... my race sag reads 123 mm (too high) and my sag 75mm (way too high).
If I let the tire hang up... my race sag reads 83mm (too little) and my sag 35mm (too high).

No matter how I look at this I am feeling way overwhelmed and not making sense of what is going on or not going on for that matter.

 

[ecy063]

You might have rusted bearings in your swingarm or your pivot linkage.

 

[zewcrew]

I just had my swingarm off to fix a stripped out chain adjuster and that seemed to move freely without the linkage hooked up. Should it drop fully without touching it? I don't don't have to force it, I can essentially just place a finger on it if it doesn't drop by itself.

 

[IndyMX]

I'm gonna go with ecy063. Sounds like you have some jimmied up bearings in your swingarm, or in the linkage on the shock.

Might be a good idea to tear it down and do some new bearings.

 

[zewcrew]

Update...
Well, after talking with one of my buddies he recommended just disconnecting the top of the shock and checking the movement of things. Things moved pretty smoothly, however when doing this I figured out why the tire had an extra drop to it. When I adjusted the shock I opened it up beyond the top of the shock. I think that when I adjusted it the adjuster nut was sticking to the top of the shock and it pulled the shock up, then when I threw it all back together and bounced it up and down a bit it popped loose, which is why I noticed it after placing it back on the stand without any weight on it and not while I was actually adjusting it. (So glad that piece is resolved)...
Back to attempting to set the correct race sag...