Speeds.High low

[couchrider]

I am trying to better understand this suspension stuff and the workings of it .
My question is when someone states "low speed" or "high speed" How are these speeds identified is this through bike speeds I have read that "high speed is for bottoming control. but in the same sense they talk about root, rocks as being" high speed".. for give me for being some what confused. bottoming to me has alot of travel their for alot more oil is being dispaced by the rod(so more force) than lets say a root in which there is less travel so less oil is being displace (so less force) so how can the two be the same, that is what is confusing me.
Bob

 

[dbrace]

Low speed and high speed refer to the speed at which the shock has to compress not the speed of the bike. An example of slow speed could be rolling sand whoops.Here your low speed compression adjuster could be used to controll the rate at which the shock compresses. With rolling sand whoops your shaft speed is generally slower.
An example of high speed comp.would be square edged bumps found on the exit of a corner on a mx track. Although these are only small bumps the speed at which the shock is forced to compress is quite high.
Both high and low speed adjusters do overlap each other somewhat when it comes to controlling oil flow thru the adjuster. In most cases the high speed comp is best left on the soft side as it will help the bike track better under acceleration but as allways there are many other factors involved ie spring rates, preload etc. Hope this helps.

 

[couchrider]

So in terms of of a valve stack you have a high speed stack and a low speed stack.( on a 2- stage ) being the low speed stack is the stack that is closest to the the piston face and high speed being next toward the base. I guess this is really what confuses me. If you hit square edge accellerating bumps it seems that the low speed is the circuit that is going to have the initial responce. where as big landings there would be more of the overall circuit coming into play (low and high) please correct me on this- don't know if you don't ask
Bob

 

[JTT]

Bob, this is where it gets confusing, because there really isn't that clear of a separation between LSC and HSC. Although the second stage of that two stage stack is commonly referred to as HSC, I can assure you the first portion also has a significant effect on HS as well. Basically, if you consider the HSC as being effected by the entire stack you are actually closer to reality in most cases.

 

[kevin5758]

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http://www.shimprogram.com/shim_basics_3.htm
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