Geanmage13
New member
Can someone explain to me (noob here lol) how does the damping and the preload settings work and what do they actually do if you change them..?
Damping and preload purpose
- Thread starter Geanmage13
- Start date
Preload is the amount of compression on the spring in an unloaded state, bike just sitting there on the floor of your garage. If the spring rate is 200 and you adjust it up two clicks then the preload on the spirng might now be 300 lbs. It also sets the amount of force necessary to compress the spring. So if you adjusted it up two clicks the shock and spring wont' compress until you exert 300lbs of force onto them. However, once that initial force is met the spring will continue to compress the same amount no matter what your preload is. In short preload is the amount of force it takes to initially compress the spring.
Damping is the rate at which the shock is able to compress and extend. Inside the shock are valves that control how quickly the fluid or gas in the shock can travel from end to end. With that in mind we'll use our 200lb spring again.....we're going now the road and hit a speed bump; as the wheel travels up this is compression damping. The harder you set the shock the slower its going to compress, this combined with a stiff spring will keep spring and shock from collapsing over every bump. So the harder you set the compression damping the slower the shock can compress and vice versa. Rebound damping is the opposite, the speed at which the shock is able to extend after hitting a bump or a dip. This needs to be set along with compression damping or you'll end up with a bike that can't recover from hitting a bump.
Keeping all that in mind, you should be aware that the only adjustment on most shocks is for low speed damping. Meaning a single bump and then back to the smooth road. That is not totally irrelevant when you're riding but if you seriously wanted to make an adjustment to damping that you could feel. You would need a race shock that allows high speed damping changes.
Woody146
Banned
Find a suspension shop near you...go in there, have them set up your suspension for your weight and riding style..it will make a big difference.
Bajaedition
New member
In laymans terms
preload, a bike is designed to a certain ratio of forward to rear weight on the tires, your weight and how you sit on your bike affects this so we have preload, the higher the performance standard of the bike the more places we can adjust this. (notice a cruiser may have no or just rear preload adjust ment.
Properly set up the preload makes the SAG of the bike stop at a certain place. In other words it preloads the springs to stop so the ratio front to rear weight is correct.
It has nothing to do with spring rate, that is a seperate thing that requires you to change the spring. You need a mechanic used to doing spring rate changes with the ability to have many springs to get that right. And yes it is important if you plan on racing the bike, (or maybe have a under sprung rear shock such as the FZ8). But adjusting the preload to increase springrate is counter productive to getting good performance no matter what anyone claims.
Damping is increasing or decreasing the rate that the oil flows in a shock to dampen the movement of the shock and control the spring. It is not adjusted until the spring is corrected because as soon as you adjust the spring or change it out the damping needs to be set for that setting.
However, most guys could never tell the damping is wrong as they do not ride hard enough. As set from the factory damping will work for most riders. it is when the shock is changing (or extremely close to changing) the direction of travel that damping needs to be set the most and that is when you can feel it. Most guys learn to feel it first by what is called chatter. when the bike is at full load in a curve the front tire seems to chatter. It is changing direction before the spring is fully loaded because the damping is set to hard and the spring starts to osculate. Now what compounds this is we have both rebound and compression damping so we need to know which one and how much to adjust. and which way to adjust it. Most guys go the wrong way.
However, good communication to a mechanic that is used to adjusting this and being able to have an area you can replicate the eact conditions such as a track are needed to get this correct.
I would say 75 percent of bikes never get preload set and less than 1% get the spring rate corrected.
I would say that 75% of all bikes never get the damping set off factory and those that do less than 1% are correct, the rest are just placed somewhere because the rider has no clue as how to get it correct. Most think harder is better which is wrong. Correct is so it flows smooth as silk and does not chatter, squirm, wiggle or feel anything but planted during the entire stroke and return of the suspension. I know the factory setting is a average setting, but that setting is far safer to ride at than a badly adjust setting.
Normally, when setting up a suspension, correct springrate is determined first, (surprisingly many times that is stock, I am heavy so rarely does that work for me) then preload. after that damping.
Professional racers change spring rate, preload, and damping for every track. That is how sensitive it can be. As well how adjustable it is to get it correct. So as a layman, finding an average because we have all kinds of condition changes each ride, is better than trying to fine tune a suspension.
preload, a bike is designed to a certain ratio of forward to rear weight on the tires, your weight and how you sit on your bike affects this so we have preload, the higher the performance standard of the bike the more places we can adjust this. (notice a cruiser may have no or just rear preload adjust ment.
Properly set up the preload makes the SAG of the bike stop at a certain place. In other words it preloads the springs to stop so the ratio front to rear weight is correct.
It has nothing to do with spring rate, that is a seperate thing that requires you to change the spring. You need a mechanic used to doing spring rate changes with the ability to have many springs to get that right. And yes it is important if you plan on racing the bike, (or maybe have a under sprung rear shock such as the FZ8). But adjusting the preload to increase springrate is counter productive to getting good performance no matter what anyone claims.
Damping is increasing or decreasing the rate that the oil flows in a shock to dampen the movement of the shock and control the spring. It is not adjusted until the spring is corrected because as soon as you adjust the spring or change it out the damping needs to be set for that setting.
However, most guys could never tell the damping is wrong as they do not ride hard enough. As set from the factory damping will work for most riders. it is when the shock is changing (or extremely close to changing) the direction of travel that damping needs to be set the most and that is when you can feel it. Most guys learn to feel it first by what is called chatter. when the bike is at full load in a curve the front tire seems to chatter. It is changing direction before the spring is fully loaded because the damping is set to hard and the spring starts to osculate. Now what compounds this is we have both rebound and compression damping so we need to know which one and how much to adjust. and which way to adjust it. Most guys go the wrong way.
However, good communication to a mechanic that is used to adjusting this and being able to have an area you can replicate the eact conditions such as a track are needed to get this correct.
I would say 75 percent of bikes never get preload set and less than 1% get the spring rate corrected.
I would say that 75% of all bikes never get the damping set off factory and those that do less than 1% are correct, the rest are just placed somewhere because the rider has no clue as how to get it correct. Most think harder is better which is wrong. Correct is so it flows smooth as silk and does not chatter, squirm, wiggle or feel anything but planted during the entire stroke and return of the suspension. I know the factory setting is a average setting, but that setting is far safer to ride at than a badly adjust setting.
Normally, when setting up a suspension, correct springrate is determined first, (surprisingly many times that is stock, I am heavy so rarely does that work for me) then preload. after that damping.
Professional racers change spring rate, preload, and damping for every track. That is how sensitive it can be. As well how adjustable it is to get it correct. So as a layman, finding an average because we have all kinds of condition changes each ride, is better than trying to fine tune a suspension.
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Here's an example of how well the FZ8 responds to fine-tuning these things.
http://www.779cc.org/forum/tire-tech-talk/4489-pilot-power-3-initial-impressions.html
http://www.779cc.org/forum/tire-tech-talk/4489-pilot-power-3-initial-impressions.html
Bajaedition
New member
Nine, that is an excellent example of what it takes to tune in a change in setup.
changing the tire and you had to change setup.
My point in my post is that most riders need help to even know why to do or what each affects.
I think to get the most, a person needs to do a track day with a mechanic who knows how to tune suspension a few times and he can understand what is going on. However he needs to know that tuning the bike for twisties means he reduces the bike in other situations and that an average is actually the best for overall.
Read a article about a professional racer and his mechanic tuning the bike for every track the come to. They are trying to set the bike up for each track which means getting an average that works for that track, each curve, each strait have different needs, so you find what carries you best overall at that track. We learn from that to tune street bikes, we need an overall according to where we, and how we ride.
changing the tire and you had to change setup.
My point in my post is that most riders need help to even know why to do or what each affects.
I think to get the most, a person needs to do a track day with a mechanic who knows how to tune suspension a few times and he can understand what is going on. However he needs to know that tuning the bike for twisties means he reduces the bike in other situations and that an average is actually the best for overall.
Read a article about a professional racer and his mechanic tuning the bike for every track the come to. They are trying to set the bike up for each track which means getting an average that works for that track, each curve, each strait have different needs, so you find what carries you best overall at that track. We learn from that to tune street bikes, we need an overall according to where we, and how we ride.
It only took me 31 years, 800,000 miles, 50 motorcycles, and a couple of years of club racing and a few more years of track days to learn how to do this.
So yeah, it's not going to come overnight but being able to fine-tune your bike to an "nth" degree by just using 1-2 mm of height change and one or two clicks of damping is possible.
Bajaedition
New member
I learned club racing myself
had a great mechanic who worked on a few of our bikes, we would come in and he asked what was happening and click this, change the fork oil, respring, etc till it was great. but that was track bikes, what I learned from him about street bikes at track days is to not get radical because I was going be riding it on the street the next day, or even possible home and what I did at the track made it suck on the road.
I still do track days only because Chuckwalla valley raceway is less than 5 miles from my house. I have a sportster I run as a dedicated track bike there and we have really worked on it for track purposes, It does not even hit the street. I have run my FZ8 there and the only thing I did permanent to it was respring the shock, but I think we all agree that needs to be done for the street on the FZ8.
had a great mechanic who worked on a few of our bikes, we would come in and he asked what was happening and click this, change the fork oil, respring, etc till it was great. but that was track bikes, what I learned from him about street bikes at track days is to not get radical because I was going be riding it on the street the next day, or even possible home and what I did at the track made it suck on the road.
I still do track days only because Chuckwalla valley raceway is less than 5 miles from my house. I have a sportster I run as a dedicated track bike there and we have really worked on it for track purposes, It does not even hit the street. I have run my FZ8 there and the only thing I did permanent to it was respring the shock, but I think we all agree that needs to be done for the street on the FZ8.