I had the Sag set for me, but was wondering at what point you should take or give pre-load. Do you? I've read that once your Sag is set for you, your bike should feel right, aside from some minor tweaking.
My concern is that maybe my suspension is too hard? What is a good starting point and what should the bike feel like without going to soft. [popcorn]
If you got your sag set for you by someone who knew what they were doing then it should be good. But if you want you can lighten it a bit and see how it feels. You'll need a spanner wrench to do this.
Quote from: uclabiker06 on August 25, 2008, 03:55:18 PM
If you got your sag set for you by someone who knew what they were doing then it should be good. But if you want you can lighten it a bit and see how it feels. You'll need a spanner wrench to do this.
Should I try to adjust the other settings before I change Pre-load.
Quote from: ICON on August 25, 2008, 04:06:08 PM
Should I try to adjust the other settings before I change Pre-load.
depends if you can. Your doing this on your S4Rs right? Pre-load gives the most noticeable change. Explain too hard, is it rebounding to quickly? or does it feel like your sitting on no shock at all? Whats your sag?
Keep in mind that sag is just that, sag. As long as the spring rate is good for your weight (so you can get a good sag adjustment without going to the extreme of the adjustment range) it has almost nothing to do with the suspension feeling hard. In other words, if the spring was too heavy for you, then you would not be able to get a good sag adjustment. Changing the preload to adjust sag does not change the spring rate, it only changes where the suspension sits under the weight of you and the bike. I would guess maybe your compression damping is set to stiff?
I have the springs for my weight and I have a good shop set my sag. I'm just trying to find out what to hard or to soft is? What should I be looking for when I ride? I almost want to say it feels a tad to stiff. Should I use stock settings all around or lower compression?
Get a note book, determine where all your settings are now and use that as a baseline. Adjust one parameter at a time, going through the range of adjustment. Make note of the difference, and go to the next. You will eventually figure out what suits you best. The important thing is to write everything down and make only one change at a time.
if it's sprung to suit your weight and the sag is set to suit you then i'd forget about the springs and preload. go looking at the damping instead. getting the forks revalved should help too.
and do what dan says.
if it has showas and std valving and oil we'd probably run the compression adjusters around 10 clicks out and rebound around 8. lighter oil will let you move then in a bit, and might help with what you're feeling.
It's full Ohlins by the way. I'll go ahead and start there with the Notebook.
Thanks for your tips brothers. [thumbsup]
Quote from: ICON on August 25, 2008, 07:35:57 PM
I have the springs for my weight and I have a good shop set my sag. I'm just trying to find out what to hard or to soft is? What should I be looking for when I ride? I almost want to say it feels a tad to stiff. Should I use stock settings all around or lower compression?
Interesting to hear another S4Rs owner not quite happy when the obvious adjustments are all set up close.
I'm not sure what the solution is but I do know that unless something very weird is going on with the rear linkage we should be able to get very happy with Ohlins gear.
If it's any help, my S4Rs fork on stock settings is certainly not too harsh (I'm about 85kg/185lbs with gear).
But I'm not quite happy with the shock. Stock spring.
I saw a post from Ducpainter yesterday observing stock Ducs were sprung too soft and overdamped, and wonder whether that might be true even of the Ohlins versions, at least for the Monster.
Supported by a few S4Rs owners admitting in a thread I started recently that they had wound the compression damping adjuster off all the way.
http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=7996.0
That suggests to me the main compression valving is too firm.
Brad is quite right but as I am sure he would agree, his point stands only
if whoever set up your springs got it right.
One thing I do know (and which is pretty obvious when you think about it): preload can make quite a difference to how harsh suspension feels.
After all, it is perfecly possible in theory to dial in so much preload that the suspension doesn't move at all on small hits. And quite easy in practice to have so much that the suspension has very little capacity to extend into holes.
My experience so far says the S4Rs with stock Ohlins is very sensitive to spring preload.
Measure your sag and see where you're at. Its easy to do. Ohlins web site has some good instructions. If you can set the correct sag, then measure your static sag (without you on it). If this is off, then you need some new springs.
ducati ohlins aren't the same as ohlins ohlins either, so the std valving on a s4rs is what ducati asked for.
The more discussion I see on this, the more I become convinced that the basic issue at the rear is too much damping on the compression side of the main valve.
With possibly a too-soft spring contributing.
Rode tonight with compression adjuster at recommended setting. Rebound there too. Laden sag at least very close to 30pc of travel (which I've had tested and is close to the specified 148mm travel), unladen sag about 20mm which is towards the big end of recommendations.
Ride pretty nice on small hits, still the boot up the bum on anything major. (Which was rare as 24-odd km ride home fairly smooth and straight).
And I definitely haven't bottomed the suspension in the past 500km.
Front, in contrast, starting to feel a bit soft. All standard settings.
First of all my sag is set correctly as mentioned before. 2nd, I never said I was unhappy with my S4RS or the suspension. I had my springs replaced for my weight. I just wanted more feed back as to what every one else is doing to tune their bikes. Simple as that. The bike is running fine, but before I start ridding her real hard I wanted to see if maybe I was too stiff or just right.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and I'm starting with my front compression and going from there. I might end up going back to the stock settings where the dealer left it.