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Modern suspensions comprise of a spring, oil and a cartridge system to control damping. They offer a host of adjustments such as spring preload which can be accomplished both manually by turning an adjuster ring directly on the spring or hydraulically controlled. They can have compression and rebound damping adjustments and adjustments to the length of a rear shock and let’s not forget that more and more shocks are now offering both a high speed and low speed damping adjustment. Add in different spring rates, oil heights and oil viscosity (weight) along with riders of different sizes and abilities and you have a receipt for potential disaster in the hands of the unknowledgeable. This will be a multi part article to help you wade through your suspension, help you understand how it works and walk you through on how to set up your bike’s suspension. Once initially setup you’ll need to spend time playing and tinkering with your suspension to help you understand how it works in real world applications. I do that by finding a stretch of road with variables in road surfaces and terrain that I know like the back of my hand. Using a note pad and taking copious notes while spending several hours going back n forth on this stretch of road will lead you to the ideal settings for you and your bike and hopefully understanding suspension well enough to know if you need a change of spring rate, oil height adjustment and/or the help of a professional suspension tuner.

While I do not consider myself an expert, I believe I have a pretty good understanding of suspension and how it works. I’ve spent more than my share of time running around the race track and in the early days often off the track trying to figure out what happened. More often then not it was purely rider error but the faster I got the more I realized that suspension was one of the key’s to going around quickly while keeping both tires in proper contact. Most of my knowledge is by trial and error and collecting every tidbit of info that I could find. Most often I’ve found that so called experienced riders were more often misinformed or misunderstood suspension. Fast guys at your local tracks understand suspension. Maybe not in the technical manner but they can express what they are experiencing to a suspension tuner who then make changes to the suspension for irregular handling problems. Most cannot or do not wish to relay their knowledge to the uninformed as there are just too many variables and often results in frustration for both. Unfortunately, suspension is not a one size fits all. What works for one most likely will not work for another. In order for a suspension professional to help you, you must first understand the basic’s so that you can speak the same language. I hope that this will be a step in the right direction for you and your enjoyment of performance motorcycle riding.

On the surface suspension seems pretty basic. Its primary job is to keep the tire in contact with the road surface. A motorcycle without suspension moves over a rough surface, the whole motorcycle must rise and fall over every bump. The faster the motorcycle moves, the more rapid this up and down movement becomes. Bumps hit at high speed can kick the motorcycle up pretty hard, but it can’t return any faster than gravity will allow. The faster you go the more control you need with this up and down movement. Without it, your tire will end up spending more time in the air rather then on the road surface where you most need it.
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