Trouble Shooting Suspension Problems.
Adjustment locations: Forks
Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located near the top of the fork.
Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located near the bottom of the fork.
Spring preload adjustment (if applicable) is generally hex style and located at
the top of the fork.
Lack of Rebound
Symptoms:
• Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and
traction
• The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting the turn causing
fading traction and loss of control.
• When taking a corner a speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss of
traction and control.
• Aggressive input at speed lessons control and chassis attitude suffers.
• Front end fails to recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces.
Solution: Insufficient rebound. Increase rebound "gradually" until control
and traction are optimized and chatter is gone.
Too Much Rebound
Symptoms:
• Front end feels locked up resulting in harsh ride.
• Suspension tucks in and fails to return, giving a harsh ride. Typically
after the first bump, the bike will skip over subsequent bumps and want to tuck
the front.
• With acceleration, the front end will tank slap or shake violently due to
lack of front wheel tire contact.
Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound "gradually" until control and
traction are optimized.
Lack of Compression
Symptoms:
• Front-end dives severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or
during aggressive breaking.
• Front feels soft or vague similar to lack of rebound.
• When bottoming, a clunk is heard. This is due to reaching the bottom of
fork travel.
Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase "gradually" until control and
traction are optimized.
Too Much Compression
Symptom:
• Front end rides high through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide.
It should maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering
geometry to remain constant.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until bike neither bottoms nor
rides high.
Symptom:
• Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to incorrect oil
height and/or too much low speed compression damping.
Solution: First, verify that oil height is correct. If correct, then decrease
compression "gradually" until chattering and shaking ceases.
Symptom:
• Bumps and ripples are felt directly in the triple clamps and through the
chassis. This causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until control is regained.
Symptom:
• Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or entering
turns.
Solution: Decrease compression "gradually" until control is regained.
Adjustment Locations: Rear Shock
Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located at the bottom of the shock.
Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located on the reservoir. Spring
prelude is located at the top of the shock.
Shock: Lack of Rebound
Symptoms:
• The ride will feel soft or vague and as speed increases, the rear end will
want to wallow and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers.
• Loss of traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock
returning too fast on exiting a corner.
Solution: Insufficient rebound - Increase rebound until wallowing and weaving
disappears and control and traction are optimized.
Shock: Too Much Rebound
Symptoms:
• Ride is harsh, suspension control is limited and traction is lost.
• Rear end will pack in, forcing the bike w