October 17, 201015 yr Hello all, I am new to trials and have some questions about suspension. What, if any suspension settings are common? Race sag, static sag or is this even required on a trials bike? I race Hare Scrambles and Enduros. So I know about sag and spring rates, but cannot find any info on this set-up. What about fork springs? Anything special? I weigh 180lbs. Thanks!
October 17, 201015 yr Hello all, I am new to trials and have some questions about suspension. What, if any suspension settings are common? Race sag, static sag or is this even required on a trials bike? I race Hare Scrambles and Enduros. So I know about sag and spring rates, but cannot find any info on this set-up. What about fork springs? Anything special? I weigh 180lbs. Thanks! Since your 97' has a few miles on it, start with servicing the forks and rear linkage (including the Heim joints on the shock) so you get a proper performance baseline to start with. Any tuning will be worthless unless the suspension components are in good shape, properly lubed and aligned. Your forks take 300 cc's of 5-weight fork oil and at 180 lbs, you may want to add about 8-10mm's to the fork preload spacer (make new ones out of schedule-40 PVC pipe). The compression/rebound adjustors at the top of the forks, on your model, seem to work well with the compression knob (black-left) all the way out and the rebound (red-right) all the way in. Since the cartridges are different side-to-side (compression on left, rebound on right), you can change viscosity of the fork oil in each fork to affect the different damping responses. If you have a problem with the forks bottoming out, add about 30cc's to each fork to raise the oil level (fork oil level affects the last third of fork travel). A baseline for rear race sag is about 1.5-2" to start, similiar to MX setting of 100mm+- race sag, which will set the shock at the first third of travel. You will probably re-set the sag after you ride the bike a little, but this will give you a starting point. Jon
October 17, 201015 yr Author Since your 97' has a few miles on it, start with servicing the forks and rear linkage (including the Heim joints on the shock) so you get a proper performance baseline to start with. Any tuning will be worthless unless the suspension components are in good shape, properly lubed and aligned. Your forks take 300 cc's of 5-weight fork oil and at 180 lbs, you may want to add about 8-10mm's to the fork preload spacer (make new ones out of schedule-40 PVC pipe). The compression/rebound adjustors at the top of the forks, on your model, seem to work well with the compression knob (black-left) all the way out and the rebound (red-right) all the way in. Since the cartridges are different side-to-side (compression on left, rebound on right), you can change viscosity of the fork oil in each fork to affect the different damping responses. If you have a problem with the forks bottoming out, add about 30cc's to each fork to raise the oil level (fork oil level affects the last third of fork travel). A baseline for rear race sag is about 1.5-2" to start, similiar to MX setting of 100mm+- race sag, which will set the shock at the first third of travel. You will probably re-set the sag after you ride the bike a little, but this will give you a starting point. Jon Thank Jon! I will work on getting that done this week and reporting back!
October 18, 201015 yr Thank Jon! I will work on getting that done this week and reporting back! Great! Let us know how you get along. Trials suspension settings are fairly unique to this sport and will depend a lot of the type of sections you encounter in the area where you ride and also your riding style, so expect to spend a little time sorting out things but it will be worth it. Cheers. Jon
October 19, 201015 yr Great! Let us know how you get along. Trials suspension settings are fairly unique to this sport and will depend a lot of the type of sections you encounter in the area where you ride and also your riding style, so expect to spend a little time sorting out things but it will be worth it. Cheers. Jon John, Has anyone got the amount of oil you put in the front forks of the 06 and newer Marzoochi forks, instead of filling to some "level" measured from top of extended fork tube? I need to make a quick change of a spring, and the level thing is a huge pain, would rather measure out some oil and be done, like we used to on those older forks. Anyone? (I know spinner, but there has to be a "close enough" CC level?
October 19, 201015 yr John, Has anyone got the amount of oil you put in the front forks of the 06 and newer Marzoochi forks, instead of filling to some "level" measured from top of extended fork tube? I need to make a quick change of a spring, and the level thing is a huge pain, would rather measure out some oil and be done, like we used to on those older forks. Anyone? (I know spinner, but there has to be a "close enough" CC level? The Marzocchi forks do not lend themselves to volume measurement due to the oil circulation in the cartridges (they do not fully drain and the residual oil left in the cartridge will be an unknown quantity). Bear in mind that the steel tube Zoke's and the aluminum tube type take a different oil level measurement. Just pretend you are a racing suspension expert when you set oil level and you, of course, would NEVER use volume as a standard as level is way more accurate..... Jon
October 20, 201015 yr Author Jon, did the front forks today. I added 10mm of preload. 5 wt Honda super slick fork oil. Adjusted the rebound and compression as you said. It works very nice so far. I have not really hammered it into anything yet, but maybe this weekend. I pulled the shock and cleaned everything. It looked amazingly good! Sag is at 100mm. My question is what is the blue knob at the top of the shock? I assume it is rebound or compression. Any thoughts on position? Thanks for the help! Doug Edited October 20, 201015 yr by dougmccabe
October 20, 201015 yr Jon, did the front forks today. I added 10mm of preload. 5 wt Honda super slick fork oil. Adjusted the rebound and compression as you said. It works very nice so far. I have not really hammered it into anything yet, but maybe this weekend. I pulled the shock and cleaned everything. It looked amazingly good! Sag is at 100mm. My question is what is the blue knob at the top of the shock? I assume it is rebound or compression. Any thoughts on position? Thanks for the help! Doug Doug, That is the damping adjustment, turn clockwise to increase damping and counterclockwise to decrease. You may want to decrease rear race sag to about 2.5" rather than the 4" setting. The best way to set damping is to start with both extremes (full in-ride section/full out-ride section) and see what they feel like. That will give you an idea of where you want to start and then make final adjustments to suit your riding style/terrain. Jon
October 20, 201015 yr Jon, did the front forks today. I added 10mm of preload. 5 wt Honda super slick fork oil. Adjusted the rebound and compression as you said. It works very nice so far. I have not really hammered it into anything yet, but maybe this weekend. I pulled the shock and cleaned everything. It looked amazingly good! Sag is at 100mm. My question is what is the blue knob at the top of the shock? I assume it is rebound or compression. Any thoughts on position? Thanks for the help! Doug Doug, That is the damping adjustment, turn clockwise to increase damping and counterclockwise to decrease. You may want to decrease rear race sag to about 2.5" rather than the 4" setting. Mainly affects rebound but proportionally affects compression. The best way to set damping is to start with both extremes (full in-ride section/full out-ride section) and see what they feel like. That will give you an idea of where you want to start and then make final adjustments to suit your riding style/terrain. Jon
October 20, 201015 yr Author Doug, That is the damping adjustment, turn clockwise to increase damping and counterclockwise to decrease. You may want to decrease rear race sag to about 2.5" rather than the 4" setting. The best way to set damping is to start with both extremes (full in-ride section/full out-ride section) and see what they feel like. That will give you an idea of where you want to start and then make final adjustments to suit your riding style/terrain. Jon Great info. Thanks again!
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