boanders

DAVE 186 Thank you so much for that! I bought a 390 that I've been riding on the MX track with my son. I would guess to make the best of it on the track I should use the Sport setting. I weigh 180 lbs. I know it isn't a MX bike but I'm having a ball. Any suggestions on the suspension set up? Love this site!

steve

Work your way through the 'Doc' and you will get to the suspension setup gude, one for front and one for rear.

Steve

Hair

I am having real issues tuning the suspension on my 570. My ideal tune would be for me to be able to ride tight, deep, and slow sand without pushing. Then ride up to 9" baby heads without getting to much feedback through the bars.

I worked with a vendor to get my 650 to do exactly that. But the days of having a 650 are long past me.

Since then I have tried to dial in a 530 and now my 570. Both are not going well.

I am a heavy rider. I have swapped springs and set my sag. I am now working on fine tuning my front fork spring rate, the air shock and both of my high speed and low speed stack.

The bike can be setup for sand or rocks. Not both. When it is perfect in the rock sections, it is so mushy in the sand that it is an embarrassment to ride. In addition, when I finally get it so that it does not push in the sand. The bike is impossible to ride in the rocks.

I worked with my stock setup for as long as I could. I revalved it with the same guy who setup my 650. He just can't seem to hit the mark.

I am now trying to tell him that I need a stiffer low speed stack and one step lighter high speed stack. But he is certain that it is all in my air shock.

What do you guys think the problem is?

bushmechanic

I think you probaly know enough by now to do it yourself

some of the desert guys here use a stack in the shock (jap bikes) made out of one diameter only shims they swear its the only way they've found to get a good all round setup

Im running a setup like this in my TTX both rebound and compression I like it a lot. what I need for sand is a very stiff LS but without initial harshness or a too stiff mid/ HS so the stack of same diam shims works well. problem was not enough bottoming resistance so for the PDS bikes i think there is an advantage to having the damping suddenly increase after a certain speed. so the curve im chasing ramps up very quickly for control in sand then flattens off for rocks etc and then ramps back up to control bigger HS hits and retain bottomimg resistance. i did this with a limit plate.

in my forks I run a single stage BV stack 13 x 24 face shims and hardly any HS shims it is also preloaded with a 1 deg dish and uses flexible limit plates to ramp up the damping for big hits, the MV is a zero float setup with a big 30N.mm spring to control lift out to 1.4mm some would call it a "blowoff" but these guys run 1.4mm float anyway so mine is stiffer than theirs. I think it is more accurate to call it a variable float MV.

I also increased the travel 38mm in the forks and 20mm at the rear, much plusher and still no bottoming.

for the rebound I use small ports and a light stack controlled by a curved limit plate, this gives me a very versatile rebound that takes care of itself from sand to rocks etc.

I'm sure your rocks are bigger than mine and there are a lot of tricks to reduce initial harshness when increasing LS but there are some ideas to try if you feel like it.

E-Ticket

I'm 6' and 236 lbs nekkid .... but wear lots of gear and a big backpack and fanny pack.
I'm running .48s in the forks and PDS-4 in the rear which are maybe just a touch light for my weight. But I bought them that way and am training/losing weight to make them "just right."

I think I have my clickers set good for tight, but fast woods racing.

But for next weekend's Funky Chicken Hare Scambles in Elkton, OR., I will be skipping the toolbag and extras so will probably need to check/adjust sag.

What are peeps recommending for the sag setting on a 2010 FE 390?

Thanks! E-Ticket

fizz

I have a 2010 FE390 with 16 hrs (just broken in), so now is the time to play with suspension settings. Settings are stock.

(i) Re the top and bottom fork adjusters, is it necessary to always (reset them) turn them 'clockwise until they stop' (per manual) and then counterclockwise for appropriate clicks for adjustment, or, can you vary just one or more click(s) at a time from current setting in either direction without resetting them?

(ii) Manual says fork rebound adjuster at top and fork rebound adjuster at fork bottom which is the opposite way around for the fx series as I assume its OC vs CC forks. Can someone confirm for my 2010 FE390 with OC forks, its fork rebound adjuster at the fork top, and compression adjuster at the fork bottom?

Thanx in advance.
Fizz

steve

Steve

NKW570

Hi Fizz,
No reset required with clickers, just click away in either direction as long as you know where you are to start with.

All 09/10 FE OC forks are reb top and comp bottom.

OldNewbie

Why set sag? I see a lot of explanations of effects, and some touch on the actual reason this is important. All good, but I haven't seen anyone explain the basic info on this. This year has been a lot tougher than it needed to be, with injuries and damage that didn't need to happen, all because I used an inexperienced suspension tuner who thinks springs are about ride.

Springs are about HANDLING. Get them right and the bike will handle, and the ride should be plenty tuneable with clickers.

The people who designed the bike know a thing or two. They designed it to handle with a particular geometry. If you have the wrong springs, you'll be riding lower in the suspension, and that geometry is now all discombobulated.

The farther off you are, the worse this will be, and it can be truly horrible. This is why all the experts say to get the right springs first!

Taffy

you set sag so that the bike 'handles at a set geometry - just as you answered yourself.

regards

Taffy