Setting Sag - progressive spring

With a progressive spring, do you set sag the same as always? Sag is sag, right?

Just got my suspension back and had to put in a lot of preload to get the race sag right; now bike sag is 1/2 inch. That means the spring is too soft.

But, when setting sag, I'm in the soft part, so that makes sense.

Unless the spring was chosen wrong.

I weigh about 250 lbs with gear. My calcs say a 94 is about right.

Spring on the bike is 7.6 - 9.5, so my tuner started at a low number to end up with the correct one.

Is that the way to do it?

Taffy said:

set the spring by the lower number so a 95/111 etc is the right spring. the 111 bit is there to slow it down extra fast.

regards

Taffy

Click to expand...

That makes sense and agrees with what I'm experiencing. Thanks.

[quote="Taffy] a hard spring with no pre-load.

Taffy[/quote]

That makes a lot of sense, too. Preload just uses up your spring. So pick one that doesn't require a lot of preload.

Another thing - what does "rider skill level" have to do with it?

I think that should get little to no consideration.

The bike needs to handle and be controllable, first and foremost. I know a pro will go faster over obstacles, but now we're talking about ride.

Ride should take a distant second priority.

If the springs are correct for the rider weight, the bike will handle, and the ride should be pretty close to optimum. From now on I will always use that as a starting point, and tweak from there. (Gee, isn't that what all the experts say to do?)

Not that I’m an expert now or anything, but I’ve seen what a dramatic difference there can be.

Up to now, the bike would react violently and unpredictably to most small obstacles and would not track a line at all. Rut - forget it! It was a constant struggle, wondering where I was going to end up, and how I would get there, and in what physical condition. With that going on, I really could care less what the ride was like.

It's much better now, even with the harsh shock, and I had a blast this weekend. Rode 2 hours Saturday and was keeping a good pace (about 2 - 3 times faster now) the whole time without getting tired. I can hold a line, or change it if necessary, cornering is great, handling is beyond predictable, it's "natural".

I wish I'd just sent it to Dale. Shipping is a hassle, and I wanted to give my local guy a chance to redeem himself, but, now we're arguing about the shock spring rate....

I'm not just concerned about handling and ride, but also about what happens if I hit a good g-out and the spring coils stack up, leaving me with a solid bar instead of a shock.... what's gonna break?