Suspension check - 2010 FE450

I am getting ready for our annual 4-day spring break ride and I would appreciate some input on my suspension setup before I go. I am really new at suspension tuning and I still don't follow all of the terminology, but I am learning.

* 2010 FE450
* I am an old man (+50) and do recreational riding (no racing). I ride a wide variety of terrain and trail types. This trip will be in southern Utah (San Rafael swell, White Wash, Moab areas), so it will have a mix of sand, rocks, and slickrock.
* I weigh about 203 lbs plus gear comes to about 230 lbs. I also have a rear fender tool bag.
* .48 fork springs
* 8.4 shock spring

The springs are used but the bike is new. I now have about 10 hours on the bike, so I would guess the suspension is sort of broken in.

On my last trip I had the clickers set to "standard". Rear sag was 105mm. The suspension felt plush on rocky roads and handled small ledges fine (at least compared to my last bike). In the whoops the bike felt spongy (is that what "wallowing" means?). It felt like a pogo stick. I think I was riding the spring too much.

But my biggest problem was in soft gravely wash bottoms. The front end was very unstable. I couldn't get up to speed. It was scary. I suspect some (most?) of that is technique (I am not very good in sand), but it was much, much worse than my last bike.

So, in preparation for my next ride I made the following changes:

* Increased rear sag to 114mm. This has 10mm of preload on the spring, which I think is about right.
* Increased the front preload from 2 (standard) to 4 (sport). I thought this would reduce the front sag, but it went up (from 46 to 58 - which seems high). Not 100% sure it was measured correctly??? My thought was to lower the back and raise the front to improve stability. Does this say I need stiffer fork springs (ie, .50???)
* Moved the clickers to "sport".
* I then changed the clickers to compensate for the stiffer springs. Here are my settings:

Front:
* CD 20 (half way between standard and sport)
* RD 16 (beyond sport)
* Preload 4

Rear:
* HSCD 1.5 (standard)
* LSCD 17 (half way between standard and sport)
* RD 20 (beyond sport)

Do my changes seem reasonable? Or did I mess things up worse?

I just want to get a sanity check before I go since it will be hard to make any significant changes while on the trip.

What things should I look for and what fine tuning might I want to try while on the trail? I have printed out a couple of good tuning guides which I will carry with me, but any thoughts on what might be an issue with this setup would be appreciated.

I can get the rear sag dialed in as per the manual okay. I increased the sag some because I have seen several posters indicate they got better results with the sag up near 115mm. The "lower the back end" was my self rationalization as to why that might work???? But it seems it would make the bike even spongier in the whoops.

I have read comments indicating that with heavier springs you need to have more rebound dampening than compression dampening to compensate for the stiffer spring. Is that not true?

Should I stick with "standard" clicker settings for my riding style? Or move to "sport" or "comfort"? Some day I want to spend time testing different clicker settings, but I don't have time prior to this upcoming trip.

I have never found any good advice on how to set the front preload. It seems my front sag is too high, but I am not sure what the ideal setting is. Do I need stiffer front springs? Are there some guidelines for setting the preload?

My fork tubes are already flush with the triple clamp.

Taffy - sorry, I didn't know I was quoting you. I have seen "wallowing" in several posts, but your phrase doesn't sound familiar.

But you bring up some other terms that I don't understand:

* whap-whapping. Is that good or bad? What does it mean?

* face shim ?

* all mouth and triusers ? Is there an "American" translation?

Still mostly clueless,
Dee