Guaranteed to improve your ride! Accurately measures sag and displays real-time readings right from the handlebars for a simple, fast, and precise suspension setup with no assistance required.
So dealers have no right to offer test rides? OR to allow a new buyer to ride his new unmeasured sag motorcycle home? Just saying is all Dave's "no right to ride the bike" seems just a tad bit fanatatical? Maybe should be somehow rephrased (6 years later lol) as "no right to expect an unmeasured motorcycle to be right or as safe as it should be to ride".....something along those lines perhaps...its what I dont care for about Dave....a bit hard to take sometimes
Hi Dave, I've got the sag set so the bike is flat for road use. However, if you've been back to Blighty lately you'll know that the roads are in an appalling state with lots of unavoidable bumps, potholes and ridges. I'm finding the GSX S1000 is so rigid over the bumps that sometimes it's frightening with the handlebars attempting to jump out of my hands and my bum parting company with the seat waaay too often. I'm assuming reducing preload won't do much and that the best way to improve the handling over bumps would be to reduce compression damping. A) Is this correct and B) if you reduce compression, should you leave rebound alone? And for all those that want to offer advice, yes I know the stock suspension is the subject of lots of complaints and that the best solution is to change the stock shocks. However, my question goes for any shock setup (unless it has fast and slow compression settings).
For coil shocks we just remove the spring and mount the shock body without it to take the initial measurement. It is ideal for could shocks since you don't have any other way to get an accurate measurement. Evil and Fezzari both use this for testing and to setup their child spring bikes on their demo tours.
Correct, you just need to do it the first time to get the travel, and then you can just take measurements. The app will show you the real-time measurements in millimeters as well as the percentage of travel being used so you don't have to do the calculations.
We are measuring the total travel that can be achieved between the rear frame and the seat rail, so it does not reflect the full travel of the axle. This allows us to take a much more accurate measurement than at the shock body, and we can calculate the percentage of sag used in real-time whale taking measurements. Hope this is helpful!
Good call! We did this video back in 2019 when we were still located in Portland, OR. Dave has been a big support of me and the brand, what great source of knowledge he is. Glad you like the videos, we should have some more street stuff coming at some point later in the year. Cheers!
Is there a correct spot to measure the sag from? I have the slacker tool and the instructions say to follow the arc of the swingarm to find a spot on the chassis (on my 2020 yz250f thats on the bottom of the numberplate). But in this video Keefer is measuring vertically on the rear fender. Ive measured both ways. Im reading 100mm using the arc method, and 107mm measuring vertical to the fender. If I measure from where the fender meets the number plate I get 102mm. Not sure which one is correct
Great question. Yes, you are correct to use the arc of the axle on the Japanese models. Kiefer has a KTM which is measured vertically as well as the other KTM brands. If you measure vertically on your bike, you will end up running too much preload and the bike will get squirrely;-)
It would be so great if you could do a video walking us thru attaching the slacker and then taking the initial readings. No one explains like you do Dave!
Hey Dave! I have a 2019 Yamaha R3 that I just bought as my first motorcycle (other than dirtbikes). I am having a hard time getting the rear spring preload set to a decent amount. I have played with settings 3 through the softest/less compressed setting but the ride is pretty firm on the cracks in the road. At one point I had to stand up yesterday because it felt like I could get bucked off. I weigh less than most riders (150 lbs). Also, I have the dunlop sportmax gpr 300f tires on it that are brand new. I am running 29 psi in the front and 36 psi rear like it says on the swingarm. Also, I thought it was odd, but I am only getting around 15% compression of the rear spring when I sit on it and it is set on the weakest setting. I also do not see any static sag when I pick the bike up on the weakest setting or any setting for that matter.
If you have no static its too much pre load! I push my rear down let it rebound then lift up to check for sag. Also that tire pressure is way too high!! Mine says the same but 36 is a lot & will only get higher the more you ride from heat. Friction makes heat plus road temp! As seasons change you'll need to adjust the psi, where i live in the south psi can increase by about 10 with aggressive driving in the summer. Ive been riding on decent days recently about 28 & 30 psi, which only increases, the warmer the air temp the warmer the road & the more increase your tire pressure will have! In warmer weather & summer I'll drop to 26 & 28 & maybe more. All bikes & all tires are different! I weigh not much more than you & my preload is almost at the maximum adjustment, if you have too take it to the max to get that static sag you need & take out some tire pressure! That will for sure make a difference! The roads around here can be awful so i fight the same thing. If you have been to the softest setting with no relief that should tell you tires are all thats left. 29-30 psi in the rear is absolutely plenty! Some run a lot less than that, youll have to experiment & see what you like. If you're at 36 & you ride a few hours you may be at 40psi or even more which would be a hard tire. Hope this can help you & you get it straightened out. If you don't believe me just listen to what this guy says about tires & pressure, anyone that knows will say the same! Good luck, ride safe!
Good info, that’s why I always check cold and hot tire pressure. It gives you a good reference of a starting point, if do it a lot you will know the about start pressure. I street ride and if its 95 degrees out side I know to set cold tires at around 28, when I ride I know it will end up around 35-36. Just s trick a buddy taught me many moons ago.
Dave, can you make a video explaining how you use your Motool Slacker to: 1) deal with your compression damping (assume that's f & r), and 2) how you would use it as you say, when your skills level increases. Would be great to hear such an expert as yourself elaborate on how you optimize your performance with it. Thank you.
if I were to aim 30mm of sag for both static and rider sag. The measurement would be 60mm of sag with the suspension fully extended to with the rider on it. Correct?
I think you are looking at it wrong. Static sag will only be around 10mm and the rider sag includes that number actually since the bike will just be compressed further when the rider mounts it. Static is measured with the bike under its own weight, and the rider sag is measured with the rider mounted. If you were to adjust to 30mm rider sag in addition to the 10mm static measurement, you would be running 40mm and will be way off track. Does this make sense?
@@lawrenceblah1563 Correct, and static would be fully extended to bike under its own weight. I always adjust my rider sag, then you can look at the static to make sure you are in the ballpark on your spring rates;-)
I just had my Ninja 300’s suspension set up by Dave. I learned so much in just 10 min of speaking to him and watching him work. He’s a Wizard, I tell ya!
My 600cbrr 2008 I found the front bouncing in corners a bit too much for me as I ride wiv most of my weiht over the front and feel like it stops me from powering in . I'm not a bad rider have some skillz ....also I go through a.rear tyre ever 4months and the front 2twice a Yr ...gulp ....I don't wanna blame the machine..street ... 2ct
I was wondering, if I want to measure the dynamic sag for my pre load, do I have to worry about the compression settings, because if there is a lot of compression rebound, the results I measure will be different from the results with no compression rebound, I suppose.
what spring hardness should be mounted close to the original? maybe a little harder. motorcycle is gsxr 600 k4. I mean the front suspension.I can't find the hardness of the original spring anywhere
I'm surprised this gizmo doesn't use a laser and a little mirror for measuring and then have it broadcast results to a phone app. Strings seem inelegant and prone to needing recalibration perhaps.
Great idea. I actually started with laser and then ultrasound. The problem is that you cannot keep them pointed at a fixed position on the body as the axle rotates and they are very susceptible to light interference from sunlight so it never gave a stable or accurate reading I could trust, it was a similar situation with ultrasound. The lasers are also horribly expensive, like $600.0 just for a good one. The retractable cable was actually key to meking it super accurate while keeping it affordable. Inelegant maybe, but also beautiful in it's simplicity after all of the testing was done;-)
Hey dave 2007 r6 when i press down the front end. Im gettin a crunch or smal clunk noise. What could it be ? Possible stem bearing adjustment? Or fork suspension issue? Thanks
