I know I’m late to the party but- fuck me, Ive just followed exactly what this clip suggests. I was nervous and sceptical about getting involved in what I previously have thought as an elite black art. Half an hour in my shed and I have transformed not only the setup of my 701 enduro but,more importantly, my understanding of suspension and confidence in my bike. Just a few, seemingly minor changes, and I have just screamed through a wet, muddy track that I would have plodded through before. Initially I was so nervous about undoing the bolts holding the shocks but stuck with it and found it is as easy as described. What a transformation in so many ways. I’m 60 going on 30 with years of road riding under my belt and had pretty much resigned myself to being a plodder on gravel and off road. Fuck that! This tutorial has absolutely rest the clock for me. Thank you.
It's hard to do, but the best way to get grip in mud is to ride fast. Get the tyres spinning fast enough to throw the mud off and they work heaps better.
I don't even have a motorcycle and here I am watching how to transform my (non existent) bike handling. The reason I'm saying this is because you made complete sense to someone who has never ridden a bike.
I love the "don't worry 'bout the perfect setup, just do some changes, see where it gets you. Here are some tips on what will happen if you tinker with this setting, now go and have fun." message. I'm pretty sure this will give a few people the push they need. Great work, mate🤙
Indeed, most people are way too afraid to make their bike sooo much better for free. I would add this 1st: measure and count clicks 1st, and put that in your phone (even text it to yourself, if you don't have a note app). You don't have to be afraid to change things if you know where you were. You can always reset back to the original numbers.
ARiemann1- This is the most simple, best presented and easiest to follow explanation I have ever seen. I can actually understand it. I think the biggest lesson I have learned with proper suspension setup and geometry is how much safer it is. It seems obvious now, but somehow it wasnt before. For example, I thought just going slow I was fine when things got more technical. Then I would hit a terrain change, say hard to sand, and my front end would wash out and I would hit the ground. I'm 60 years old, my body just does not like that anymore and all my old injuries hurt. Then I would get more tentative and tense, and it just goes downhill and the fun starts going away. Now with proper setup, that is SO SIMPLE, I go through the exact same sections of trail and my bike just flows. The ride becomes what it should be, fun. And I crash a lot less which is very important. Thank you for your videos!
You’ve just explained something that has been a total mystery to me for 40+ years in a matter of minutes, clearly and concisely thank you, for a menace not a bad lad really!
Coming from a motocross background I have the suspension under control, but because of that background I have been messing about with a tape measure. Always believed setting the sag had to be done with mm precision. Now I feel it's a lot easier to get that right when I can tackle it a more relaxed way. The handlebar postion is something I have never thought much about, this video taught me a lot why it behaves the way it does depending on how I adjust them. This is easy the best channel on youtube for us adventure riders, no doubt about it.
Played with my Super Tenere settings because my suspicion was starting to feel shit. Made it so much worse, but that's because I didn't realise that my forks and rear shock were busy packing up. Bike is at a suspension specialist for a rebuild at the moment. When I get it back next week, it's back to fine tuning and feeling it out. Thanks so much for such an epic explanation. Love from South Africa
I dropped the front by 18mm as I dropped the rear with a lowering link by the same amount. I felt the bike is fine after this. Forks are as low as they can go now. This is the BEST video I have ever watched of this thing. Every other video makes it sound like magic and nobody should touch anything themselves. Thank you this was superb!!
Thank you Adam for breaking it down and simplifying bike set-up for those of us who are not professional riders or racers, but love riding. Your methods and no BS approach are easy to digest, and improving the quality of riding for us all. What you are doing is greatly appreciated. Other coaches are going to need to step it up! Cheers! 🍻 👍
Great video Adam. Suspension is one of the hardest things to understand even for experienced riders. Thanks for breaking it down in an understandable way.
Glad it was helpful. I've hopped on people's bike's over the years and they feel terrible to ride. You can just as easily ruin your bike's handling by setting it up incorrectly ...
@@lukefish7562 don’t be afraid to try and adjust to suit what works. There’s a saying in bikes that goes like “your only as good as what you try”. Just record on a note pad or in phone where everything was before you made changes. Also look at the owners manual and see what it recommends for starting points on things and then experiment. Playing around with adjustments and dialling in things to what works gives a whole different avenue of enjoyment out of our bikes. ✊🏼🏍️💨
@@MotologyFilms Agreed! I bought a very low mileage used Kawasaki from a dealership, nearly killed myself on the ride home, handling was horrific, nothing like I was used to that model of bike handling. Previous owner had traded it in because he didn't like how it rode and handled. After a few hundred horrible miles I got out the manual and returned all of the clickers and preload back to factory settings, night and day difference, bike was now a joy to ride! The previous owner had actually made the bike dangerous chasing suspension settings without knowing what he was doing.
Great video, super informative. I’ve spent years chasing adjustments to suspension and setup and this is the clearest and most useful practical explanation I’ve heard. Thank you!
can i ask what's your bike and weight? Im 100kg, 112kg with backpack and gear, my wr450f 14' holds me up well with alot of preload and clicker adjustments, brand new tyres are great to 😄
@@empiresrikesfat I have a bunch of bikes…3 ADVs, 3du as l sports, and some desert snd MX bikes. I’m not accustomed to the weight of the ADV bikes so not sure what a”good” setup feels like yet.
@@empiresrikesfatMX and Enduro bikes come standard with a spring rate designed around a 75 to 80 kg rider. You may think your WR is handling good for you but you really should get heavier springs and you'll notice a huge difference.
@@donavangovett4777 you do have a point, but as a mature rider the Wr came pretty well packaged for me the KYB suspension, Pro Taper handlebars, Excel wheels, twin air filter is great and I've never bottomed it out but yeah needs heavier springs
Absolutely the best explanation of suspension setup and it's consequences with simple methods to achieve it. I love the 1 inch static preload test suggestion for sag, what an easy way to judge sag when on a trip!
Good stuff mate, I'm starting to realise how little I know, I think I've been wingin' it for a long time. You're the thinking man's hoodlum. Loving ya vids
Your suspension tuning recommendations completely changed my Honda Africa Twin's handling a few months ago. I'm back again to relearn so I can tune my Tuareg now. Thanks Adam, I haven't found any other guides as good as yours for ADV.
Kudos, Mr.Riemann1! 👨🏻🍺 Fact that you give this knowledge for free is gift for generation of motorcyclists! Hopefully this and all your videos never gonna be deleted! P.S. While RU-vid exists...I mean!
@@alessiotacconi7759 I appreciate that Alessio! I’ve put 600 miles on it and just had my first service. I’ve not touched the surface of it’s capabilities but am amazed at the feel of it moving up from dual sports. It’s so comfortable on the Highway and with its technology I know it’s safer for me riding around and my girlfriend when she jumps on too. I feel very blessed that they put together such a great package at such a great price and that I was able to get one. And that they let me finance it. 😆 Thanks again! Take care! 🏍️💨
@@lukefish7562 Very cool 😎 I've been hanging out to see it in the flesh, it's still not available in Australia where I live. I'm currently on a 701 and loving it, I see a stable mate in the horizon 🤣 Stay safe and enjoy!🍻👍
@@alessiotacconi7759 lucky dog! You’ve got the one bike I was going to move up to from my 450RL until my dealer told me of the new Expedition. I bet you do love it! I still think it’s the closest a person can come to best bike to do it all and I know I’ll get one down the road. Too bad we don’t live closer so we could swap bikes! Take care down there my friend! 🏍💨
Best no nonsense channel on RU-vid. Always straight to the point and very chilled. Appreciate the time you take to explain things to less experienced riders. Cheers from Sydney...
Man this was the best, most practical straight ahead rider's method for setting these important things up I've come across yet! No pomp and measuring tapes... Feel and find out our bikes - it ain't rocket science (but requires your experience to simplify it so well so it doesn't feel like rocket science).
Tried this on my tenere 700 and it was amazing, the front end went from shaking around being sketchy as anything to tracking very nicely I still need to get the rear stiffer but tweeking the bars to the perfect position and setting up my suspension made it an unreal experience offroad.
Thank you so much for untangling that noodle-soup of motorcycle suspension! You've turned this head-scratcher to understandably simple, and now I’m grinning ear-to-ear!
I've looked for information explained Ike this for years and haven't been able to get the whole picture and been able to understand why ,Now I have. Thanks so much, well explained so bloody helpful. Top man.
I wrote this for a Facebook group a while ago. This is the methodology I used for my 890 adventure R. My primary interest is riding trails/off-road, so I will focus on this topic only. I will spend no words on preload/sag since that seems to be obvious and well-understood. To begin, I put the suspensions in the "standard offroad" settings. Then, I will pick a trail section filled with the most common obstacles I face. Riding the same section of the trail repeatedly at my normal speed, I will start fiddling with the settings. Below is my thinking. For each adjustment, I penned three sections: my understanding of the purpose, my intended outcome, and the methodology I plan to follow to adjust it. Compression damping Purpose: Controls how quickly the suspensions compress when hitting an obstacle. Increasing the damping makes the suspension feel stiffer. Outcome: Use as much of the suspension travel as possible to provide better traction and a more plush ride without bottoming out. Methodology: I will secure a cable tie to the fork and shock, place it against the seal, and then ride through the trail section. The position of the cable tie at the end will tell me how far the suspension ran through its stroke. I will adjust the damping to use as much of the stroke as possible, leaving myself a 10% safety buffer for unexpected, bigger obstacles. Rebound damping Purpose: Control how quickly the suspension extends following a compression. Outcome: Make sure the suspension is ready to absorb multiple bumps in succession without bottoming out; push the wheel back against the ground quickly following a compression to maintain traction. Methodology: I separate this into two tests, one with the cable tie and one with video. Given my relative lack of experience with the bike and suspensions, I don't want to rely entirely on how I think the bike "feels." I plan to repeat the two tests below against a section with larger, irregular whoops, and then against a corrugated or rocky section of the trail. * Using the same cable tie on the suspension tubes, ensure that I can hit the consecutive bumps at speed while leaving the 10% safety buffer in the stroke. * Using a GoPro at ground level and recording for slow motion, hit the same bumps and check the video to make sure the suspensions are not acting like pogo sticks and sending the bike in the air while rebounding.
Wow that was a great video presented in such a way that the average rider can understand. I love the common sense way that you present the technical information. You have discovered a niche that nobody else is nailing. Keep at it and a lot of riders will find their way to your channel. Well done
From Algeria thank you apart from the fact that i am not to good in geometry your explanation is the only one that made me understand the position and suspension basic set ups. Cheers 🙏🏽
Thanks Yoda 🙏that was easily the clearest set up instructional vid I’ve watched & I’ve watched a shitload! The explaining of the ‘why’ of each set up point was mint…have a great Easter mate 👍🏻
Great presentation. Relaxed, clear, upbeat. I appreciate how encouraging you are of your viewers, getting comfortable with knowing their bikes, increasing confidence, you are clearly on our side. A coach. You’re clearly a great storyteller. I appreciate how you speak with your hands. You Get into it.
The most straight-forward & easy to understand explanation of this I have seen. So many riders head off to the suspension shop & spend thousands but never take the time to work thru their suspension setup as you outlined.
It's great to have a suspension video focused on ADV instead of MX. I've found that *keeping a log book makes it much more clear what's going on* when something changed and seems off. It's also nice to be able to make it incrementally better and note the behavior. Eg this felt better/more planted on this turn but then did this other behavior in that rut. Noting that gives us something to think about. What can we change that would keep that corner improvement without invoking the penalty over there? Perhaps change the bar position instead of fork height, perhaps it's a sag issue, which would change how much the front wants to become light and pop up. On the rear preload spacer: I'd suggest counting your steps. If you have the bike running nicely unloaded, then it makes it much easier to return to that point. Also, a paint pen is very handy for this.
Thanks for the free bike upgrade. Followed your tips and changed my bike from wanting to kill me to cornering on a rail and almost eliminating dive when I roll off the throttle. Brilliant advice.
You so smart. So it's like setting up a bow properly for each person. Draw weight, draw length,brace height and so on. Thanx for all the knowledge. Rode Harleys for years. Last time was 6 years ago. Picked up a clean 1 owner KTM 390 adventure with the quick shifter and Knobby's. I'm in love. And with your help I'm all dialed in and building my confidence. Thank you.
Thanks Adam - very useful tips. I ride a S-Works downhill mountain bike as well as ride KTM adventure bikes all over the world and I have never “really” understood the compression and rebound - not what they do - but how adjustment affects handling etc… From being a kids fiddling with bikes and wrecking them I have always been reluctant to fiddle about and never had anyone in my life to help me with anything and so I stick standard settings in manual. Recently rode a KTM 450 rally bike in Morocco (not mine but the organisers) and it was so well set up I “felt” I rode like a pro on dunes, rock gardens and dry river beds - same with WR250 in Wales. Feel more confident to try different settings. Wish I had known years ago and been given a chance when I was young - poor, alone, and clueless
I thoroughly enjoy all your videos and find your content increasingly beneficial with each new video you put out. I’m privileged to be enjoying my 47th year of motorcycling and I’ve yet to hear such a logical and easy to follow discussion on suspension set up. All too often we get deep into the details of accurate suspension measurement and even lose track of where we are, but this setup is easy to understand and repeat when the bike is light or fully loaded. I’m off to try this on my AT immediately. Thanks for the great video and warm greetings from Arizona
thanks mate, I spent a few grand upgrading my suspension/forks but I have no idea if I'm getting the best out of them - the whole compression & rebound has me bamboozled - this vid has helped me get my head around some of it - thank you.
Great info right there thank you, I am always looking for different methods of suspension set up. My buddies ask me all the time how I can take my 1290 SA-R on single track rides in the deep loose sand. I simply say, Suspension set up. I have only been riding dirt for 3 years and suspension was probably the longest learning curve for me. Once I understood it, my riding got SO much more fun and better. Thank you for all the great content.
Excellent advise. Makes way more sense of what I’m trying to figure out. You are the first Eason in all my 45years of riding to explain why the front feels like it wants to tuck or is so twitchy. Plus the whole sag thing has just been over done by others without explaining cause and effect.
I watched one of your KTM series rallies I think it was the NZ one and you were going around checking out the guys bikes back at camp. Then you came across a bush fire fighter guy who had his bars up so high on risers and pushed so far forward it was frightening. I think you said that they were like (ape hanger) bars like on a Harley chopper! I really hope that he took your advice and sorted them out before he did himself a serious injury. Suspension set up is like wearing a good pair of shoes, you can walk in them all day. A bad pair will only give you blisters.
I knew all this, but still watched it, awesomely explained and simplified. Yeah the raising the fork tubes, main reason for a lot of us is to lower the bike a bit, for shorter people, for when you put your foot in a depression when stoping or turning on the trail. But great you explained how it may cause other issues for the uninformed.
Excellent Adam, man I've lost count the number of times I've tried to explain these things to riders, I worked as a pit mechanic and I'm qualified in other mechanical fields and to me it makes sense, but to many average riders who are not mechanically inclined they waste lots of time and money going to suspension specialist's (which is not a bad thing, cos not everyone can understand or be bothered learning) but most things are so easily done at home or on the ride and it gives you that bond and understanding with the bike and a sense of achievement. And the same principles apply to all types of vehicles not just off-road or road bikes Another huge component is that suspension directly affects breaking action and bike position also, and needs adjusting to certain types of terrain but a general setting can suit most conditions.. 👍😉🇦🇺
Hey Jet, I wish I was one of those riders around you 🙂 I would greatly appreciate a buddy who would teach me these technical things. Adam's simple direct way of explaining does give me courage to experiment on my own - but man! such learning is so much more efficient when someone shows you at the beginning. Also, I am so glad with the brilliant way of wording this thing - the advantages of getting in touch with the machine itself. "... and it gives you that bond and understanding with the bike and a sense of achievement." - I take this 😃
🙌 Brilliant explanation for the novice and expert. I'm sure most folks rarely get their machines dialed in properly. Especially when luggage is factored in. Cheers 🍻, G.
Great tutorials not going all technical and going the eye-ing and feeling the ride way making the setup more unique to each rider. Fist bump from a viewer from the Philippines. Love your videos.
Thanks for this one. I have no problem getting stuck in with the wrenches, knowing which way to change things is the art that only experience can give. Appreciate you sharing the knowledge and giving some practical understanding of where to focus
Well, you nailed it again. I’ve been wondering how to sort all this out and along you come with this video. Couldn’t be any more timely or relevant. Thanks again.
Nailed it again 👏 👌 That video has just turned people's minds around in the right direction, I didn't know jack about suspension but I had a go on a couple day trip and WOW I have changed my bike T700 , Thanks so much Adam 🙏
Hey I tried the Handelbar movement and it actually works a treat. I am currently travelling through Morocco It’s amazing how moving the handelbarsten onto the place you suggested mine was about 15 mm more forward. I tried it not expecting it to make a huge difference but it actually does work. And the ride was more comfortable today and the Handelns feels so much smoother Thank you great advice
Brilliant video. I own a certain little red bike that has become infamous for its overly soft suspension, but the one thing nobody talks about is what all that sag does to the steering. I reckon some of the people saying the stock suspension is OK for beginners should watch this video.
