HOW AND WHY TO ADJUST DIRTBIKE FORK HEIGHT 

Thanks! That was the goal, glad it worked out that way!

Appreciate it!

Diff bend maybe? I run pretty strait stuff. More sag?

Thanks! I’ll make some more during the supercross season. I would suggest trying the devol transformer pull rod, giving you the option to set it at the stock length or lowering the rear end without being stuck with one specific size. Also check out the pheonix handlebars, their 80mm bar is amazing, it has quite a bit of sweep but is super relaxing after a few laps.

@@bubbapauli thank you.

Are you riding in old style frog stance or in more modern twerk stance? In frog stance, that's going to be hard to correct, but in twerk stance, you control that by how much you lean up & down (over the bars) and with a little up and back direction of the posterior end.

5mm is not a tiny adjustment to fork height or to sag...

Awesome! So on the 2019-2022 there should be a small mark etched into the oem rear fender where it actually says “SAG” that’s the best point but if you get within a few inches of the rear fender and side number plate, you should be good!

@@bubbapauli is that even on the kx450f 2018? I guess I haven't really looked to see if there was a mark but I see so many different views on this subject but you know what your talking about so I will go with your opinion

@@jaredamoroso8273 I don’t believe the 2018 had that mark but you should be good at 2-3inches back from the end of the side number plate to the rear fender

@@bubbapauli sounds good and thank for the help

Awesome! It depends on the track, running it flush will help on a track with long deep ruts. And a tight track it could help running it at 10mm

@@bubbapauli where do you run your sag? My home track is in SW Florida so deep sand track.

@@williamskify I would say check to see where it is now, ride 1 Moto then if it’s not already there, try 105mm and immediately do another moto. Remember every mm counts and When trying different settings be sure to not waste a bunch of time between sessions

@@williamskify (from much reading and learning some tuning) *Sand tends to prefer slightly choppered vs balanced. If you chopper too far, you will notice a few bad behaviors:* >front end will want to climb out of ruts >have to lean excessively to turn >front end may go from a little slip to suddenly hooking, trying to highside and cutting a much sharper turn than intended >Back end is more likely to try to drift coming out of corners (again, due to the excessive lean)

This is more of a balance adjustment, because you’re lengthening the wheel base. If you’re talking about collapsing, that would be a suspension adjustment issue

That’s a common thought but it really depends on the type of bike and more importantly the type of track. In most cases tight turns with shallow ruts the bike turns easier with the forks up.

What’s good for One could be horrible for the next.

*To aid in your understanding, let me 1st complicate then simplify it:* What's the bike balanced height... at the front and rear sag you are running? Where is the bike's center of gravity? How much rake and trail does the bike have and how wide is the wheelbase? (aka is it already a squirrely bike or too stable) How fast and what surface are you running on? Are you an old frog stance (weight forward) style or modern twerk stance (more balanced) style? Sand? Like to lean the bike a lot? vs Want minimal required bike movement? Do you have the right springs for your weight? (undersprung may prefer slightly choppered, as overloading the front can go real bad fast) Extreme hill climbs? or downgrades? Now you can understand why you get so many conflicting answers (and that's assuming everyone is giving _correct_ answers for their case). *But that doesn't mean it's too complicated to be useful. The average person can easily add some simple rules of thumb and improve how their bike handles.* *Simplification:* Normal target ideal: Start with a balanced bike and balanced rider Now add conditions and preferences that shift away from that. *Easy real life examples:* Sand typically prefers a slightly choppered balance and rider weight rearward more of the time. Older riders may be used to a front high balance due to a lifetime of frog stance riding, and *_they aren't interested in changing that._* They are used to _making_ the bike move and getting that weight far forward. Balancing it wrecks that for them: it now moves with minimal inputs and but they are trying to make it move still, and they keep putting their weight too far forward, so it just feels squirrely & wrong. So it's fine if they want it balanced front high/choppered. (That comes with some big tradeoffs; there are good reasons bikes and stances have changed) If you prefer a softer shock sag setting, _but aren't removing preload from the front,_ the bike will ride front high. That would be a reason to raise the forks up in the triples aka lower the front of the bike to bring it back into balance. (eg converting an mx bike to a trail bike) Conversely, an mx rider usually wants a bike that is much more stood up than a trail bike.

yes you would have the same effects, but I would be cautious sliding the forks up (shortening the wheel base) as that could create poor handling at higher speeds. the spring tension (sag) on the rear could also make a big difference for you.

@@bubbapauli Thank you for the Input..

Agreed: sounds like you have too much preload in the rear spring. Set sag (both ends) to something reasonable before assessing that you need to raise or lower the front end. Eg. I've seen bikes with way too much preload spacers in the front. (Happens when they are trying to make the bike 'stiff for racing,' and/or trying to combat dive in the wrong way, both common mistakes) They didn't need the forks raised, they needed to pull out preload spacers, so the front wasn't sitting high and popping up excessively. In your case, it sounds like someone was either a heavier rider but not buying a new spring, 2 upping, or _thought_ stiffening it excessively would improve its performance. Instead, it just made it hoppy and harsh. Combining a hoppy high riding rear + lowering the front would most likely end up with a dangerous combo where bumps make the bike want to dart or the rear to skip outward then try to highside you in a corner. (think of it like carrying something heavy up stairs... but instead of the strong person at the bottom, you put the weak person there. Every tip or bump shifts more weight onto the weak person, who almost collapses and wanders all over trying to recover, while the strong side is barely carrying any of the weight)

Great question! Yes you can but if you raise the forks it can make the handling worse in high speed areas of riding

You want to measure from the tip of the tube, not from the top of the cap.

@@bubbapauli yeah thanks i found that out earlier. Turns out i had notches for 5mm up

Some method is always better than zero method but Yep those are great investments!

@@bubbapauli you have a sweet bike and just like to see things work as best as they possibly can! Have fun out on the track!!

@@erichildreth7562 thanks!!

When the wheel base is shorter the bike turns tighter, easier but when it’s longer it will follow a rut easier with less resistance. Yes you can achieve the same thing with the sag but a lot of times we want to leave the sag in a certain spot to keep a specific rear end feel

@@bubbapauli Food for thought! Thanks

@@bubbapauli Thanks for that explanation. Keeping the same rear feel makes a lot of sense. Do you mostly ride tight tracks? I'm wondering if your normal setting is a bike that likes to dart more than most of us have ours set.

@@user-tf1oo9rj6u yes typically most of the tracks I ride are tight but I still ride big tracks every couple weeks

Just curious, what bikes are you referring to with those numbers? I have never see a big bike with a suggest torque spec as low as 8...

Bubba Pauli 282 2018 KTM 250 XC, 2021 Husqvarna FC 350; same numbers in both manuals.

@herrion It’s a conversation of adults sharing knowledge and references to experience and manufacturers’ numbers in the manuals. Nobody is arguing here, go back to your video game.

19-22 KX450 the torque specs are 17FT-LBS top and bottom on clamps from Kawasaki.

Try it and you'll be surprised how much you will feel a little adjustment of your forks. I thought the same as you and was way wrong.

I thought the same thing, I was having a hard time following corners on my 2017 crf450r, put forks up flush… Big difference, I didnt think as a average rider that I would notice, but its true…

That's what the mind would think, but the reality is even an incompetent gumby newish rider can easily tell the difference between 2mm in the front, even if they don't know how to describe or even what changed. Just that it changed and feels different. "its not kicking as much" "it feel better in that corner" What people are thinking is, my own weight or a bump makes way bigger difference than that. Partly true. But how does the bike react: When your weight comes off? (so the bike is free to shift where it wants to go) When it's landing with momentum? (so it's much more than just simple weight) When you hit a rock while following a rut? (unless you are gifted with xray vision) Can you mitigate that with body positioning? Yes, but you have to move more to do that, and if you aren't always in the right spot, it's going to show that ugly behavior. 2mm can easily be the difference between a bike that wants to follow a rut or pop out when you hit something. You already had your body where it needed to be to keep the front bit in but not too low, now you hit that rock and the right body position just rapidly changed _because the bike isn't balanced._ For a moment, everything is wrong, but if you try to correct for that, a moment later it's changing rapidly back the other way. It's going to be hard to flick your body rapidly enough to _compensate for a bike problem._ Out of the rut you go. Hitting some braking bumps before a turn? Maybe some whoops (even at slow-medium speed)? You will notice the difference between a balanced bike and one where the front wants to pop up, causing extra rear load/hooking effect, which leads to extra front impact, which pops up even more... power teeter-totter. Since it's a feedbacking oscillation, a small change in the right direction has a huge quelling effect (the front no longer causes a worse rear reaction so the cycle doesn't start). Or the front loads too much and sinks in. That can go bad a couple ways. Would you like to approach every whoops section expecting your bike to try to endo you?