Suspension tuning

[Garnet]

I was surfin around looking for sag specs and found this nice little article that was a nice easy read.

http://www.strappe.com/suspension.html

I know not all of you share his views on Gold Valves.

[Major Softie]

I know not all of you share his views on Gold Valves.

I don't think there can be any question that shim stacks are superior to orifices in concept. Not everyone likes the tuning of the Gold Valves, but satisfaction with that can vary tremendously depending on your taste and riding style. They can be tuned to give whatever ride you want, but it can be a lot of work and you have to know how to do that tuning (different valve springs, adding low-speed orifices, etc.). It takes more than just turning an adjuster to get the full range of adjustments available.

I think most Airhead riders who haven't liked Gold Valves are used to a much more supple fork and need more low-speed orifices.

[chasbmw]

I'm just about to remove the racetech emulators from my r90/6. I just can't seem to get them set up right. I'm using 4 bleed holes on the emulator and the yellow weight springs set at minimal preload. Racetech suggested fork oil heights are much too high and I did not get on with the suggested RT spring weights.

Currently I'm using BMW springs with enough metal removed so that the preload is minimal, maybe 5mm, I still have an issue with very abrupt low speed fork compliance. The ATE era BMW forks are in reality quite a complex piece of kit, so it will be interesting to see how they work, pity I had to buy a second hand set of forks to get unmolested damper rods!

I like the Strappe article, it's the best explanation I have read on how to set up your forks.