Boxerworks.com

Garnet wrote:As for sag figures, I would have thought that a percentage of travel rather than an imperial number would be more practical.

My thought, too, on the % rather than a measured distance.
What I like will be will be @ 20%± - 30% ± of full travel,
the smaller percentage being more adequate to track / fast riding on smooth roads.
The % will also vary depending upon the specific shock / forks in question.
Obviously, since the forks typically will have longer travel than the rear shocks,
the measured distance for sag will be greater at the front.

Roy Gavin wrote:I have an Ohlins on my GS, and the rebound damper at the foot of the shock also adjusts compression, something the writer of the instructions seems totally unaware of.

So you can make up your own mind how accurate the rest is.

On page 7 it says:

Most Öhlins shock absorbers for motorcycle
are equipped with spring preload, compression
and rebound adjusters. Due to limited space
in some vehicles it is not possible to have all
adjusters in certain models. The three adjusters
mentioned above will be discussed in the
following chapters.

The information is still good...even if it does not EXACTLY describe your particular shock. Your particular shock can be disassembled and changed internally...yes, the same knob will still adjust both parameters, but by changing the guts, you can alter one without altering the other. So...the information provided can still help someone without the full range of external adjustments.

I should have said that the same instructions were supplied with the shock where the adjuster did compression and rebound, so in that case they were plain wrong.

I dont advocate setting the preload at any particular figure, be it a percentage of the total travel or some arbitary amount- what I want is the correct figure, and the only way I know to get there is by trial and error.

And when I finally get there, on a road bike, I seem to end up around the same figures no matter what bike I am setting.

The article makes no mention of balance front to rear, which IMHO is just as important as any other setting - when you finally get it right both ends feel better at the same time, even if you ar only adjusting one end.
It is the final clue that you are getting close to optimum settings.

It is possible to set a bike up soft, medium or hard and still get acceptable handling as long as the balance front to rear is correct - some contemporary bikes have a switch on the handlebars which will make the changes for you electrically and by all accounts theey work OK.