Realised I hadn’t setup the rear shock, so set about setting the static sag. I put the bike on a stand and measured from the rear indicator to the corner of the end of the swingarm, this gave me a dimension of 650mm. Lowering the bike onto the ground, bounc on the rear a few times to get the suspoension to settle, reduced that number to 560mm.
Taking the second number from the first 650 – 560 gives 90mm of static sag, way too much. KTM dirt bikes use 35-40mm so I was aiming for that area.
Removing the shock is easy with it on a mx stand, place something under the rear wheel to support then undo and remove the bottom shock bolt then, carefully, remove whatever you’ve used to hold the wheel up. This provides enough space to get the shock out. Undo the top mount, see previous post about cut-down spanner, and you can pull the shock out through the gap.
Measuring the shock spring length gave 198mm. I marked some reference points on the shock with a sharpie then wound on preload until it measured 190mm. Refitting the shock, don’t bother with the nuts as you’ll removing it a few times, and lowering the bike gave me a new measurement of 600mm or 50mm sag. My target was 35mm.
Basically winding on 8mm of preload reduced the sag by 40mm, so each turn adds about 2mm of preload which equates to 5mm increase in ride height. Another 2 and a bit turns of preload and I’m in the ball park for static sag.
I then sat on the bike and got a measurement of 500mm, indicating rider sag of about 110mm which is fine.
I’ve set rebound and compression to the middle and will adjust following test rides.
