How Smoooooth Is Your Ride!

Let’s Talk About.. How Smoooooth Is Your Ride!

Now what am I referring to… I’m talking about your suspension! What is the suspension and how does it make the ride more enjoyable?

Simply put the suspension keeps you from feeling like your spine is going to come out the top of your helmet when you hit a pothole or hard bump in the road. The primary purpose of your suspension is to keep the tires in contact with the road, without it your contact patch (see what I did there ...reference to my last article) would lose traction with the road surface after bumps and dips. Your suspension also forces the tire (aka contact patch) onto the road surface during cornering, braking, and accelerating. You have suspension, consisting of a spring and damper, on both the front and rear of the motorcycle and they can be fine-tuned independently. The front suspension is in your fork tubes, and can have both a spring and damper in each fork leg or one leg contains the spring and the other contains the damper. The front axle mounts to the lower end of the suspension fork and the triple tree secures the top end. The rear is usually a heavy duty spring and hydraulic damper set up, or a fully enclosed air and hydraulic damper that works between the swing arm and the axle.

Most shocks consist of a piston running through a spring and a damper. Springs without the damper would allow the motorcycle to bounce continuously until the momentum ran out (think about a dropped tennis ball). Whereas the damper slows and controls the spring action (think about a tennis ball with sand in it). Dampers control the spring action by using hydraulic fluid that travels through a series of passages and openings. The weight of the hydraulic fluid and the size of the passages and openings determine how fast the piston extends or retracts in the shocks.

Compression dampening is the intentional slowing of the spring compression travel (i.e. hitting a bump), whereas rebound dampening is the intentional slowing of the spring expansion as it returns to its original state. Dampening occurs at high speed and low speed, but it has nothing to do with the speed the motorcycle is travelling, but rather the speed of the suspension travel. High speed dampening is quick changes in the length of the suspension, such as hitting a bump or pothole. The suspension reacts quickly to compensate for the changing road condition. Low speed dampening is changes that happen more slowly such as the bike diving or squatting during braking or the suspension lengthening during cornering changes.

Some terminology you may have heard about your suspension.

SAG- is the percentage of suspension travel utilized while stationary. Motorcycle springs are ALWAYS under tension even when stationary. The weight of the vehicle causes compression at all times, add a rider and a passenger and maybe a couple bags and the suspension compresses even more. If the suspension sags too much, the bike may bottom out when encountering bumps or potholes. If the suspension sags too little you can have a very stiff ride (And probably a backache at the end of the day)

Preload- the amount of tension on the springs when the bike is not moving. Some bikes can adjust the preload tension. Increasing preload tension will decrease sag, and vice versa, decreasing preload will increase sag. Preload allows a degree of adaptability for multiple use bikes.