Hello Hello Hello people! Welcome to PowerDrift
In this episode,
we look at another crucial yet often neglected
aspect of owning such a beauty.
Setting Rider Sag
What does that mean?
Basically means setting up your motorcycle as per your weight.
And that is done so that the
suspension is working in the range where it works best
and you do that by tweaking
the springs of the fork and the shock by
adjusting the preload setting.
Why should you bother with all of these things?
Well, because all manufacturers when they make
a machine like that and they sell it,
they set up the suspension keeping a
rider of about 72-75 kgs.
So if you don't fit that range, a good chance that
the handling and the ride quality of
the machine won't be as you want it to be.
But fret not because we are here to help
you set up the bike as per your preference,
in these easy steps.
However, I recommend going through your owners manual to
see if it lists any special equipment
which would need for this process so
that you can get them before you begin
and also keep the default settings of
your suspension handy so that if you get
the preload wrong you can always revert
and start fresh.
All said, let's begin!
So, first up let's start by taking the measurements of the
springs of the folk and the shock in
their fully extended position without
any weight on them.
Have one of your friends lift the front of the bike on
the side stand and take the measurement
from the fork seal to the base of the inner tube
and note this down.
Now to get an accurate figure for the rear
find a spot on the fairing which is vertically in
line with the center of the rear wheel
spindle and mark it with a duct tape.
Then lift the rear wheel using the sidestand and
take a note of this reading between
these two points.
Now let's get the measurement of a fully
kitted rider on board the bike to see
how much the forks and the shock
compresses in his riding position.
On you go.
Now compress the front a couple of times and let the forks settle
account for seal drag before you
take the measurements.
Note this reading and repeat the procedure for the rear shock.
The recommended riders sag settings is
usually 20-25 mm for track use and 25
to 30 mm for road use.
And how do you get this figure?
By subtracting the rider laiden figures from the fully extended
numbers that we got earlier.
So now that we have the figures we know
that we need to take some preload out
from the forks and dial some in at the back.
Now how do you do that?
Well at the front, you'll need to turn the adjusters in the
anti-clockwise direction.
But before you do that make sure you mark the starting
point on the adjuster so you know exactly
how much preload you're adding.
Because one turn on the adjuster roughly amounts to about 1mm of
preload.
Also note that this is the Z1000
which has Showa's separate function forks.
for preload and damping.
Which means I'll only be changing the preload on one fork
but for conventional setup you need to
change the preload on both the forks.
So now that we have made the adjustment
let's get our rider on board to see how close
we have got to the optimum sag range.
Ok so the front is set. Now let's move on
to the back.
So what tweaking the preload at the back for most superbikes
require you to adjust these two collars
with a c-spanner.
And before you get started again make sure that you mount the
starting point so you know exactly how much
preload you're adding or taking out
and one-turn in this case usually equates to
about 3mm of preload.
So you loosen the top ring which keeps the preload ring in place
and then turn it to the required
setting. In this case in the clockwise
direction to add preload.
So now that you have verified the rear sag using
your rider you can go on and lock the ring
and you're all done!
Remember this is just the starting point
and a push in the right direction to help
you give the confidence to play with the
preload to get the most of your suspension
and also make a very solid base to help
you tweak your compression and rebound
something which we'll obviously cover in
the next episodes. But for now this is
all from my end.
Thank you so much for watching. If you have
any question please bombard them and
we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
And lastly subscribe to PowerDrift to be a
part of the PD Army.
Cheers!