Do i need new suspension?
The short answer is....NO
For novice and intermediate track days my advice is save your cash and service what you have by changing the fork oil and greasing linkages first. Then set the static sag, and ride it. A video on this process will go live soon.
BUT, depending on your riding level you may find that you reach the limit of some settings.
What does this mean?
Depending on how hard you brake, and the combined weight of you and the bike you may find that you run out of suspension travel and the forks bottom out. When this happens the forks can’t dampen the surface of the track and the tyre becomes the shock absorber. This is when you run the high risk of the front pattering and ultimately loosing grip. A tyre can only take so much.
I encountered this on my first novice track day at Donington. The forks had standard springs in which are designed for “all world” motorcycle use, they were also progressive springs. This means that the spring rate changes as its compressed, for track use its recommended to use linear springs so the spring rate is constant. This gives you a predictable fork performance.
Modern forks (But not all) can be controlled by adjusting spring preload, tension, and the rebound rate. We’ll cover these in the future.
I decided to speak to KTECH and they advised fitting some 10.0nm racing springs and more adjustable rebound adjusters. I then found a KTECH big piston kit on eBay and sent just the internal parts off to them to be machined. The big piston kits and rebound kits give far more adjustability over standard.
My next track day was again at Donington so it was a good back to back test.
When braking into Foggy’s and Redgate in the first session I actually had too much travel remaining so changes were made to the preload and tension to get the fork using the whole stroke.
Suspension settings constantly change when you‘re getting faster and the bike requires more support.
You’ll find at most track days that suspension experts will offer there services on the day and work with you to get a good setting, and the tyre working correctly.
Badly tuned settings can cause hot and cold tearing. Again we’ll cover this in the near future...
The rear shock was fully serviced and I had the spring powder coated. I found a good setting (by accident!) for the rear, and I've not had to touch it yet, but that will change.
The only other suspension modification I made was to change the linkages so the back was raised 40mm to put more weight on the front.
For your first few track days, just change the fork oil and see how the bike feels.
The best tip is this. Change ONE thing at a time with the settings so you know what how each input affects the handling. Note down all changes so if you need to you can go back to a base setting.
