CR125 Suspension adjustments

[Shredder8]

I just switched to a 2001 CR125, and i'm super pumped about being able to fine tune my suspension. Iv read all the other forms on how to adjust the suspension, but it would be easier to do them if i knew what there where talking about. Where do i adjust everything?? What am i adjusting when i turn the clicker at the top of the fork? And i never even noticed a clicker on the bottom of the forks! Where do i adjust what? What does adjusting them do?? 😛

Any help is apreciated

👍

[dmm698]

First thing you'll want to do is set your sag in the rear. Put the bike on the stand and measure from a fixed point on the fender to a fixed part on the swingarm. Then sit on the bike with both feet on the pegs while someone holds the bike up and measures the distance from the fender point to the swingarm point. I cant remember off the top of my head what the difference should be but im sure its covered on here a few times. As far as the forks, the top clicker is your compression. That will deal with how stiff your forks are. the bottom adjuster is for rebound, how fast the forks will push back up when compressed. A good starting point is about 10 clicks out from full hard on the compression, and 12 clicks out on the rebound (bottom) from full hard. You can adjust from there. I wouldnt do much more then a click or two at a time because the effects will be pretty large.

[Shredder8]

Thanks for clearing that up!

I just have one more question, when i look at the top of the fork there are two clickers, which one do i turn?

[86Yellow7]

If i'm correct one of those "clickers is a screw to let the air out of your forks which you should after every ride".

[Shredder8]

ok, so does it damage the forks if you dont?

[86Yellow7]

no it will only lead to more complicated matinence which is fork seals. The more often you let your air out the less you'll have to replace your fork seals less.

[Shredder8]

Cool thanks, and then the race sag, you just twist the spring?

[86Yellow7]

Race sag you will need someone else to explain cause i can't think of the words right now.

[Krutch]

Front Forks:

You have two "clickers" which adjust 1.) the rebound (the time it takes for the forks to fully extend again after they just compressed) and 2.) the stiffness. These can be found on the top and bottom of the fork.

-The rebound is the small screw in dead center of the top of the fork. turning it left will slow up the rebound making for a bit "softer" ride. turning it right will speed it up, giving a bit more of a "bumpy" ride

-Stiffness is located at the bottom of the fork (yeah its a pain in the butt) and turning it in (right, or "tightening" it) will make it stiffer and counter clockwise ("loosening" it) will make it less stiff

They play nicely together so you may realize you could turn just 1 click on the stiffness and throw out the rebound. How to measure this is by feel and also get a little zip tie and tie it around the inner tube of the fork. before each ride slide it to the top and at the end of each ride take a look at where it's at .do like 5 hard laps. You want a nice small gap between the zip tie and the bottom. if its touching that means youre bottoming out your suspension. not good. play with that for now and you'll only get better with feel and adjustments

Rear Suspension:

little bit different, you have high speed and low speed compression adjustment on the top and rebound on the bottom. dont know much about the compression

Edited November 21, 2010 by Krutch

[86Yellow7]

oh yeah i forgot abound rebound and compression on forks and then the compression on the back shock is like compression and rebound.

[Shredder8]

is their a "good" setting that i should start at?

[Krutch]

yeah find the manual and set the clicks to stock settings then go from there. if you cant find the settings, start at the extremes and adjust to your riding style. this will give you more of a feel of the range of the suspension adjustments

example, turn the clicks all the way in to all stiff and then ride a lap or two, take em slow cause it'll probably suck a lot cause you wont be used to it and it'll be way too stiff, then either turn everything out to all soft and do a few more laps all slow and then adjust from there. or just play around with what youre set at, your pick.

[Shredder8]

sweet, i love the zip tie idea! whats the race sag supposed to be?

[Krutch]

haha yeah it works great. some people spend money on a little band that goes around it. no need!

here's a link for some sag adjustment information

http://www.4strokes.com/tech/racesag.asp

[Shredder8]

awesome thanks abunch! hopefully once summer comes around ill remember all this ahaha