Bad cornering 08er

[Bigdong]

hi,

Ive had my 08 450 for a while now and have it feeling pretty good but a mayor problem i seem to have is on flat corners my front end feels very light and loses grip real easy. Ive tried same year 250 and various other bikes and they dont seem to have this problem.

Any ideas on what i may need to adjust to sort this?

thx

[Tailender]

Too much throttle!!! But seriously, air pressure in front may be too high, you may be sitting too far back transfering more weight to the rear and making the front lighter, the forks may be too high in triple clamps, wrong tire for ground conditions. That's where I would start.

[Bigdong]

front pressure is pretty good, and when turning im right up on tank. I did change the front tyre a while ago but im sure its always had this problem.

My forks are slid pretty much all the way down so the top of the triple clamps is flush with the fork. Would this cause the front end to feel light?

[wato]

I had the very same problem when i first got mine ,was so bad i was going to sell the bike , i was told to try backing off the front rebound a couple of clicks at a time , it worked wonders , i love the bike now and will only sell it if i can afford a brand new bike .

[NVDESERTPETE]

Set your sag?

[Tailender]

front pressure is pretty good, and when turning im right up on tank. I did change the front tyre a while ago but im sure its always had this problem.

My forks are slid pretty much all the way down so the top of the triple clamps is flush with the fork. Would this cause the front end to feel light?

If it handles good with the clicker settings you have on other parts of the track/trail I would try sliding the forks up 5mm first and try that. If it seems not good enough try 10mm. Having the forks all the way down in the clamps puts more weight to the rear wheel. Sort of like a dragster. They put small wheels on the front to lean more weight to the front because it doesn't need any help getting the front end up.

[Bigdong]

Thx for all the replys, im gonna give the clickers and moving the forks up a bit a try to see if it helps.

[watermoccasin]

Set your race sag to ~104 mm (sitting on the bike in your gear). Not enough preload on the shock spring = too much weight on the rear wheel = not enough weight on the front wheel = poor turning.

[Bkew]

Set your sag?

+1 on this and the fork rebound. I had the same issues.

[dmxracing]

+1 on this and the fork rebound. I had the same issues.

Would it be more or less rebound. Backing out clickers (less rebound) would make the front hop around more providing less traction, unless he had way too much rebound which would make sense.

[Bkew]

I found making the rebound softer on the RMZ does not make it bounce around, it does stay lower in the stroke which keeps the weight on the tire better.

You have to start with seting the sag correctly first... as noted previous posts. Next work with raising the forks up in the triple clamps which helps load the front end, now that can make it over steer if you go to far. Find a comfortable setting on raising the forks in the triple clamps and you may have fixed it right there. If not work on the rebound so it stays down just bit more in the stroke a little longer, should help the bike feel more planted. In my testing I found it to be only 1 or 2 clicks on diffrent tracks if I have everything else set correctly.

RMZ's are touchy on the settings honestly, but man what a feeling when it is ON!!!!

It takes a bit of time to get right, so plan a for some riding time and tuning. Patience is KEY.