Woods revalve/respring

[johnny6speed]

Resprung for my weight at the beginning of the season with the stock valving (265lbs.) .50F/6.3R FC springs. Throughout the season I have lost a bit of weight and my goal is to be 220 by April 1.

I ride woods, bottom 3rd C class HS rider, and like to go to moto tracks on practice days. In a perfect world, I'd love to turn the bike into a magic carpet over the nasty rocks n' roots up here in the NE woods, but not cause any damage to the suspension internals and myself when I do go to a moto track and just squeek a double out.

Has anyone revalved for a woods magic carpet ride, and had reasonable luck adjusting compression/rebound clickers at a moto track? Or am I asking too much of the revalve?

[2grimjim]

Suspension tuning is something that is highly subjective, generally the faster and more experienced the rider, the more the rider is going to notice small changes to suspension settings. It really is up to you to determine if your suspension needs adjustment. I have ridden with AA riders that can fly like a bat out of hell with no oil in their forks and not care a bit. I've also ridden with C riders that complain about their suspension when the barometric pressure changes.

I've fiddled with the valving, spring rates, and oils to the point of knowing that for the extremely varied type of riding I do, I just gave up and have 2 bikes set up for somewhat specific riding conditions.

[grayracer513]

I run mostly desert, and have to have a setup that can deal with whoops at 60 mph and rocky technical sections at 5. The Dual Spring Del Taco setup from SMART Performance handles this better than anything I've used so far. Off road, I run the compression adjusters quite well open, but I can close them down some for a day at the track and have it work more than reasonably well. Very happy with it, especially since the last tweaks I did to it.

[johnny6speed]

I run mostly desert, and have to have a setup that can deal with whoops at 60 mph and rocky technical sections at 5. The Dual Spring Del Taco setup from SMART Performance handles this better than anything I've used so far. Off road, I run the compression adjusters quite well open, but I can close them down some for a day at the track and have it work more than reasonably well. Very happy with it, especially since the last tweaks I did to it.

I come from the caged, 4 wheeled world of motorsports. Do you mean a helper spring setup? Something comparable to this?

If so, that's interesting. KTM woodboogers up here in the NE use a progressive rate spring in their PDS systems out back. I was un aware of such options for us non ktm koolaid zombies.

Anywho, this topic was posted as, recently I tried a 08 WR450 through a section of GNAR I had traveled before on my steed, and it felt like such a comfy Cadillac, that my smile resembled a Cadillac grille. But, we then returned to the practice moto track where we were riding and my Cadillac grille turned into a Cavalier frown. More importantly, I don't want to join the "Orange Brigade", as I believe our blue bikes have a lot to offer.

[grayracer513]

No. The dual spring reference is to an internal modification. Dave at SMART reconfigures the mid valve so that it comes into play sooner. The dual springs are an element of the hydraulic controls. The hallmark of the fork is its ability to absorb really huge impacts and have you wondering where all that energy went. The mods to the shock so stabilize the rear that they make the front track better in the rough, too.

The progressive rate springs on PDS KTM's are an attempt to make up for the lack of a rising rate shock linkage.

Also, on "dual rate" spring setups like the one pictured, the one of the two springs has to coil bind before the rate will change. There's only one spring rate until that happens.

[RiderX]

You could consider picking up another set of forks and a shock on Ebay, and having them revalved for the woods. This way you'll have an awesome set up for the woods, and a seperate pure MX set up. Mine is revalved and sprung for tight, rough woods riding, and it's awesome for that but it absolutely sucks on a MX track. I really don't think it's possible to get a set up that does both really well.