looking for some advise on suspension changes. I have an 04 KTM 525EXC. This is my race bike for off-road hare scrambles and I have had the suspension done for this purpose with springs, bushings, guides, valves, etc. The suspension is set-up perfect for this use
Any suggestions for adjusting for a road course? I run 17's on this bike on the streets. Typically I just leave the suspension alone when I ride the street, but I'm doing a track day at MAM and would like to get as close to dialed in for the road as I can for this day.
First off, take notes to keep track of how it was before making adjustments for pavement. Set the compression dampening up front to next thing to full hard. Set the rebound close to full soft. My 450 is set at full hard and full soft.
do the opposite with the rear. Set the compression toward the soft side and the rebound about three clicks from full hard (slow).
This should get you in the ball park for a pavement day.
Coming from a mostly roadrace background, I had been having trouble with a lot of front end chatter in the corners and basically an unattatched feeling from the front wheel. I had used all of my set-up from my roadrace days to try to get some feeling from the front end. Nothing I tried seemed to work.
I posted for some suspension help on SMJ and received a reply from a fellow in Europe somewhere. He tipped me off to setting the rebound up front to the quick side to get the front tire to track back to the pavement quickly after bumps in the pavement. You need the front end compression stiff to keep the bike from pitching forward so hard when the front brake is applied. Without a revalve or stiffer springs, you can only go so stiff, so I set mine up at full stiff.
Out back, setting up the compression soft allows the bike to squat into the corner and setting up the rebound slow keeps the rear set and keeps it from rebounding up so quickly which could upset the bike on corner exit.
I gave the settings a try, and it seemed to make a huge difference right away. I could feel the front end a lot more, and the bike felt a lot more stable in the corners.
One idea, and I don't know how much work it would be to re-tune your suspension, is to use these adjustable air reserviors I've seen people putting on KTM 640 Adventures and the like. They are basically air cylinders that will act as air springs for the forks when offroad, but you turn a knob, and then close off, so you just have what's in the forks for the road. Seems like they take a little time to dial in, but people seem pretty happy with them.
I was thinking about them going the other way. My SM was brutal if I tried to take it offroad at all. Even a washboard road would almost tear the bike apart.
Dirt to tarmac suspender adjustments
) at the Marshalltown track??
Linear Mode
