suspension settings for D tracker

[muzza]

Out of the box the D tracker comes set up for a 70kg biker which seems ideal for me on the street as its meant to be a supermotard but when I took it off road it the front forks were not surprisingly way to hard.

So has anyone with a D tracker tried other settings for off road and if so what were the results.

 

[KZ]

Well, the D-Tracker is a street bike, even though it looks kinda like a dirt bike. It should be categorized as a street bike with limited off-road capabilities, not as a street-oriented dirt bike. Even a dual sport would come with slightly knobby tires; the Tracker has 100% street tires. Compared to the KLX250 it has a shorter travel suspension (one inch makes a lot of a difference) and different grade oil in the forks. Guess adjusting it to the softest settings is all you can do. Or trade it for a KLX if you're seriously going off-road.

 

[jonadda]

The correct standard settings for the D-Tracker are.
Front forks 12 clicks out from hardest position
Rear Shock- compression 16 clicks - rebound 8 clicks out
Static sag for the rear shock spring is 90-100 mm
To check that take a measurement from the rear axle to a fixed point for example a point under the muffler, while the shock if fully extended (tilt the back wheel of the ground on the side stand) the next measurement you will need someone to help you, sitting on your bike in your normal riding position take another measurement at exactly the same points and the bike should sag down 90-100mm adjust the spring tension to achieve this measurement, i set mine to 100 to allow for the extra weight when i put a bag on the back.
John

 

[Craypot]

jonadda wrote: The correct standard settings for the D-Tracker are.
Front forks 12 clicks out from hardest position
Rear Shock- compression 16 clicks - rebound 8 clicks out
Static sag for the rear shock spring is 90-100 mm
To check that take a measurement from the rear axle to a fixed point for example a point under the muffler, while the shock if fully extended (tilt the back wheel of the ground on the side stand) the next measurement you will need someone to help you, sitting on your bike in your normal riding position take another measurement at exactly the same points and the bike should sag down 90-100mm adjust the spring tension to achieve this measurement, i set mine to 100 to allow for the extra weight when i put a bag on the back.
John

John,
Don't mean to be a PITA but where you say static sag i think you mean rider sag.

Static sag is the difference between the bike sitting on its wheels and when you have the rear wheel off the ground and rider sag is the difference between having the rider sit on the bike and when the rear wheel is off the ground. From my understanding rider sag should be about 30% of the suspension travel so 90-100mm of rider sag sounds about right. Static sag is about 10%. For the KLX its probably around 20 to 25mm.

As far as i know you can only adjust the sag two ways. One by adjusting the preload and if you wind down the spring to far you will run out of static sag. This means you need to change the spring to a heavier spring.

Ian Bungy can probably explain how important getting this right is. Its real important for racing but for the rest of us I'm not so sure how critical it all is.

 

[jonadda]

You can call it what you like but you should just focus on the sag you get when sitting on the bike from fully extended, this sets the shock to its correct working range for your body weight, if you find that you are a bit heavy and getting to the limit of your adjustment then you should consider a stronger spring, unfortunately their is no adjustment to set the fork preload and the KLX is a bit spongier than the D-Tracker but this is a good place to start, after you have achieved that you can start playing with your dampering adjustments, set them from standard and go from there and if your getting confused go back to standard and start again, what you should try to achieve with that is to get the bike when bouncing up and down on it is to have the front and back going up and down at the same rate, you will need a friend with a good eye to sit back and watch what the bike is doing while your bouncing on it, you dont want the front dipping down before the rear or the rear dipping down before the front, the same applies for the rebound you dont want the back kicking up before the front and visa versa, this takes a lot of messing around to achieve but if you get it right its a great advantage while cornering, the bike squatts down evenly through the corner, hence better handling, when i was racing a lot of guys would throw good money in to engine performance, i used to consentrate more on handling, that way i could carry more speed through the corners and of course go faster than them. Suspension is a science of its own and their are plenty of web sites that can give good tips on the effects of changing dampening settings but at the end of the day its a bit of trial and error, make your adjustments in small incriments 1-2 clicks at a time and only 1 adjuster at a time, find a piece of road you like and spend an afternoon testing all variations, go from one extreme setting to the other just so you can feel what effect it has on the bike so you can know for your self what each adjustment does another good tip is to take notes while testing so you have some reference to go back to.
John