ride height queery

Tash said:

Totaly agree Badger, I was just stating the difference between the two, yes one affects the other but they are not the same thing as someone said.

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Correct Tash, they are, but raising/lowering the forks, increasing/decreasing the shock length, increasing/decreasing preload on forks or shock all have a bearing on ride height, even compression can have an effect on ride height.

Then you also have other aspects like tyre heights/profiles that will affect ride height also.:thumbup

Badger,

I totally agree with your comments when a motorcycle is in motion.
But
When you adj the preload the ride height is not affected until you sit on the bike, the preload adjusts range of operation you use on the spring, ideally the correct range. On a static unloaded bike to adj the ride height you need to adj the ride height adjuster, not the preload.

Correct me if I am wrong.

It is wrong mate, think about it this way, if you max the preload on the rear shock and take your static sag measurement, it will probably be nil, now note that measurement taken from the floor to a point on the bike.

Now decrease the preload to give you say 20mm of static sag and measure from the floor to that same point on the bike, the bike now sits lower because it is the spring that holds the bike up, if you took the spring off the shock the bike would sag till it almost sat down on the bump stop of the shock, only the compression damping if set high may hold it from bottoming.

So the height of the bike is altered by preload whether it be static or with rider on board, go and try it on your bike and you will see what i mean.:thumbup

That is what you call unloaded weight, suspension with no rider or bike loaded, (full extension),
Yes I agree, but,
By using the preload like what you are saying, you will be changing the operating range of the shock. Thus until average Joe knows how to set a motorcycle up IMO they need to adj ride height with the ride height adj, as they will upset the range of operation.

You seem to know about suspension, but remember most people don't, Initially people need to know the basics, ride height adjuster for ride height, Preload for spring operating range, etc etc.

I forgot to add,officially if you are using the preload to adjust the ride height then you most likely have an incorrect spring and need to change. The thread was started by someone over 6ft so most likely he would need to uprate his spring if he has used the full extent of his ride height adjustment.

What i was trying to get across is that ride height is altered by preload and pulling the forks or changing the shock length, it was suggested that preload had nothing to do with ride height , i was trying to make it clear for others that it does.

Setting the ride height by altering the fork height or shock length would be the first thing to do, then fine tune with preload settings.

I was definitely not suggesting that anyone uses just preload to alter ride height, i was clarifying that preload does affect ride height.

I am in full agreement with what you are saying about guys that don't understand suspension using ride height adjusters to try and achieve the balance they are looking for, but once you have got to that point if you still need slightly more weight over the front say to quicken steering you can fine tune the ride height by less preload on front or more on the rear.

These threads on suspension need correct info in them to help riders understand what they can do by altering the different components of a bikes suspension.

It is a very confusing subject for many and if guys like yourself can give input into helping others get to grips with the subject, then that is great.

So hopefully this thread will help somebody have a better understanding on the subject.:thumbup

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