Duh...suspension adjustment note

[Jerry]

I guess I didn't experiment enough.

A few years ago I had Progressive springs put in my XJ's front forks. I had thought they had a little to much preload, but not enough for me to want to take the fork caps off and play with the spacers.

However, over the weekend I upped the pressure in the XJ's rear shocks from my normal of 24 psi to about 32 psi. Guess what...front forks feel much better!

Too little air pressure in the XJ's rear air-adjustable shocks seems to have resulted in mis-matched suspension tuning. With a little more preload in back the forks seem more 'planted' and work better at absorbing small to mid-size irregularities.

Just a comment...anyone running air-adjustable rear air shocks may want to experiment with a wider range of pressures than you might otherwise normally run, particularly if you have made front suspensions mods.

[mason79]

yes i noticed that correlation myself, when i tighten up the rears, the front would not squat the rears so much,

making the bike a suspension arm to the rear vs. just the suspension for the fronts.

another thing along these lines is i think the stock foam on the 79 seats are useless, and somewhat a suspension themselves, with no damping, alot of yoyo-ing, even for my feather weight of 135, i put in a beautifiul king with modified queen(not so bolstered) between the marine vinyl and the firm foam, the input i place on the bike immediatlely telepaths to the tires, one of the best suspesion mod thusfar.

the collective improvement achieve by repacking the steering, rear swingarm, new front wheel bearings, properly ( in sequence) installing the front wheel and fork brace, progessive front springs and now the seat is nothing short of a complete transformation.

better than new? you betcha!

[trbig]

Here's a little chart from Yamaha's XJ manual... maybe good for getting you close.





Tod