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smarshies

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Feb 15, 2018
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Hi All. I'm relatively new to track riding. Last track day was 2 years ago and I've only done 4 in total. Converted my Gen3 roadbike to track bike for this year due to doing silly speeds on the road to get my kicks and that's not the place to do it. At the moment my bike is pretty standard mechanically and just has track fairings on for now. Done Cadwell recently and absolutely buzzing. I'm hooked. (avatar is a pic of me from there). Bike has semi active suspension and I have the plug to access slick and user. So far I've put it in User with everything in race apart from throttle response which is in slick. DTC is -2. Rear comp is 0, rear rebound is 0 and front damping is +2. I'm probably a 90kg rider kitted up. It didn't feel bad but I've nothing to relate it to apart from the road which is totally different. Tyre wear was okay.

Any advice as to where the hell I should start with suspension set up and DTC settings for the track or should I just put it in slick with DTC -5 and get used to it? Or maybe go and get it set up by someone as I'm a bit lost with it all.?? I realise different tracks may need different settings but I'm looking for a good base setting for track riding to start from.

Any advice is much appreciated. :topsy_turvy:. Cheers
 
The springs in the forks out of the factory are pretty much spot on for your weight. You might like a hair lighter via a pair of 10Nm (stock is about ~10.375Nm).
MCT Suspension will set it all up and check the geometry. Though I expect RJS near Mallory are closer to you. I would do that.

Most suspension dealers/fitters will have a preferred brand. They will say that brand x is better and worth fitting, but ultimately, you've got to be limited by what you have to need to bother.
At 4 track days in I would say its far to early to throw money at it.

So yes get it setup, I think you're using the same settings as me, we weigh similar amounts.
I went to MCT, I have 10Nm springs, an MCT spec preload fitting (which allows some to be added) +2/+2 front and +1/0 rear (Rebound/Compression).
My front is split because I run the 2D Front Potentiometer, available from Alpha Racing via Prime Factors Racing.

Fit a tie wrap around the fork to see how much travel you use, or video it. You should be cornering using mid stroke of the fork travel (33-66%).
At at the end of the day, I think you just need to ride and enjoy for a bit. I highly recommend a 3/4dayer in Spain to really bed it in.
 
Thanks Alex.. appreciated

The springs in the forks out of the factory are pretty much spot on for your weight. You might like a hair lighter via a pair of 10Nm (stock is about ~10.375Nm).
MCT Suspension will set it all up and check the geometry. Though I expect RJS near Mallory are closer to you. I would do that.

Most suspension dealers/fitters will have a preferred brand. They will say that brand x is better and worth fitting, but ultimately, you've got to be limited by what you have to need to bother.
At 4 track days in I would say its far to early to throw money at it.

So yes get it setup, I think you're using the same settings as me, we weigh similar amounts.
I went to MCT, I have 10Nm springs, an MCT spec preload fitting (which allows some to be added) +2/+2 front and +1/0 rear (Rebound/Compression).
My front is split because I run the 2D Front Potentiometer, available from Alpha Racing via Prime Factors Racing.

Fit a tie wrap around the fork to see how much travel you use, or video it. You should be cornering using mid stroke of the fork travel (33-66%).
At at the end of the day, I think you just need to ride and enjoy for a bit. I highly recommend a 3/4dayer in Spain to really bed it in.
 
Alex, do you run slick mode on track?

The springs in the forks out of the factory are pretty much spot on for your weight. You might like a hair lighter via a pair of 10Nm (stock is about ~10.375Nm).
MCT Suspension will set it all up and check the geometry. Though I expect RJS near Mallory are closer to you. I would do that.

Most suspension dealers/fitters will have a preferred brand. They will say that brand x is better and worth fitting, but ultimately, you've got to be limited by what you have to need to bother.
At 4 track days in I would say its far to early to throw money at it.

So yes get it setup, I think you're using the same settings as me, we weigh similar amounts.
I went to MCT, I have 10Nm springs, an MCT spec preload fitting (which allows some to be added) +2/+2 front and +1/0 rear (Rebound/Compression).
My front is split because I run the 2D Front Potentiometer, available from Alpha Racing via Prime Factors Racing.

Fit a tie wrap around the fork to see how much travel you use, or video it. You should be cornering using mid stroke of the fork travel (33-66%).
At at the end of the day, I think you just need to ride and enjoy for a bit. I highly recommend a 3/4dayer in Spain to really bed it in.
 
Hi All. I'm relatively new to track riding. Last track day was 2 years ago and I've only done 4 in total. Converted my Gen3 roadbike to track bike for this year due to doing silly speeds on the road to get my kicks and that's not the place to do it. At the moment my bike is pretty standard mechanically and just has track fairings on for now. Done Cadwell recently and absolutely buzzing. I'm hooked. (avatar is a pic of me from there). Bike has semi active suspension and I have the plug to access slick and user. So far I've put it in User with everything in race apart from throttle response which is in slick. DTC is -2. Rear comp is 0, rear rebound is 0 and front damping is +2. I'm probably a 90kg rider kitted up. It didn't feel bad but I've nothing to relate it to apart from the road which is totally different. Tyre wear was okay.

Any advice as to where the hell I should start with suspension set up and DTC settings for the track or should I just put it in slick with DTC -5 and get used to it? Or maybe go and get it set up by someone as I'm a bit lost with it all.?? I realise different tracks may need different settings but I'm looking for a good base setting for track riding to start from.

Any advice is much appreciated. :topsy_turvy:. Cheers


I actually did exactly the same this year, and I also was at Cadwell on May 5.

What I found valuable is to pay 50 gbp to a local "100% SUSPENSION" guy to have it properly setup and adjusted as I've been riding on the track thru the day.

I'm about 90kg as well, I ended up with +7 damping on front and -7 rebound damping on the rear shock. I did increase front preload a bit. Rear pre-load was left unchanged.

What the guy said is, front pre-load is accurate, but the forks are slow to rebound, and there is no way to compensate for it.
I'm in the process of buying a front fork travel sense from Alpha Racing in Germany to be able to tune compression and rebound separately. If this still wont fix the issue, I'm thinking to change either oil (to more thicker) or cartridges altogether.

Re: DTC, I've been riding with +5 and was totally ok. I'm planning to dial it down to -2/-3 for a next session at Donington and see how it goes.

I feed that this is a good base for me now. I'm actually more focused on riding technique and learning tracks before I make further adjustments to the bike.

What tires do you run ?
 
+7 on the front is almost going to lock the forks up, so yes the rebound will be slow, what was the reasoning? Did you smash flat a tie wrap on +1/2/3/4/5/6?
Preload should be set at a baseline and then adjusted (added) if you're plunging through the stroke too easily. Damping is for controlling the rate of movement through the stroke.
I would have added 2 turns of preload before going above +3 on the front. My 2p.
On the rear -7 rebound will have you punted out of the seat as the spring will extend as fast as it can.
I know the 100% guy knows his stuff but the settings are so far from what I had set from MCT that it's quite confusing.

The 2D sensor on the front will be a great move though, either way.
 
Thanks for the thoughts mate. I agree with Alex your settings seem to be max hard on the front and max soft on the rear which seems to be a bit confusing. But if it works for you then great. I agree the way forward is to get it set up by suspension guys for the sake of ?50 and go from there. At Donny tomorrow so will see who's there.

I run Supercorsa SC1 on the front and SC2 on the rear, 120 - 190.

I actually did exactly the same this year, and I also was at Cadwell on May 5.

What I found valuable is to pay 50 gbp to a local "100% SUSPENSION" guy to have it properly setup and adjusted as I've been riding on the track thru the day.

I'm about 90kg as well, I ended up with +7 damping on front and -7 rebound damping on the rear shock. I did increase front preload a bit. Rear pre-load was left unchanged.

What the guy said is, front pre-load is accurate, but the forks are slow to rebound, and there is no way to compensate for it.
I'm in the process of buying a front fork travel sense from Alpha Racing in Germany to be able to tune compression and rebound separately. If this still wont fix the issue, I'm thinking to change either oil (to more thicker) or cartridges altogether.

Re: DTC, I've been riding with +5 and was totally ok. I'm planning to dial it down to -2/-3 for a next session at Donington and see how it goes.

I feed that this is a good base for me now. I'm actually more focused on riding technique and learning tracks before I make further adjustments to the bike.

What tires do you run ?
 
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