I am new to my '96 R80GS with white power rear shock and no idea about settings. I have 3 adjustments, I am messing with. 1) At the bottom of the shock, 10 clicks, printed numbers are gone on it, I need to know what does it do clock wise and counter clock wise ? 2) The knob at the top has 7 clicks, I can read the numbers 1 to 7, what is that for ? 3) At the middle of the shock, I belive this is only for the lowering or raising the rear end of the bike, is this correct ? Any advice and help will be appriciated...
Hi, 1) Rebound damping. Standard setting is 5-6 (out of 1...11; clockwise = increase damping) 2) Compression damping. Standard setting is 3 (out of 1...7; 7 = most damping). 3) spring preload/sag. No standard setting; this is adjusted according to weight. For the full details, I would look up the exact shock type (number), go straight to the White Power website and download the user manual from there. All good shock manufacturers usually provide also guidelines or How-Tos on what to adjust when and how PS. The second website in your signature is dead ...
Hi Stephen, Oups, you're right: the adjuster at the lower end is rebound. Indeed I read the numbers wrong - now fixed - yet the text as such was correct: compression is the one with 7 clicks, rebound the one with 11 ... at least for a 4681 shock, which is the only one with a similar look I found at the WP site
I don't know if this helps at all But this is the shock (or the style of the shock) That BMW sold as the "sport suspension" on US market bikes in the early 90's That might be a route to find a manual that list baseline settings. Which would at least be a start.
I would start with the sag/preload (3) since this is the easiest to set. The sag should be about 1/4 to 1/3 of the total travel. I typically set it to 1/3. You will need a friend to help on this. Many people measure different ways, but here is how I do it. When the bike is just sitting there (not on the sidestand or centerstand), the spring will compress a little. You want to lift the rear end of the bike enough to offload the spring. You don't have to lift the tire off the ground. Have someone measure the stroke, i.e., the length of the rod within the spring. Then sit on the bike with full riding gear and again have a friend measure the length of the rod. Change the preload until the sag length is equal to 2/3 of the unloaded length. If you know the travel of the rear suspension then you can simple measure the height of the subframe from the ground with no load and the height from the ground with you sitting on it. The difference should equal 1/3 the travel of the rear suspension. If you have too little preload, you will bottom out the suspension. If you have too much, you will top it out. If you drive very conservatively, there is a large range of "good" settings. If you drive like a nut (and do jumps), then there may be no good setting and you may need to swap out the spring. Next is the rebound (1). You want to it to "match" the rebound of the front suspension. The goal is to have the chassis stay stable, or level, as you are going over the bumps. Since you don't typically have much control over the front suspension settings ,you want to have the rear match the front. The front wheel hits the bumps first, so the rear suspension need to be a little faster (less damping) than the front in order to keep the chassis stable. The best advise I have for this is to place the setting in the middle (compression is also in the center). Ride your one your most travelled, favorite roads. Note the quality of the ride. Repeat with two clicks less damping. If it is a better ride, repeat with two more clicks of less damping. Repeat until the ride gets worse. Go back one click and zero in on the right setting. It really is a seat of the pants adjustment. Next is the compression (2). After you have dailed in the rebound repeat the exercise for the compression. The compression is more subtle than rebound. It will be harder to figure out the exact right setting, but then again, it won't matter as much. Good luck. If you are a nut for detail, setting the suspension is a lot of fun. If not, it is a PITA. On the race track, there is a very measurable parameter to know you are dialing in on the right setting. Faster lap times. Not so simple in the real world.
Thank you all for the advices. This morning I messed up the adjustments, sent this thread and went on a 300 km tour. Oh, God, never thought how sceary it could be to ride on a rear shock with wrong settings:eek1 Could not keep the rear wheel on the ground, stoped many times, played with settings, made it worst, specially on curves, rear end of the bike was like a Turkish belly dancer... Back home late afternoon, thanks God, 5 replys to my question Downloaded the WP's manual but tomarrow I'll do matteo's settings, sure it'll keep my rear on ground.. matteo, is this a Kalahari on your avatar ?
I wish I had a Kalahari. They are very rare here in the states. Here is a couple of photos of my '89 R100GS Only difference between these pictures and the current setup is I got rid of the Corbin solo seat and I now have the stock dual seat. Good luck on setting up the bike. I don't know what you have in the front forks, but you may want to consider progressive springs and may want to play with the oil wieght. I personally prefer as little damping as I can get away with on the rebound.
Nice bike, 1000cc airheads very rare in Turkey. Mine with Marzocchi factory front forks, just replaced the fork oil, manual says one side 20cc more than the other, weird, but works fine. Here couple of photos After many years with R1100GS, little disappointed with an airhead but very happy not to have all these sensors and electronics...
That can get tricky because part of the intended suspension range is beyond what you see as the exposed rod length. For example, Ohlins counts half of the rubber bumper and there's also a top-out spring inside that eats up travel on the other end. That's best. The travel is supposed to be 185mm for the Paralever GS.
Now confused, manual says, difference between loaded and unloaded measurement is the total sag. Total sag must lie between 90 and 100 mm. http://www.wpsuspension.com/service/4681BAVP_owners_manual.pdf Let's say travel distance of my WP is 185 mm We want 1/3 of 185 mm total sag after setting Total sag should be 61.6mm What about manual's 90 - 100 mm ? Anyway, I will measure wheel of the ground and adjust the preload to 1/3 sag, write the numbers here this aftenoon.
That manual also talks about racing and shows a chain-drive dirt bike. So it's probably written for bikes with more rear travel.
Unloaded, wheel off the ground, betveen axle and my reference point on the mudguard is 395 mm measured. The sag I should end up is 131 mm. Best sag I could set is 95 mm with a screwdriver and hummer (manual says don't) because don't have the correct wrench. This meets the manual's value. Ride and see...
IIRC the story goes it was based on the name of the owner of the company. (Not to be confused with White Brothers who made tuning parts for four strokes in the states.) Long before "White Power" took on it's current meanings. The company now goes by WP suspension. Is WP the company that's now owned by KTM?
Matteo; is that a stock solo rack or a H&B mod to fit? I'm looking for a solo rack if anyone is selling. Cheers
It is stock. I don't plan to sell the rear rack. I'm looking for a solo seat, just didn't like the Corbin.
If you have the correct spring for your bike and weight it will feel OK with the stock 18 mm preload on the spring, + - 2mm. The important rear sag setting is how it compares to the front - you want around 10 % less sag on the back than the front, so if you have 50/55 mm rider sag on the front you want around 45/50 mm on the back. If you cant get in that region with between 16 and 20 mm preload on rear spring you have the wrong springs at one end or the other, and you should change them. I have 49/44 on my GS , with 16 mm preload on a 450 lb spring, and two clicks more rebound, and HPN springs in the front. It is just about perfect. The rebound and compression damping can be set at the stock settings as previous. If you reduce the preload I have found a little more rebound works better. I have found that less compression than stock always feels better . I have never found any benefit in setting the sag as a percentage of the travel - settings in the above range have worked well on every road bike I have ever had, irrespective of the suspension travel. A quick check can be made by standing the bike upright and pushing down on the footrest - the front should go down slightly faster than the rear , and they should come back up evenly too.
Very sorry I said that... Today, after replacing diaphramghs on both carbs, a good sync with twinmax and rear shock settings, almost like my old 1100GS. Now I have old metzeller enduro 3s to be replaced with new Tourances. Than it'll run perfect. Even now, 100 to 170km/hr speeding is like my old 1100GS, maybe better. I was thinking to sell the bike, now, after few simple settings, I love it.. Thank you all...
Still have a question, whenever I search here for synching of Bing CV carbs, always end up with following link; http://wisconsin.airheads.org/content/view/33/51/ There I have a confusion, ok, it is a great article but does it mean "idle mix screws" by saying "idle jet control screws" ? Because, It mentiones about "idle jet control screw" which are in the carbs, you have to remove the bottom reservuars to reach. But, air mix or idle mix screws are out of the carbs, you can easly reach. Is there a confusion there or it really means "idle jet screws" to play with ? If so, if I remove the reservuar at the bottom of the carb, while the bike is running and try to set the "idle jet screw" as in the above linked article, will the bike keep running ? Or, It means "idle mix screw" by saying "idle jet screw" ???