2nd gen SV set up questions

It's been a minute since I fiddled with mine, but it's still in the garage and I have my notes. I kind of started with what Burr, Ford, and Wall recommended and used what worked for me. I'm ~175-lb. Maybe 165 when I was cycling and racing regularly. On tracks like Barber I would run a little stiffer, while I liked softer for most of the others in the SE. I've run SV forks with emulators, and AK-20s, and later 1st gen R6 forks. For the rear shock, I have had both Penske and Elka.
Front, I have .90 and .95 springs, and ended up running in the middle (one fork with .90 and one with .95). I didn't do anything fancy with rider sag. I got it in the ballpark of 30mm and then tweaked depending on track and how much I would bottom out. Usually it tended to use more sag than less. Fork height varied around 7-10mm above the triple, making sure that the lengths were kind of consistent and the axle was straight. Some people measured triple to axle.
Rear, I have a 500 and a 525 spring. Probably a little on the stiff side compared to what Traxxion recommended, but I liked it. Sag was similar method to the front, maybe a little on the + side of 30. The shock length was somewhere in the range of 340-345mm depending on tire. Note, a 1st gen will need a stiffer spring and different length.

I have 15 and 16T front sprockets and 43-46 rears. I rarely used the 46. Rather than use 15/42, I just jump down to 16/44 for places like RA. I also generally liked axle as far back as was reasonable.

 

FWIW, Tyler said Stephen Laffon was freaking fast when he went out to Talladega, one snowy, rainy day back around 2010ish? First time my kid raced in the snow....so I would say take anything he says as gospel.

I rented a RS125 for Tyler to race that weekend and I think Stephan was on a motard setup....I wasn't there so I'm going off what the kid told me.

 

That was probably my 450 supersingle. The timeframe matches up. It was a really fun bike. I still have it, but it blew up at Nashville in 2011 and I still haven't put it back together. I'm mediocre on an SV. Maybe on my best day I could run with the front guys for a couple laps, but I'd be on my limit and they'd be cruising. But, I did ride enough miles to know what roughly worked for me. But, everyone and every track is different.

 

Just for reference on my gen 2 SV I currently have one 1.15 and one 1.10 spring in the forks and I run a 650 rear spring but I weigh 210 without gear and I run the front wheel in pretty hard on the brakes trail braking. It will depend somewhat on your riding style.

 

If you pull that 750# spring let me know. That may be about right on my 1st gen. I may also be interested in those forks springs if they will work on a 1st gen as well. My bike is way undersprung. I cannot even get the rear sag number right.

 

I pulled my 750 spring and swapped it for a 550. Traxxion was recommending a 450- but I did not want to go from a 750 to a 450. I also pulled the 1.1 springs out of the front and replaced with 1.0 and .95. I will see how that does this weekend. I like a firmer feel at turn in, we solved that on the R6 by adding a little more preload and a few clicks of compression. So I still had the firm feel at turn in, but the spring is compliant. I'm 195 without gear.

When I removed the 750 spring, it basically had zero preload and almost zero free sag. So I cranked in about 10mm with the 550 spring, and I think 2-3 turns in the front.

Rear shock is 345mm.

Front forks are only showing about 2mm above the top triple. But the 180 dunlop and gsxr rim added 16mm of rear ride height.

 

I ran my gen 2 sv as:
519mm centre of front axle to top of lower triple.
343mm shock length
I was 195lbs ran with oem forks with gsxr 600 carts fitted and with 1.0 fork springs. Penske 2 clicker with 550 rear spring
Stock wheels 120/70 & 160/60 Bridgestone V02 Slicks.
15/45 gearing pretty much everywhere

Smashed the lap record by 3.5 sec that year. Took pole every race and won every race contested. That SV was on rails!

 

I set all my SV's up with identical geometry. 515mm from center axle to top of triple clam, and 342mm long shock. I ran a 525 spring on the rear, except at Barber, I ran a 550 there. I ran AK20's with 1.0 springs. I set the front up with 20mm of sag, and the rear with 10mm. I was 195# all the years I raced, so take that FWIW.

I ran much taller gearing than everyone else did as well. I was always at least 1-2 teeth lower on the rear. The lower I ran my gearing over the years, the faster I went at every track. And I didn't use engine braking on corner entry. That was my secret sauce.

 

I'm trying to figure out what are good "baseline" settings for AK-20's. I'm just now starting to work with this stuff and so I started twisting the clickers. I found out this much:

Preload - 14.75 turns in the range
Compression (red adjuster/right?) - 3.5 turns in the range
Rebound (gray adjuster/left?) - 4 turns in the range

I was at 1.5 turns of preload, 2.5 turns of compression, 2.25 turns of rebound.

This has worked fine for me so I haven't really messed with it. But I'm slow, so I have no idea if it's weird or not.

165 pounds without gear, I believe the springs are 0.95's - or maybe a 0.90/0.95 combo.

 

Other way around. Red is rebound, gray compression

 

Thank you, appreciate that. It's amazingly hard to find a simple "idiots guide" to the basics. I'll get there though.

I also had the range mislabeled. So let me try this again.

Preload - 14.75 turns in the range
Rebound (red adjuster/right fork) - 4 turns in the range
Compression(gray adjuster/left fork) - 3.5 turns in the range

Now what to do with them. Thanks for the booster seat.

 

Forget about range. Screw rebound and compression adjusters all the way in and go backwards from there. Set compression 1.5 turns out and rebound 1.25-1.5.
Back out preload all the way and go ride. Adjust if needed.

 

Done deal! I'll make a note and make adjustments if anything seems a little off.

Now to double check where I'm at on the 8983. Many thanks for the assist.

 

Are you measuring the suspension when the bike is on or off stands?

 

Its measured when fully extended, so no weight on either front or back.

 

That's what I figured just wanted to double check, thanks!

 

We had a bunch of "you can't do that" comments about my racer's setup at the MA round at NJMP on his SV.

Right before we qualified on pole.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

 

Red. Right. Rebound.

I make them repeat it to me when they pick up their bikes.

 

That's almost exactly what I ended up with after some experimentation.

 

Sam will be along shortly to spill the beans on this one (hopefully)