I just went down to Deals Gap, and I noticed that whenever I open the throttle on a corner exit, the bike runs wide. Even if I barely touch it, the bike will under steer. I grabbed my wife and a tape measure, and had her measure the sag for me. The rear dropped 34 mm, but the front only dropped 12 mm, and I weigh 210 with gear. I am no suspension expert, but the front seemed like it wasn't dropping enough. So, all knowing BBS, what should I do? I feel like maybe adding pre-load to the rear would help, but I always thought ~35 mm is ideal on the street.
I'm not a suspension expert by any stretch of the imagination, but 12mm on the front isn't even close. When you say you grabbed a tape measure and your wife to measure it, I'm assuming that is with you sitting on the bike? If it is, I'd work on the front end issue first and see if you can get it in the 38 to maybe 42mm range, loaded sag.
I could be misinterpreting your post but in the event that I am not are you saying that the sag measurements were taken from you off the bike vs you on the bike or did you lift the front and rear so that the suspension was topped out and measure that length first then sit on the bike and measure the difference? If the rear is squatting 35mm just when you sit on it then it's way to soft in the spring and I would bet topped out your closer to 50mm of total sag. Again that is if your measurement was not taken from the suspension topped out. If it was then ignore this. Also the 12mm up front seems awefully stiff unless of corse you are not measuring with the forks fully extended first. But as some have mentioned wide exit is typically indicative of a rear end issue. If I am correct about how the sag measurements were made then go and take them again and report back. If not you can pretty much ignore most of this post.
Hooligan, search this forum for "sag settings." Once you have the proper sag settings, I think they should be in the 25 - 30mm range. Then look at your rear shock and consider increasing compression as it may be that your rear end is squatting too much therefore causing the front end to ride too high causing you to run wide in the corners.
Thanks for the help guys. What I did was lifted the bike and let it fall under it's own weight, then measured. Then, sat on the bike, and measured again. Am I supposed to measure when the bike is lifted?
Typically yes. The amount the bike sags on its own is called free sag. If your bike is measuring 35mm of rider sag in the rear then that for sure is your problem. You may need to get a heavier spring but you could try and increase preload until you get 35mm of total sag (rider and free combined). If you can get that the bike will be much better.
I see what I did wrong, I didn't measure from the bike topped out, so my numbers were the difference of static sag and loaded sag. I will go measure again.
Thanks for the help guys, after measuring correctly, it turns out both ends were pretty soft, the rear especially. It is much better now!
