RideFast JUNE 2021

Then I had longer linkages made for the rear shock. Once installed I
loosened the triple clamps and gently eased the sliders through until the
bubble on the water level was on the same mark again to make sure the
geometry was correct. Where before my wife could barely get one foot
on the ground on tippy toes, she can now easily get the balls of both
feet securely on the deck which has increased her riding confidence
dramatically, especially off road.
What is ‘brake dive’?
Applying the brakes of a moving motorcycle increases the
load borne by the front wheel and decrease the load borne
by the rear wheel due to a phenomenon called load transfer.
If the motorcycle is equipped with telescopic forks, the
added load on the front wheel is transmitted through the
forks, which compress. This shortening of the forks causes
the front end of the bike to move lower, and this is called
brake dive. Telescopic forks are particularly prone to this,
unlike leading link designs. Brake dive can be disconcerting
to the rider, who may feel like he or she is about to be thrown over the
front of the motorcycle. If the bike dives so far as to bottom out the front
forks, it can also cause handling and braking problems. One of the purposes
of a suspension is to help maintain contact between the tire and road. If
the suspension has bottomed out, it is no longer moving as it should, and
is no longer helping to maintain contact. Whilst excessive brake dive is
disconcerting, and bottoming out can cause loss of traction, a certain amount
of brake dive reduces the rake and trail of the motorcycle, allowing it to turn
more easily. This is especially important to racers trail braking on entrance to
corners. Brake dive with telescopic forks can be reduced by either increasing
the spring rate of the fork springs, or increasing the compression damping of the
forks. However, all of these changes make the motorcycle less pleasant to ride on
rough roads, since the front end will feel stiffer. Go check out Wikipedia. You will be
amazed at the different techniques and various technologies various manufacturers
used to try eliminate brake dive, we can’t go into all of it here as it would be an
entire magazine in itself, but it is very interesting to have a read in your spare time
sitting on the crapper in the morning.
What tasks are usually best left to the experts and trained
professional suspension technicians?
• Change springs for rider weight or intended riding style
• Replace fork fluid, fork seals and fork bushings
• Valve and shim stack changes
• Suspension set up adjustments for rider
• Replace damaged or worn out components
• Repair or modify suspension components
With a little bit of understanding and knowledge you can do the
following yourself to suit your riding style and needs.
• Adjust the sag
• Adjust the preload
• Adjust the dampening and compression rate
• Adjust the rebound rate.
But before we get into the why’s and how’s and what for’s we also
need to know and understand that there are a multitude of different
suspension systems for different types and models of bikes, check
out your owner’s manual or google search your older bike if it no
longer has an owner’s manual to find to find out what suspension it
has. Here is a quick look at some of the suspension types out there,
(scratched off the net from Wikipedia and other informative sites as
well as some personal knowledge and asking some of the pro’s in the
industry):
• The most common form of front suspension for a modern
motorcycle is the telescopic fork.
• Upside-down” (USD) forks, also known as inverted forks,
are installed inverted compared to conventional telescopic forks.
The slider bodies are at the top, fixed in the triple clamps, and the
stanchion tubes are at the bottom, fixed to the axle.
26 RIDEFAST MAGAZINE JUNE 2021