[thetruck454]

My bike is a gladius with traxxion drop in emulator kit with 2 turns on the emulators and a penskee 8975db with adjustable rebound and compression. I am familiar with reading the chassis and making adjustments on off road vehicles such as snowmobiles and atvs, but since I'm only on my second year with a motorcycle I'm not as familiar. This weekend I had the bike do something that I was not sure how to read. I was traveling up a long hill at a good rate of speed and when the road split into two lanes for slower traffic I took the passing lane. As the road made a left turn I laid the bike over and as the suspension loaded up at the apex of the corner, the back end wobbled. The line I took was not the best so at the apex I definitely made more of an abrupt turn than i should have. I'm pretty sure i have my preload set front and rear so that leads me to thinking i didn't have enough compression. Does that make sense? I know its hard to describe in words, but what should I be "feeling" for in regards to adjusting compression/rebound?

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[RocketPunch]

You have any data on your suspension set-up like SAG number? Spring rate and proload can be measured, compression/rebound can be tuned by feel+observation.

I think the critical part is you must ensure that it was not caused by rider input (bar,throttle,brake); Which usually is what caused the so called suspension issue in the first place for most cases.

Disclaimer: I am not a suspension expert.

 

[RecoilRob]

Compression or rebound settings shouldn't be in play as far as I can read from your description. Did you hit a bump when it wobbled? If there was nothing on the road to upset the tire, could you have chopped or hit the throttle? Something had to happen to make the back end move I'd think.

That rear shock is a good one for sure. Did you get it on the group buy? I've got the same on my 1K and like it a lot.

Wondering how you set the sag? Reason I ask is my experience with mine which went like this: Extend rear suspension by lifting rear of bike. Measure from point on swingarm to point on seatframe. Lower bike and turn collars to lower it to the sag figure I wanted....something like 30-35mm. And this turned out to be not good.

Reason is a while later I wanted to recheck the sag and lifted the rear and found the spring completely flopping loose on the shock! To get the sag listed in all the how-to's I had raised the collars higher than the spring was long. This wasn't good as it would hop off the spring at times when hitting bumps. So...I just tightened the collar until it would lightly contact the spring when unloaded and called it good. Doesn't have a lot of sag....but rides great so I'm not complaining. You might have a similar thing going on with yours. If not....I'm not able to help. Good luck!

 

[thetruck454]

Yea, I did get the shock along with the emulators on the group buy here, totally transformed the bike.

I don't have any sag measurements... I adjusted the preload and shock settings by feel. I know I'll get flack for this, but for me going out and changing settings one at a time and ignoring numbers worked for me on my off road stuff. Its a bad habit that I have.

At the point the bike did wobble was when I was leaned over and started to drift wide. I put some more effort into the bars to get more lean angle and when started to track tighter is when I felt the wobble. I was not off the bike at all so body position could have contributed too. I don't remember adjusting the throttle at all at that point as I was still accelerating. I thought maybe I was on the edge of the tires and the wobble was them starting to lose grip in the lateral direction due to the speed I was going, but it didn't sound right after I thought about it more.

Another thing I forgot to mention is I had my rear hard case packed full weighing at just under 40lbs hanging off the back. I would have thought that would have upset the front and not the rear though.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

 

[mad8vskillz]

any chance there was just a tar snake or some fluid in the road?

 

[lt1]

any chance there was just a tar snake or some fluid in the road?

Or gravel, or dirt, or road imperfections, or a twig, or trash, or animal droppings, or ...

Sounds like a rider-induced wobble to me. Bike slides a bit, rider tightens up on the bars a bit, bike wobbles a bit. I'd guess most of us have done it.

Still, it's a good thing to check your bike's suspension settings. Anybody remember the "oil spill" from A Twist of the Wrist I?