Ductalk

This week’s Tech Tuesday article is about the improving the suspension components on your motorcycle. Changing the suspension on your motorcycle is probably one of the simplest component changes that can be done, and give you the best bang for the buck. On average the first performance enhancing purchase a person makes on their new motorcycle is an exhaust or a fuel management system. The purchase of motorcycle suspension upgrades for the average street riders are the last thing on the upgrade list. A person that does track days or races occasionally knows that the suspension upgrades would put upgrading the suspension higher on the” to do” list, Why is that?
On average the motorcycles stock suspension is not bad, the materials that make up the suspension components are of good sound quality. The major problem with stock motorcycle suspension is its set up for a generic rider. The components inside the fork tubes and shocks are made to work for a generic setting for street. When the suspension is set correctly, it allows the motorcycle to gain or maintain traction by aiding the tires to maintain contact with the ground surface. This added traction is caused because the motorcycle has better ability to transfer weight, and better absorb upward and downward momentum when it needs to...more

Not only does a motorcycle’s fork compress under braking, as Nicky Hayden demonstrates here, it bends backwards, too. This can cause unpredictable handling.

Barring a few exceptions, the front wheel of your motorcycle is steered and suspended by a telescopic fork. Steering motion is a simple rotation around the steering axis, and suspension motion an equally simple sliding motion between two pairs of tubes.

That’s not to say that the forces and mechanisms involved are necessarily simple. Steering motion is constrained by steering geometry; by the forces generated from the rotation of the front tire, wheel and brakes; by the complex interactions of the tire against the pavement; and even by the rider’s hands in contact with the handlebar. To further complicate things, the steering motion can sometimes be damped by a hydraulic steering damper....more

Read more: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/columns/122_1203_the_third_motion/index.html#ixzz1nPipjj2x