Often riders will change these shims out for ones of a different size, or they can also change the number of shims used. On the down-slope, you want your rebound settings to be light enough so that the wheel can continue to nicely track the down-slope, while not so light that it pushes back up on the chassis.Īs we discovered in the last part it is the shims inside the cartridge that create a valve for the oil to pass through, which gives us the linear relationship between damping and oil velocity that we want in order to better find the setting we need. On the up-slope, your compression settings should be light enough so that the spring is allowed to soak up the bump, but not so light that the suspension bottoms out and bounces right off the track at the top of it. The optimum damping settings would allow the wheel to track beautifully over bumps, staying in full, good contact with the track over both the up and down-slope of a bump. It gives you that extra layer of versatility to find one collection of settings that works throughout the vast array of situations that your bike and suspension has to go through over a given lap or session. However, by having the correct spring rate for your weight, and the correct amount of preload adjustment as per your sag figures, its then down to the dampers to make the suspension even more efficient, and the ride even more comfortable. Maybe at this point you’re thinking that a lot of the negative effects detailed above are quite similar to having incorrect spring rate or preload settings.īy having too much or too little damping, you bring about similar effects as having too hard or soft a spring, so the after effects are quite similar.
Too little rebound and the wheel is forced back down too harshly, which could potentially top out the suspension. Too much rebound damping will mean the suspension can’t extend quick enough to keep the wheel in contact with the track, so it leaves the ground and flies off the top of the bump. Once you’re on the other side of the bump and the wheel wants to extend again, rebound damping comes into play. Too little compression damping and the suspension could potentially bottom out and bounce right off the track. This means that it wouldn’t be able to compress quickly enough to soak up a bump, and the forces would therefore be transmitted into the chassis and in to you. This can also be referred to as being too fast.įrom a compression point of view, too much damping would over-restrict the suspension’s ability to compress.
Too little damping and the suspension is allowed too much movement. This can also be referred to as being too slow, because it is slowing down the compression and extension of the suspension. When we refer to too much damping, it means that the damping is restricting the movement of the suspension too much. So we know the job of each part of the damping system, but what difference do the changes make? Rebound damping has a harder job because not only does it have to tame the forces of the spring extending, but it also has to manage the sprung weight at the same time. When you ride over a bump and the suspension compresses, your compression damping has an easier time because it only has to contend with the unsprung weight of the wheels, discs, calipers etc. The reason why they are separated into two different circuits is because they require two differing levels of damping. How quickly the suspension is able to extend is handled by Rebound Damping.Īs I said, both rebound and compression damping are handled by separate circuits within the suspension and can be adjusted separately too. When it gets to the point where the suspension needs to extend again, you also want this action to be controlled. Unsurprisingly, the damping arrangement that handles the manner in which the suspension compresses is known as Compression Damping.Ĭompression damping limits how quickly the suspension is able to compress when riding over bumps, or when the rider gets hard on the brakes for instance. The Two Main Damping TypesĪs we learned in the last part, the damping arrangement is what limits how quickly or slowly the suspension can compress and extend.īoth the compression and extension damping are handled by two separate circuits within the suspension, and they are adjusted separately too. In this part we are going to continue on the damping theme, but we’re going to expand a bit more and cover the two different types of damping – compression and rebound – and the part they play. In the last part we began the conversation on damping and what job it plays within the suspension.Īs a quick recap, damping is what changes (and tames) the manner in which the spring compresses and extends.