vman2957@hotmail.com

Hi All, I was gald to find this thread don't mean to hijack just figued on the same lines as this thread any insight would be very appreciated. Sorry if its long winded, and it definitly isn't KISS for me sorry. I have recently returned to the racetrack after quite a while. I have a 03 zx6rr. We dropped a pair of racetech 1.0 springs in the front and I bought a Eibach spring for my weight for the rear. 1st race back: The first race back we set the bike at 30mm front and rear as baseline, the bike was slow to turn and even though I was getting full use of my rear the front seemed to be choppering and the wear on my Dunlop D208 front was strange to me , it didnt seem that I was using enough of the edges on both sides . This was confirmed in my last race of the weekend as I kept pushing it and finally it let go at full lean, and almost spit me off the opposite site.I saved it but broke my left footpeg in half with my shin and bent the bracket inwards. We looked at the tire afterwards and you could see where the tire was way to leaned over at the edge of the contact patch. 2) Race 2 I had a local suspension guy , put in ohlins .95 spring and ohlins valves. Once we mounted the forks to the bike and it was off stand , I pushed on the front end and it seemed squishy to me compared to the RT 1.0 springs in the other forks, but I was willing to give it a shot , because hey ITS OHLINS and the new springs had to be better than stock spaghetti. We set sag at 30 mm front and Rear . 1st corner of first practice I knew I was in for a long weekend, the forks felt like wet noodles and the rear felt like a brick. Not confidence inspiring at all . After pulling in to make some changes (very fast). The bike just felt stiff in the rear and waaay soft on the front. Ad we wasted valuable practice time on head scratching. I was pretty frustrated, my Wrench went scouring the pits for other zx6rr riders to compare there setup, while I sat back in the pits and decided that I was a dork for not getting an aftermarket rear shock. My wrench comes back and tells me all the guys in the paddock have the front dropped through the triples at 10mm minimum and the rear ride height jacked 10 mm off of stock for 15 mm Total (almost to the max). So we went to work and did the same. Sunday we set sag at 30/30 and immediately the bikes front end started behaving, but on the gas, the backend was harsh as they come, the front end had given me hope. Before second round of practice, I neighbor looks at my tire and says "I think you have cold tear" you need to increase your rebound dampening" I cranked it as far as it would go on the stock shock. Went out for round 2 and was able to actually start looking at the track and work on times. back in the pit the tire wear was looking much better. The bike was ride able but far from tearing off the edge confidence inspiring. I went away feeling better , moving forward but still confused, it didn't seem this hard to set up a bike before. 3) Heading to next race: I bought a ELKA rear shock off of a fellow racer with a spring suited to my weight, We have mounted the shock and decided since it should be a stiffer stock all through the stroke we were going to bring the ride height back to 10mm even not 15mm. We go to set sag and it seems even with the lack of ride height I have to crank down the preload almost 4 more lines to get 30 mm of sag in the front. The rear with no preload on the spring sits at 33 mm. I am a bit confused at this because you would think that I removed ride height so that would weight the backend more and you would need less preload up front to read desired sag, if this is true then , when I crank the rear to 30 mm it will transfer even more weight up front and then will require me to screw some more into the front as well , which would mean bringing me down to like 2 lines in the front showing. It just seems weird to me that stiffer springs wouldn't need that much preload. And to be honest the front end just seemed to be so settled after I cranked the ride height up , I have never had to do that to a bike before to make it handle. The suspension guy did seemed worried about the Top Out springs in the bike , but he called ohlins and that is what the recommended. And like I said the forks felt fine after the ride height and dropping of the forks. Anyway if you made it to the end of this and can throw anything my way , much appreciated. Thanks, -Chris V