SAG settings at school

[Roberts]

General question to the CSS team:

I attended the 2 day class.  There was no fitting done with regard to sag settings for the riders.

Isn't that important?  There was quite a range of rider size and weight, but I don't recall anybody setting up suspension for riders.

What are the thoughts on this?

[Graybeard]

Roberts,

Great question!  Strictly speaking from my former coaching/teaching experience, so bare with me a little bit.

A coach’s job is very laborious once they arrive at the track and often do not have time in their schedules to do sag settings for riders. My suggestion would be if you have a racing/trackday friend, have him help you or he can suggest a known suspension guy/gal in your area to do it. It isn’t costly and it certainly does help. It isn’t a hard process, just time consuming.
 

Keep in mind if you are on stock suspension and a 200+ lb person, it will not be perfect, but will be much improved.

A word of caution tho. Making big geometry changes that alter the way the bike reacts to your inputs the morning of a school day may not be the best idea. If you can get it done prior to your school and get accustomed to the new feeling, you will be much better off👍
 

Again, speaking from experience 

Andrew

[Hotfoot]

On 11/17/2019 at 1:36 PM, Roberts said:

General question to the CSS team:

I attended the 2 day class.  There was no fitting done with regard to sag settings for the riders.

Isn't that important?  There was quite a range of rider size and weight, but I don't recall anybody setting up suspension for riders.

What are the thoughts on this?

The BMW S1000rr has electronic suspension and performs extremely well under a variety of conditions with many different sizes of riders, adapting constantly to the surface and various forces or acceleration, braking and cornering.

It is not practical to set sag on every school day for every rider, and a school bike is shared by two or three riders in a day (depending on whether it is a camp or a single day school) so changing sag not only between schools but between riders would not be possible. We can, and do, change ride modes based on the rider and their pace and preference, as this can be done at the grid, there are softer or stiffer settings (which also change the damping response) available electronically through that method, if desired.

If you bring your own bike to school and schedule with the mechanic, setting is sag is something that could be done at the school, however it is usually more practical to do it beforehand at a shop or with a suspension person (or with a buddy at home, actually - it is not hard to do) because school days are busy, and setting sag does require the rider to be there to sit on the bike while adjustments are made.

[Hotfoot]

I should also add that no amount of suspension adjustment will overcome bad technique. However, good technical knowledge will help a rider make the most of any bike.

For example, we have had lots of riders (Joe Roberts included) come out to CodeRACE and run incredibly fast laptimes on the standard settings on the school bikes. 

And, when Keith Code decides to ride, he just jumps on whatever school bike happens to be available and shows us ALL how it's done.

 

 

 

[yakaru]

I do know that I've seen a shop (name slips my mind) show at Streets of Willow schools that will help sort out these sort of issues but it may have only been a one time thing; otherwise I agree with Hotfoot's assessment, especially for 2 day classes (since everyone will be on a school BMW and sharing)

[Roberts]

Thanks Hotfoot.  You points all make sense to me.

Setting proper sag made a huge difference on the feel of my bikes, but none of them have the level of sophistication of the S1000RR.