Suspension Setup

Lockers and I just put 4 turns on the rear of mine on the weekend, the rest is set to sport settings, wheelie good fun now. My front tyre is shot, so handling aint the best, but what an improvment !!

The WP document linked above has been around for years. There is flaw in it though. There is a correlation between static & dynamic sag and the suspension travel. For instance 30-40mm of sag on suspension with 120mm of travel is quite something else as the same 30-40mm on 160mm of travel like the SD has.

Better guidance are % sag of the total suspension travel. HK Suspension is a Dutch company founded by two guys who have always worked at WP Suspension for development & racing, have put these % in a PDF on their website. They are the same values as circling around the web from Ohlins BTW. It's a Dutch site (as is WP Suspension) so I'll write them here:

Front fork SD 135mm travel
Static: 85 to 65% = 20 - 47mm
Dynamic: 65 to 50% = 47 - 67mm

Rear shock SD, 160mm travel
Static: 94 to 78% = 10 - 35mm
Dynamic: 65 to 50% = 56 - 80mm

Obviously, the lower end of these settings are for sportbikes/track use while the higher values are on the comfort side. These values are more in line with my own measurements and riding with the SD.

I've only done a few hundred miles on it now but the rear end is rock hard IMO. The front is OK. The guy I talked to at HK Suspension said the same. The front is good but the rear is too hard for anything other than a racetrack or silky smooth roads. The settings for compression and rebound damping are a result of the preload. I have backed off the rear preload a full turn and now the dynamic sag (me - 180 lbs - with kit on the bike) is 55mm. To me, riding the bike - hard - on normal public roads this is a clear improvement. Less kickback, movement and wiggles, better traction out of turns. But there's room for a lot more.



PS. I have the full Ti Akra Evo system on. This drops 10KGs of steel off the bike, mainly at the rear end...

Dear Mr MonoManiac!
I also though the rear was way too hard on standard settings, even though I set the sag to "medium" according to the old WP document. Your info above explains the reason why. According to your percentage measurements I have actually set my sag to "hard" - doh!. I will reset according to the percentage values and try again. Thanks for the excellent info
Jim

Has eney one tryd with just the comfort settings out of the hand book and what did thay think .

Thanks Kirkmoon,
I think I got it now.

More detail about the suspension specs & settings for the 05 & 06 SD only. This is official KTM documentation.








My bike is staying at Sommer KTM in Oberhausen right now to get the forks modified. Experience from the SDuke Battle Race Series learned them some modifications that turned out to work brilliant on the street too. The internal bushings, some other 'sliding parts' and the forksprings get polished by hand to reduce fork friction (stick-slip). The reduction in friction is that big that heavier forksprings are needed to compensate and to maintain the same rider sag...

The result is that the modified forks work much more sensitive, react quicker and give a more planted and steady front end. Can't wait...


Depending on the riders weight the shock shouldn't be changed for street use.

Interesting. Thanks.

I had the time to set the sag and further adjust the suspension on my bike this morning and have been really happy with the results.

I weigh 204 lbs. without gear. My rider sag with stock settings was 37 mm on the front and 51 mm on the back (and that is after removing the stock exhuast cannister and replacing it with the Akrapovic Evo slip ons. I can't imagine what it must have been before doing that!)

I decided to use the 35 mm front rider sag/30 mm rear rider sag suggestion and made the necessary adjustments. This resulted in the rear of the bike being 2 cm higher than it was before the adjustments.

I also wanted to deal with what I felt was an undesirable amount of harshness in the suspension, particularly with high speed compression. I decided to accomplish this by backing off the compression damping to the "comfort" settings while leaving the rebound damping in "standard" mode and to lower the pressure in my tyres to allow them to absorb a greater amount of high speed compression (fron 35 psi front and rear to 32 front/31 rear)

I took the bike out for a 150 mile ride today to test it out.

Net result is that the bike is now handling beatifully. Really outstanding. The turn in is quick and precise and the bike is very nicely balanced in turns. And the suspension is now acting like a suspension. It is still taut and precise, but it is absorbing bumps much better than before.

I ended up cranking in three more clicks of rebound damping in the front forks to tame a small amount of pogoing and that brought the bike into perfect balance.

So my current set up is:

35 mm rider sag in front. 30 mm rider sag in rear.

Compression front: 20 clicks out (comfort setting)
Rebound front: 12 clicks out (2 out from sport setting)
High speed compression rear: 2 turns out (comfort setting)
Low speed compression rear: 20 clicks out (standard setting)
Rebound rear: 12 clicks out (standard setting)

Please note that while these sag settings are probably applicable to most riders, the compression and rebound settings will be highly personal and depend greatly upon preference, rider weight, quality of roads and riding style, so YMMV.

I am very happy. I can now honestly say that I LOVE this bike.

Sounds good Kirk.

With gear on you'll probably tip the scale over 220 lbs. I guess.

As per WP/KTM recommendations (I just had a look) you could consider fitting (a) heavier spring(s) at some point. The 07 SD has a 170 N/mm spring on the shock and 9.5 N/mm fork springs. For your weight ideally it should be a 180 N/mm spring. After that 10 N/mm fork springs could be a next step but not likely.

Note that (as you probably know) a heavier spring doesn't necessarily mean a harsher ride with less comfort. When the spring it replaces is on the soft side it's likely to be the opposite as it needs less preload.

Digging this post from the grave.

Found this which is accordance with the HK Suspension document mentioned ages ago. I recently had my suspension set up, but I'm not fully happy with the settings so decided to DIY. Just wanted to know what is your opinion since this is conflicting information with the following, who was also WP recommendations (according to this thread):
35-50mm sag front
30-40mm sag rear
I'm just trying to figure out where to start, especially setting sag since the other settings should be a little easier using the manual's recommendations.

Probably should have gas tank filled about half-way as an average as well.

How the hell should you be able to change the rear-preload on SD? Just tried with hammer and flathead and only thing that happened was that the lock rings got some nasty marks on them. And why the f*** doesn't KTM provide a decent tool for the job (not that it would fit in the tiny tiny hole in the back to adjust anything.

So:

1. How have you adjusted the rear preload?
2. Does hammer and flathead even possible work?
3. Which way to undo the lock nut? I tried to hit from the left side of the bike and from there looking at the rear part of the spring and hit it from there towards the right side. This seemed logical for me.
4. And no, I don't have the opportunity to lift the bikes rear-end to the air to help.
5. And no, we don't have much pro-suspension stores in here and if there would be any, damn expensive...

And sorry for cursing, KTM just made my day bad.

1.Undo bolt on locking collar
2. Take weight off suspension (Abba stand or have a mate pull on to side stand)
3. Use a 'C' spanner or piece of wood (not screw driver)

I have run superdooper's settings for a while now and find it to suit me quite well.
I'm about the same weight, but have set my own rider sag. First I thought the settings was awful, until I found out I had turned the wrong way round...

Did anyone can advise me the suspension set up for the SDR. It's totally difference with the SD.
I'm only 75Kg with gear. The spring at the rear seems too hard for me and I 've changed 175/180 spring form KTM dealer. Now I can have the rider sag for about 30mm. But the front rider sags after 4 turns from standard is only 14mm. Its seems still far away to reach the desire sag. Please advise me the front folk spring rate that I need ?
Thanks

So, where do you buy the front spring for the 08 SDR ?
Please advise ?
The KTM dealer or WP dealer ?
What spring rate for 75Kg rider ?