Im sorry for the dumb questions, but heres two more

[dank]

1. i have an ohlins shock. however, I have no clue as to what spring is on it. how do i glean that information from the bike?

2. i need the answer to question one because i need a heavier spring. so my second question is: were do i get heavier springs?

My apologies for the dumb questions, i measured my sag today, and found my race sag to be spot on, but my static sag to be almost double what it should be. im not terribly worried about it right now, as i wont be riding hard any time soon, but the information would be handy for when i do get around to replacing it.
Thanks!

[ggg]

Originally Posted by dank

1. i have an ohlins shock. however, I have no clue as to what spring is on it. how do i glean that information from the bike?

2. i need the answer to question one because i need a heavier spring. so my second question is: were do i get heavier springs?

My apologies for the dumb questions, i measured my sag today, and found my race sag to be spot on, but my static sag to be almost double what it should be. im not terribly worried about it right now, as i wont be riding hard any time soon, but the information would be handy for when i do get around to replacing it.
Thanks!

You must be very light if the above is correct

Race sag 95 to 105mm , static 30 to 40mm

5mm outside the above would hurt to much

[dank]

i was given 100-110 for the race sag, and 25-35 for the static. the race sag is at 105mm, and the static is at 50. it doesnt bother me any now, as i am a beginner, but eventually i will need to change it. how do i know what i have, and how do i know what i need?

[stainlesscycle]

the spring code - after the / - will say something like: 596-09/50 030 the 50 is 5.0 spring.. how much do you weigh?

[dank]

160 w/o gear, 190ish with. were is the code?

[bchatt]

The race sag you have quoted sounds OK. I would guess the static sag is the result of very little preload as is often suggested on this forum.
In short, it doesn't sound like you need a heavier spring.
In fact if you require so much static sag to acheive a race sag of 105mm, that would indicate you actually need a softer spring....

[dank]

hmmm..... interesting. guess i never thought of it that way.

[stainlesscycle]

stock spring should be close. if you search 'preload' in suspension you'll see the whole theory of preload being more or at least as important as sag.....

do you have stock link, or is it a 124 link? that will affect your sag too..

[dank]

best of my knowledge its stock. how do i tell? and bchatt is probably onto something. when my girlfriend came out to ride with me this weekend and she let my try her ktm 200 (not gunna lie, its pretty) and she tried mine, and she told me that it felt really stiff, and compared to hers it really is. once your in the saddle it really doesnt squish down much, which corroborates exactly with what bchatt said. once im on it its stiff as a board. i dont really mind it any, i like the way it handles, but i really should have it set up properly for me. what exactly are 124 links?

[bchatt]

The 124 links that stainless refers to are the "dogbone" shaped links that connect the swingarm to the rocker. They run one each side of the shock, at the bottom. There are aftermarket links available of various lengths that lower the rear of the bike - I'm not familiar wit the gasser variants but the 124 will be referring to the distance between the holes. The longer the link, the lower the rear of the bike will sit.

Here is a general rule of thumb method for deciding if your rear spring is OK:
You've obviously sorted out how to measure it so this is how you decide - adjust your preload ( the large rings) until you get a race sag of say 110mm. (lots of threads on this forum say up to 130? - the steep steering angle on the gasser allows you to get away with this) but just say 110 at this stage.
Now hop off the bike and measure the static sag (bikes own weight).
If the spring is correct for your weight, the static sag should be around 25-30mm. If the staic sag is more (50?mm in your case) it means you required buggar all preload on the spring for it to carry your weight, i.e it's too stiff. If the static sag was less then say 20mm, that would mean you have had to wind the preload up alot, for the spring to carry your weight, i.e it's too soft.
As a rule of thumb you can work on about 10mm per spring rate - for example on my bike to acheive a race sag of 105mm, the static was 40mm. The stock spring is 5.2, so this meant I needed to go 2 rates softer, to a 4.8 spring.
I went ahead and fitted a 4.8 and then I was able to get a race sag of 105 and the static was 25 - cool!!
Mate, I have to say it was the best thing I did - the front feels lighter, the rear feels softer, braking and traction are better, the front and rear action feels balanced, the bike feels like alive!
Both high speed and low speed compression clickers are wound out way soft.

Now the thing is, this is just what I've found works for me. It's different to the accepted preload idea around here - see the stickies - no one seems to want softer springs Note, I only weigh around 150.
Hope that helps you some in trying to figure springs

Barry