Diving into the Sachs 48mm forks - wish me luck?

[Jakobi]

Do you have anymore shims? or a source for some of those 7mm shims? or are you limited to shuffling what you have in the stack Nath?
You could try removing the 10x.3 clamp on the rebound stack which should make the whole lot firmer.

Saw you wash the front in your video too. How far through the clamps did you push the forks?

[n_green]

Originally Posted by Jakobi

Do you have anymore shims? or a source for some of those 7mm shims? or are you limited to shuffling what you have in the stack Nath?
You could try removing the 10x.3 clamp on the rebound stack which should make the whole lot firmer.

Saw you wash the front in your video too. How far through the clamps did you push the forks?

Unfortunately the stock shims (what came in the rebound and BV stacks) is all I have. Since I have simmo's old carts I have twice as many. I don't want to firm up the HSR too much, with the old stack I could get it to pack using the clickers, just - the clickers were wound right in, and even then it still pushed a bit - which leads me to the conclusion its the bleed hole. I can't really source any more shims, the place I was going to didn't have that big a range and last time I enquired was sold out.

That front washout in the video wasn't suspension related it was me being a gumby. I've had right knee dramas for years and on this ride I noticed I was favouring it by not bending it properly, so I was going round the corner with a straight leg and leaning into the corner with the bike. Had several of those moments throughout the ride, always round left hand bends. It's prompted me to book into a specialist when I'm back from leave and get the knee looked at.

[n_green]

And the forks were pushed through the triples by 6mm. I'm going to return them to flush for now until I really dial in the suspension and then I'll play with all that stuff.

[Jakobi]

Give it a go man! Let me know how it works

The bleed should be primarily LS right? Stiffening the whole stack as it is now by removing the 10x.3 clamp should add more across the board, which will bring your HS back under control (you said its too fast since removing the 23x.1, HS face shim). Then if you have too much LS you can always pull another face shim out to speed it back up.

Disclaimer. I have NFI what I'm talking about

[n_green]

Haha me neither so it doesn't matter.

[Jakobi]

Can of worms.. Shes been cracked now! I wouldn't mind having a play with that Shim restackor program to get a visual idea of what is actually happening as opposed to trying to do it all in the minds eye.

[n_green]

Originally Posted by Jakobi

Can of worms.. Shes been cracked now! I wouldn't mind having a play with that Shim restackor program to get a visual idea of what is actually happening as opposed to trying to do it all in the minds eye.

I bought the restackor program, I didn't get much value out of it but then I didn't really spend much time learning how to use it properly. It did show on the screen the differences between various stacks but I'm a practical guy and seeing it on paper means nothing to me until I've experienced it.

[n_green]

I rode at Nowra on the weekend, was a good track half of the motor cross track, then 20k's of single, sandy, loose gravel, head sized rocks and bigger rocks with lots of step ups and drop offs.
Had to wind the rebound in to 3 clicks out to control the pogoing from deep in the stroke off drop offs. Even then it was still rebounding a bit too quick for my liking. Any further in on the clickers and they started packing.
I softened the compression up, I'm roughly 10 clicks out and it's not too bad, good over the mx jumps, sandy whoops, rock faces etc but it is still harsh on initial compression. It seems the faster I go the harsher it gets as well. It wasn't harsh until I closed the rebound bleed holes (2 x 1.3mm holes) and even now that I've opened one up (1.5mm) it's still a bit harsh.
The saga continues...

[n_green]

Started playing with them again. Based on my thoughts re compression I am going to add a bleed shim to the face of the MV, I'll leave the float alone. This should allow the forks to get moving immediately but they shouldn't dive too much as the float is reasonably small.

With the rebound I think with the last shuffle I got the LSR pretty close. I could get them to pack using the clickers and the front wasn't wanting to push, even in the sandy corners. The only reason I had to touch the clickers last ride was to try and control the HSR from deep in the stroke, which the clickers aren't very good at doing.

So I now have the following stacks:

BV (unchanged from the last ride):
23.1
14.1
23.1 (3)
20.1
18.1
16.1
14.1
12.3

MV:
12.1
24.1 (3)
22.1
20.1
18.1
16.1
11.2

Float = 0.5mm

Rebound:
23.1 (5)
16.1
23.1 (1)
22.1
20 .1
18 .1 (2)
16 .1 (2)
12 .15 (2)
10 .3

2 x 1.2mm bleed holes in piston - closed using JB weld then a 1.5mm bleed hole drilled in.


The MV is the same, I've just moved the 12mm crossover shim up to the face to act as a bleed shim. Fingers crossed this allows things to get moving quickly to get rid of the harshness, but doesn't allow the forks to start diving under braking etc.

Rebound is the same, I've just beefed up the HSR at the bottom of the stack to try and control the pogoing from deep in the stroke.

Going riding tomorrow, lets see how this goes

[n_green]

Interestingly I serviced a mates set of Sachs 48mm forks the other day. They have been re-valved by a professional tuner. While I won't say what stacks were inside (they are very very different to mine) I will reveal that there was no work done at all to the mid valve. All of the work done was to the BV (it was quite soft and actually used bleed holes in the comp side of the piston).

I've ridden his bike and while I don't love the forks they are a LOT better then stock. They have a dead feeling to me, it sounds strange but I feel very removed from the trail when riding the bike, whereas with mine and other bikes I've ridden you can feel the trail, if that makes any sense. They are still quite firm, and when approaching square edges I found myself bracing for the harshness, but they aren't harsh at all and just soak it up and keep going.

Goes to show there is more then one way to skin a cat, and you don't appear to need any 9mm shim to do so.