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First off the spring installation is easy and just takes a little time. The front springs were initially set up at 1/4" preload as the instructions called for. However it looked like that might have caused about 3/8" loss in ride height so I reset the preload at 1/2" which brought the ride height back to normal. Just doing the bounce test on the front you can tell the suspension is looser but the rear seems about the same and is likely due to the anti sway bar. Shock settings for all 4 corners are damping full clockwise and both compression full counter clockwise.
So on the first ride we started out on a trail that is rutted and littered with embedded rocks as well as an occasional small whoop section. Good testing ground. Initially started out pretty slow, following 2 other riders, and I'm still feeling pretty much everything in the trail. So I went ahead of the other riders and picked up the speed, not flat out but still sliding through the corners. The springs are a pretty good improvement but there's still a lot of similarities to stock. What I mean there is the front is way better than the rear and you've got to push the speeds to make it work. The faster you go the better the ride and yes it is better than stock. With my compression turned off like I had it I know that I would have bottomed out several times on the ride but with these springs I only bottomed out once and I pretty much did that on purpose just to see if it would do it. Granted I did not push to hard through whoops most of the day but I was impressed with that part of the springs.
I think I'm going to at least try setting the rear preload back down to 1/4" for my next ride. My hope is with doing that I can soften the ride some more to the point where I can make shock adjustments to compensate for the higher speed rides. There's still more tuning to go but I think that while the springs are a good addition, I'm still going to need to have the internal valving done to get it right.
I wish I'd had my camera on for some video but I'd loaned it to a buddy who was running the autocross at the Good Guys Spring Nationals show (he won the hot rod division too). Anyhow, in 2 weeks I have 3 days of camping and riding and I'll get some video with the tuning I do then.
So on the first ride we started out on a trail that is rutted and littered with embedded rocks as well as an occasional small whoop section. Good testing ground. Initially started out pretty slow, following 2 other riders, and I'm still feeling pretty much everything in the trail. So I went ahead of the other riders and picked up the speed, not flat out but still sliding through the corners. The springs are a pretty good improvement but there's still a lot of similarities to stock. What I mean there is the front is way better than the rear and you've got to push the speeds to make it work. The faster you go the better the ride and yes it is better than stock. With my compression turned off like I had it I know that I would have bottomed out several times on the ride but with these springs I only bottomed out once and I pretty much did that on purpose just to see if it would do it. Granted I did not push to hard through whoops most of the day but I was impressed with that part of the springs.
I think I'm going to at least try setting the rear preload back down to 1/4" for my next ride. My hope is with doing that I can soften the ride some more to the point where I can make shock adjustments to compensate for the higher speed rides. There's still more tuning to go but I think that while the springs are a good addition, I'm still going to need to have the internal valving done to get it right.
I wish I'd had my camera on for some video but I'd loaned it to a buddy who was running the autocross at the Good Guys Spring Nationals show (he won the hot rod division too). Anyhow, in 2 weeks I have 3 days of camping and riding and I'll get some video with the tuning I do then.