I was just reviewing some old literature I started pondering a few things. It mentions that with more sag in the front the bike turns more slowly and less sag on the rear the bike turns more slowly as well. Intuitively this doesn't make sense to me. It would seem to me if you had more sag in the front the geometry would mimic something similar to raising the forks in the triples and change the rake and trail to be similar to raising the forks. Same with less sag on the rear. For example if you put all kinds of sag in the rear and hardly any in the front the geometry would in essence approach a more but somewhat distant chopper type of ride thus being counterintuitive to what I have written down. Can someone shed some light as to why more sag in the front and less sag in the rear makes a bike turn more slowly. These are notes I took a few years ago so I do not remember the source and I could have possibly mixed things up. Any advice, info, guidance appreciated.

more preload up front will not let the bike dive as much and therefor not decrease the rake angle. a steeper rake angle will make a bike turn in quicker.(more preload = less sag)

Sounds like you mixed up your notes, how ever the exception could be that if the bike was under trailed to begin with, adding preload in the front and more sag in the back would give the bike more trail and allow you turn the bars harder. I have many customers that have the chassis low in the front and high in the rear in an effort to make the bike turn easier. What happens is the trail is reduced to the point where you can feel a tuck under starting to happen and the rider stops turning the bars. Now to steer the bike you have to lean it and it steers very slowly. By adding trail either staticaly with geometry changes or dynamicaly withe spring rate or preload changes you would help solve the slow steering.

Update- I found where I got my original information from so can someone shed some light on this? Look to the bottom of the page, the last paragraph.

http://www.racetech.com/articles/SuspensionAndSprings.htm

Paul's artical is correct in some cases. More sag in the front or less sag in the rear will decrease trail and reduces rider confidence. That means you will not pull on the bars as hard thus making the bike turn more slowly. I've seen the same effect with the geometry. Riders bring me a bike that " won't turn", after measuring we find it lacks trail and although it leans over easily, it won't carve a turn and change dirrection. After we add trail, by changing the ride heights or clamp off set the opposite way the rider expects, they are amazed at well the bike now carves a corner and changes direction.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif