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816 Posts
Definition of \"Oversteer\" and \"heavy steering\"
Hey guys, as some may remember, I've been doing some chassis experimentation with my 02 1k since having race tech valves put in my standard forks and shock. Since the install the bike has never handled the same.
Initially the bike would ride fine straight, compression and rebound seemed fine and in fact more responsive to changes in the road. Turn in however was a whole different story. If I "leaned" the bike using body weight at speeds of around 30mph, the handlebars would heavily turn into the corner as if a ghost was forcing the tire to turn in the same direction of the corner, if I tryed to countersteer it more the bike would resist quite to the point where the bike would be unstable due to my fighting the bike's will. After some pretty indepth investigation with no good results, we stumbled upon a recall on the tire that was on the front of the bike, and replaced it. That helped tremendously, but didn't get rid of it fully.
Months have passed and I've set the sag 3 different times. This past sag setting session, I decided to set the front and rear to 30mm of rider sag as a starting point, and then planned on tweaking from there. We managed to get the rear to exactly 30mm, with a spring set length of 181 according to my notes from last month (although just previous to writing this it measured out at 185mm). The front was set at 34 mm with the preload maxed out completely.
Today, I took off the race tech valved forks and installed a stock set of forks, setting them to stock measurements, the preload at the 4th line from the top, 3 lines showing. Haven't sagged out the new forks yet, but going off of feel, neither full out or full in feels right, having it set at the fourth line seems to be as good as it gets for now.
It seems that in my trying to set the sag the same front and rear, that I've found that I had to increase preload in the front (and the race tech forks are going back the mechanic to add 15mm of internal preload by fabbing another spacer with the added length). This seems to be the exact opposite of what all the recommendations are that I've read to address heavy steering and oversteer.
Am I understanding the terminology correctly in that what Im feeling in the bike being heavy steering or oversteer? The bike is rideable, but when trying to turn the wheel wants to point in the direction of the turn rather then allow for the countersteer. It's weird.
The tire is new, so that can't be the problem. The Sportec M1's tire pressure is at 36-37, so that's out. The steering stem seems straight, and the bearings good and greased. The stem nut is set at the specified torque with about a quarter of turn out before securing the lock nut. The only thing left is the steering geometry. But since I've sagged out the big to 34 front and 30 rear, it should be handling quite nicely in theory. But it doesn't. My GF's current 600 reminds of that everytime I ride it. I set up the chassis on that bike and it handles awesome. A light touch of counter steer and the bike lays right over, moving as incremently as I choose, and the front wheel stays pretty much straight, and "turns in" only on the slooow turns...as it should, and as my bike should. But my bike is not.
If anyone can give some insight that would be helpful.
Hey guys, as some may remember, I've been doing some chassis experimentation with my 02 1k since having race tech valves put in my standard forks and shock. Since the install the bike has never handled the same.
Initially the bike would ride fine straight, compression and rebound seemed fine and in fact more responsive to changes in the road. Turn in however was a whole different story. If I "leaned" the bike using body weight at speeds of around 30mph, the handlebars would heavily turn into the corner as if a ghost was forcing the tire to turn in the same direction of the corner, if I tryed to countersteer it more the bike would resist quite to the point where the bike would be unstable due to my fighting the bike's will. After some pretty indepth investigation with no good results, we stumbled upon a recall on the tire that was on the front of the bike, and replaced it. That helped tremendously, but didn't get rid of it fully.
Months have passed and I've set the sag 3 different times. This past sag setting session, I decided to set the front and rear to 30mm of rider sag as a starting point, and then planned on tweaking from there. We managed to get the rear to exactly 30mm, with a spring set length of 181 according to my notes from last month (although just previous to writing this it measured out at 185mm). The front was set at 34 mm with the preload maxed out completely.
Today, I took off the race tech valved forks and installed a stock set of forks, setting them to stock measurements, the preload at the 4th line from the top, 3 lines showing. Haven't sagged out the new forks yet, but going off of feel, neither full out or full in feels right, having it set at the fourth line seems to be as good as it gets for now.
It seems that in my trying to set the sag the same front and rear, that I've found that I had to increase preload in the front (and the race tech forks are going back the mechanic to add 15mm of internal preload by fabbing another spacer with the added length). This seems to be the exact opposite of what all the recommendations are that I've read to address heavy steering and oversteer.
Am I understanding the terminology correctly in that what Im feeling in the bike being heavy steering or oversteer? The bike is rideable, but when trying to turn the wheel wants to point in the direction of the turn rather then allow for the countersteer. It's weird.
The tire is new, so that can't be the problem. The Sportec M1's tire pressure is at 36-37, so that's out. The steering stem seems straight, and the bearings good and greased. The stem nut is set at the specified torque with about a quarter of turn out before securing the lock nut. The only thing left is the steering geometry. But since I've sagged out the big to 34 front and 30 rear, it should be handling quite nicely in theory. But it doesn't. My GF's current 600 reminds of that everytime I ride it. I set up the chassis on that bike and it handles awesome. A light touch of counter steer and the bike lays right over, moving as incremently as I choose, and the front wheel stays pretty much straight, and "turns in" only on the slooow turns...as it should, and as my bike should. But my bike is not.
If anyone can give some insight that would be helpful.