Rick Tannenbaum of Cogent Dynamics in nearby Fairview, NC [ http//www.motocd.com , 828.628.9025 ] changed my springs on my TE a while back, and after a few hundred miles of getting used to them, I decided it was time to try out his shock dyno and see what was really happening inside that Sachs shock. What he found was quite surprising. The biggest being that the compression damper adjustments on this shock literally do little to nothing. They're a joke. You can crank them all the way in or out, and they make very, very little change in damping force. The only effect they do have is above roughly 7" per second of piston movement. below that, the changes are so subtle, you couldn't feel it, only see it on the graph. (the dyno measures piston movement up to 10" per second. 10" per sec. is a real hard hit, like leaping a ditch, or coming off a jump.) The other surprise was how much effect that the rebound damping had on the compression damping. By design, most shocks will have some effect on compression, but not this exteme. As he rotated the reb. adjuster thru it's range, you could watch the compression graph change wildly as well! This was extremely valuable info to me. Case in point, I went to the McArthur, OH AMA dual-sport ride this weekend. (( BTW, a bitchin' ride that's really an enduro w/ no timekeeping -highly recommend!)) I was getting pummelled by that rear shock over the roots and ruts. (too much compression) It finally dawned on me that I had the rebound too stiff because I didn't put it back where I had it prior to the dyno run, -which makes the comp damping stiffer. Two clicks less on the rebound and problem solved. Anyway, we've got the baseline data from the 1st dyno run, but ran out of time for opening it up and making any changes. Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I can get it back over to his shop and do some surgery on it. I'll let you know!
LOL I was JUST about to post the same question. I'm assuming he did both cause he used the "adjustments" the plural term. Awesome thread you started! I believe John Curea of MX-Tech installs a new "thingy" to make adjustments on the shocks mean something. Maybe the forks as well.
You are correct oCoffeewonkanobee! Neither comp adjuster does squat, but oddly enough, the low speed has more effect on the actual high speed movement than the high speed adjuster does. Bottom line is, this shock is weird. When I left Rick's place, he mentioned that depending on how Sachs made the internalls of the comp adjusters, he *may* be able to create an adjuster that would actually work.
i find this hard to believe one click on my compression is all the differance , i can tell when its not right , one click either way and instant changes
our bikes must be more refined over here : mines the same, usually 2 clicks either way & i notice a fair change
Don't know what to tell you guys, maybe the '08 shock is different? All I know is that from my exp. w/ this '07 shock, the adjusters don't do anything when moving them 'on the trail', and the dyno confirmed that. Maybe there is something wrong w/ my shock...?
I'm thinking there is something wrong with your shock or the dyno. I could/can feel the difference of one or two clicks on both 06 (sold) and 08 Sachs.
'05 TE 510, '07 TE 510, '08 TE 610 My expereince with the Sachs is that it is sensitive to clickers. Its just that the clickers dont cover the right spectrum of movement. Meaning i have to run my rebound at full and still get some bunny hopping at race speed. Low speed adjustment is very good, and so is compression. But no matter what on the older style Sachs i cant dial it in perfect on high speed woops no matter what. Its close, its raceable, but the adjustment spectrum is just not there. I find noticable change with 1-2 clicks on all three rear shocks. Havent tried the new TC/TXC style rear shocks. Hear great things about them. Dont get me wrong, i like Sachs. They are very close.
I've benefitted greatly from the info posted here. The TE510 is my first dirt bike, my suspension knowledge would just about fill a thimble. The forks and shock were sent out to be revalved and lowered after running the TAT last year. Sag and suspension settings were reestablished per recommendations, a few clicks either way were made thereafter. Everything seemed 'better'. The bike's usage has been limited to D/S riding. Several weeks back I ran the Shenandoah 500. Late Sunday afternoon three of us began twisting the throttles. The pace exposed some major suspension shortcomings. The two guys in front were getting serious air off the 55-60MPH whoops. I bottomed my forks lightly a few times with one shoulder pounding landing. The back of the bike kicked up really high several times and the rear crashed HARD several times. The tail light, license plate and part of the fender went bye-bye along the way. I checked the sag after returning home and found it to be miles off. Round and round the adjuster rings went. The fork oil level had been raised when the revalve / lowering was done, I raised it an additional 5mm. Another click of fork compression was added too. I spent the last two weekends applying your findings one click at a time on the 18 mile Greenridge ORV loop. The shock rebound is now two clicks softer, the low speed compression seven clicks firmer. Low speed compression changes are indeed very, very subtle; a fine tuning if you will. Armed with your test data and many gluteus maximus data points future suspension changes will be easier to predict. The bike is nothing short of transformed. The theatrics are gone and lines which were previously unavailable are. Thank you!
Yep, suspension by far the best place to increase performance. A well tuned suspension makes all the difference int he world. After my LTR revalve I notice my suspension clickers do a lot more than they used to in addition to my suspension being worlds better.
Before mine was done I would have to ride woops like I did pre long travel suspendion,now I just charge through and the bike does the work.
