Set up your rear sag
Cost £0 Stuff needed Ruler or tape measure, spanners and a helper
Why you need to do it To optimise your suspension for your personal weight and load and allow it to work better in all conditions. With the correct sag setting, your shock won’t bottom out when cornering or top out when braking hard. It will ensure your suspension is working within its optimum stroke range.
What you need to do Put the bike on a main stand so that there is no weight on the back wheel - in this state, the bike has no load on it at all and the shock has effectively ‘topped out’. While in this position, take a measurement from a fixed point on the swingarm to a fixed point on the suspended part of the bike, like the bottom of the grab rail. Measure the distance between the two points with a ruler or tape
measure and make a note of it.
The next step is to let the bike stand on its wheels then measure at the same points. The suspension will have sagged a bit as the rear spring takes the weight of the bike. The static sag figure is the difference between this figure and the one with the wheel off the ground. The ideal figure for this is always a hot topic, but generally look for around 20-30mm.
If you measure again from the same two points with rider/ passenger and luggage fitted, you will have another figure that is called laden sag. As a rough guide, you need to be using a third of the available travel when laden sag is measured. If your figure is too high, you need to reduce it by increasing the spring preload.