Suspension Test

After deciding that I wanted to get my suspension reworked it was a matter of unbolting the front forks and the rear shock. A quick call to K-TECH (CTR tuning) to speak to Chris Taylor about what was best for my riding style, a simple description of what I like in the way of jumps, motocross or supercross, mud, hard pack or sand. So I told Chris what I was like (remember that you may not be like Jeremy McGrath.) otherwise you will end up with something worse than when you started. As I have used K-TECH before on my CR125 I know what the quality of his work is like. We first met Chris Taylor at Wild Tracks Chippenham the day before the YSMA Super National (see suspension headaches) when in the free practice I had the CR125 switch ends along the back straight which left me a bit dazed and on the floor wondering what had happened. Chris by chance happened to be watching me when this happened, he approached us when I pulled off the track and asked if he could look at our bike. Chris said I could sort that out within the same night for the Saturday practice but your forks are set excellently and asked who had done them.

Front Forks :-

We took the YZ426F to Washbrook Farm practice track that is always very well prepared; it’s a hard pack track with some fast straights and loads of tight corners and big jumps. The track does get very bumpy which is what we wanted to test the forks and rear suspension.

The forks worked very well before in standard trim, but tended to push the front out in corners, which meant that I had to slow down more to reduce the risk of dumping it (a fairly frequent occurrence Keith). After K-TECH had finished tuning the forks I found that I could push the bike a lot faster into the corners without even hesitating, although we did back off the compression 2 clicks to help control the braking bumps better without losing the stability of the bike in corners.

The forks also appear to be more forgiving on the large jumps, you know how you have set yourself up to clear the biggest table top jump on the circuit, hit the take off ramp perfectly, and then wham front end has dipped and take off speed is not quite as high as you had thought and you slam down hard and short – painful or what – but what actually happened was the forks absorbed the landing and controlled the front wheel one big bounce and all was straight again. I must confess that this was not me being brave and setting up the landing to test the forks to their extreme, but just one of those incidences that happen to us mere mortals whilst giving it large on the track. A swift change of underwear and I was off on more laps of the track to fully appreciate the work that Chris had done.

Rear Shock :-

The 4 stoke always tended to have a harsh rear suspension, unless you’re around 16-17 stone, which I’m not, I only weigh in at around 13½ stone (without riding gear). So the stock rear suspension tended to chuck me all over the place and I could not get to grips sliding the bike around corners, it was even worse going into the corners on the brakes, because I could not feel what the bike was going to do next, more like hang on and hope.

Again Chris worked his magic and hey presto a shock that any works rider would like to own, I don’t know what Chris does to them even though we watched him working on both the front forks and rear shock, all I can say is that after he drills holes and grinds bits off you’ve got one of the best bits of kit on your bike. Suspension tuning is one area that will actually improve your speed and control of your bike, and not just make it look good. On the track I can now push the bike through the corners with much more speed than before, turning a bike lots of people call a beast (YZ426F), into a tamed pussycat, compared to the standard suspension that comes with the bike. Thus I’m now able to slide the bike around corners and down bumpy straights with more confidence and as a bonus I stay on more. It also improves your riding technique in that you are working with the bike and not fighting it, thus allowing you to slide the bike around the corners with more control which in turn will take seconds off your lap times.

Bryn Barter MXGB