Ok - dumb question alert...
Recently I've been hearing (and that doesn't mean its a recent trend) that the fast boys and girls on the race scene are setting bikes up with spring and damping rates that are way high - i.e. compared to older set ups would be considered over-sprung and over-damped.
The theory put forward is something like that it;
Way to many year (throw back to car racing) of thinking about suspension being there to keep the tyre in contact with the ground as much as possible makes me think this is completely bonkers... but the counter point is that the ratio of unsprung mass and bike to rider mass is so far away from cars that it's better to skip than track the ground...
Does this make any sense? Any fast pro riders out there got any comment? If it is the new hotness for the pros, is it totally in appropriate for a weekend warrior mid pack in the sport class punter to go for a setup like this?
Cheers
edit to say; What I meant to say is I'm fast as hell and I can ride any setup... this question's for a friend. Really. It is. irate2:
Recently I've been hearing (and that doesn't mean its a recent trend) that the fast boys and girls on the race scene are setting bikes up with spring and damping rates that are way high - i.e. compared to older set ups would be considered over-sprung and over-damped.
The theory put forward is something like that it;
- gives more pitch control (especially vs dive under braking)
- allows the bike to skip over the ground rather than track it
Way to many year (throw back to car racing) of thinking about suspension being there to keep the tyre in contact with the ground as much as possible makes me think this is completely bonkers... but the counter point is that the ratio of unsprung mass and bike to rider mass is so far away from cars that it's better to skip than track the ground...
Does this make any sense? Any fast pro riders out there got any comment? If it is the new hotness for the pros, is it totally in appropriate for a weekend warrior mid pack in the sport class punter to go for a setup like this?
Cheers
edit to say; What I meant to say is I'm fast as hell and I can ride any setup... this question's for a friend. Really. It is. irate2:
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