Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Ricor Intiminators for Dampening Front Forks

Here's a starting place for setting your rear shock preload (pretty much regardless of shock type) for street bikes (abbreviated from Total Control by Lee Parks)...

He recommends that street bike preload should be set between 28% and 33% of total travel. Road race bikes are firmer at 23 - 27% and off-road bikes are 30 - 33%.

How to work it out.
You will need a bike lift, tape measure, pen and paper and someone to measure for you. You will also need to know the total travel of your shocks. This will be figure A. In the case of my Hagon Nitros the total travel is 80mm according to the manufacturer.

Step 1. Measure the fully extended shock by putting the bike on a lift and having the rear hanging. Measure from the axle to some point on the bike vertically above the axle. This is figure B.

Step 2. Take the bike off the lift. Get you, the rider (not your friend) to sit on the bike. Get your friend to measure from the axle to the same place vertically above the axle. This is figure C.

Step 3. Subtract your figure C from the figure B. This is your preload (static sag). As a percentage of figure A (the total travel) it should be between 28% and 33%.

Mine works out to be 35% which is slightly on the soft side and I really should tighten up my preload a bit more.

B (fully extended)
- C (with rider onboard)
= D static sag

D divided by A (total travel) = preload %