Alpha Suspension Set Up?

[Gazza77]

Anyone used this guy? Any good? Had an email saying he's at HG in Leeds on Saturday, but as the bike is shortly going, little point in investigating his services.

http://www.alphasuspensionset-up.co....p-service.html

For someone like me, it wouldnt be a bad idea. My bike handles fine, i havnt changed any settings since i got it (was second hand so may have been fiddled with since factory) i get on with it great but if it was better then why not?

However im sure theres many a biker who i could ask when pulling up somewhere and they would probably gladly help out a bit, and they wouldnt want £20 out of you

Browsing round his site though, 15quid for wheel alignment, chain and tyre pressure check?? Surely not?

[yorkie_chris]

Depends how well he checks wheel alignment. How much is 15' of box section?

To be honest I don't see how anyone can pay for adjusters twiddling, you learn nowt, understand nowt and you're buggered the next time you change anything or anything changes you.

Oh and on an SV it's even more retarded because the stock is that far out that you can't make any useful adjustment!


However if anyone wants their sag set and insists on paying me £40 for the privilege then I wouldn't say no

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Depends how well he checks wheel alignment. How much is 15' of box section?

To be honest I don't see how anyone can pay for adjusters twiddling, you learn nowt, understand nowt and you're buggered the next time you change anything or anything changes you.

Oh and on an SV it's even more retarded because the stock is that far out that you can't make any useful adjustment!


However if anyone wants their sag set and insists on paying me £40 for the privilege then I wouldn't say no

I agree in a sense Chris, the less adjustability, the less point there is in paying someone to adjust it. Likewise the just letting someone else do it, you don't learn anything. It is an opportunity to learn though if you observe and ask questions as it's done, but that's down to the individual if they take that opportunity to educate themselves.

Using my Sprint as an example, it has Front & Rear Pre-load and rear rebound damping adjustability. Without getting it out, I don't know what the full range is as it's not in the handbook, but the handbook does have standard settings in it, which for this example I'm going to use as the extent of the range.

Front setting is 11, rear is 2 & 29. If we say that those are the upper limit, that means there are 638 different combinations that could be tried. At 10 miles test ride of each, that's a potential 6380 miles before having your ideal set up. That's quite a lot of time and effort, and let's face it, most sports bikes will be far more adjustable than that.

For someone who wants to learn, and some expert advice, I don't think £25 is that outrageous, but that's just my opinion.

hmmmm interesting.

thing is i can understand how you can setup your preload and sag etc in a garage. but how the hell are you going to setup your compression and rebound? i mean its all dependent on weather, roads, riding style, how your feeling etc etc isnt it? or is there a science to it?

[yorkie_chris]

Just experience lets you bounce it up and down and have a guess.

Gaz those settings, well most stuff doesn't even have clicks, so the number of settings is infinite.

But I reckon an average person could get their bike set up within a few clicks (or 1/8 of a turn or something) of ideal (at least as good as the bounce-it-and-guess test above) within a tank of fuel. 2 at most.

For a start both will have a range, take showas from GSXR, their adjusters move from zero to 3 turns or so depending on who put them together, but if it is not between 1 and 1.5 turns then something is wrong in there.


Fair enough if you're going 1 click at a time you won't remember a thing about the first setting, so it would be meaningless. What you need to do is identify the issue, then turn something a couple of clicks or half a turn or so, from a known benchmark, so you can determine if that made it better or worse.

Going on rider feedback an expert can set up suspension, but IMO it takes a good few sessions, a good few chats and a good few twiddles. I don't think you are getting value for money there, if you want that service with good value then take on the services of one of the suspension guys at a track day and chat to him after each session. That will give you more of an understanding of relating what the *rse feels to what the brain thinks and the hands twiddle

[Balky001]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

That will give you more of an understanding of relating what the *rse feels to what the brain thinks and the hands twiddle

brilliant I'll remember that when I'm on track next