Matris dilemma

As a couple of people know on here, I've got Matris fork cartridge kit fitted.
It's made an amazing difference to the front end, but there is only one issue.
My static sag you can measure in mm on one hand, and rider sag can nearly be measure on two. (4mm and 13mm respectively).
I think this is due to the spring and spacer being the same size..... Which does not give much movement.

NOW, what are the thoughts of replacing the spring and spacer with my ohlins spring and spacer that I took out? This would leave the emulator thingy and the Matris pre-load adjuster?

The bike rides well, but the bike needs about 5-7 miles to get the forks working well, before that the front end feels rather stiff....

[Luckypants]

Dunno, what do Matris say about setting sag?

They don't, and I have no pre-load set

[johnnyrod]

When you say the spacer, do you mean the tube in the top of the fork leg? Take it out and cut it to length. If you don't have preload-adjustable fork tops, you might want to do this is stages till it's right. Aim for 25mm sag with rider (prob about 15mm without). At 13mm with rider it will be pretty hard.

Well I could do, but I feel that it's the length of the spring that's the issue.

[jambo]

As long as the spring can be compressed by the ammount of travel the suspension has the spring / spacer length ratio isn't important. Some companies use very long springs and short spacers some the other way round, it's not that important.

Certainly if you were to cut one down it'd want to be the spacer

If the overall legth of the spring & spacer combined is less than the Ohlins spring and spacer (I'd imagine so to make room for the preload adjuster if it wasn't there before) then I'd stick with the shorter ones in there at the moment

Edit: (or cut that spacer down to suit).

My thoughts are:

With regards to spring spacer length ratios:
If the spring is longer then it will have a greater ability to compress.
A shorter spring will have less movement.
For a given weight both springs (given that they are the same spec, etc) will compress by 10%.
And if one spring is 200mm then it will compress by 20mm
If it is only 100mm then that will become 10mm

I know that it is crass generalisation, BUT a longer spring will absorb energy (whether it's gravity, or kinetic), much better than a shorter one. It has much more space within itself to do this.
There is always going to be a trade off in the choice of long hard spring or a short soft spring, but for predominantly road use I would suggest that a rider would benefit from firm long travel both ways, then forks with no ability to extend....

Any takers?

Originally Posted by Caddy2000

I think this is due to the spring and spacer being the same size..... Which does not give much movement.

Do you mean that total fork travel has been reduced over the std setup or is it just the spring rate is harder so you are getting less movement in normal use?

If it's the later then I'm sure they sell a .8 spring to put in instead of the (i think) default .85 spring (std soggy suspension one is like .7 or something).

Cut the spacer to increase the sag, that's what they are there for, obviously never try to cut the spring.

Doubt you'll be able to use the ohlins spring with the system, from the pictures it looks like it uses a different length unit, also it's encased so probably skinnier too.

Cut the spacer to give 25mm sag (about 15mm preload on spring when adjuster in middle)
the length is only an issue if it goes coil bound which it will not on your setup.
The springs are a set weight over a given length, a .85 spring is still .85 whatever its length.

Originally Posted by Caddy2000

They don't, and I have no pre-load set

If you don't mind me asking? Where did u purchase your kit? As I am considering the same thing and do apreciate good customer service?! Have they offered no help?