Suspension settings for drag racing

[Buggzz]

G'day fellas, having never done any drag racing in the past, I really don't know what is the best setup for getting off the line fast.
Should I have the suspension set up as hard as possible or is soft better.
I've experimented getting of the line without the bike looping but easing the clutch out seems to be my only option at present, which doesn't make for the best get away, and will probably make short work of rooting the clutch.
This got me to thinking that setting up the suspension a little differently may achieve a better result, at the moment it is on the soft side.
BTW it's a Speed Triple.

[shift1313]

whats the bike? and are you just looking to tune what you have or do you want to build it into a drag bike?

There is always a compromise. You want the front end low, this is why people use straps to compress their front end. dropping the clamps(raising the forks in the triple clamps) will help this out. Your rear suspension needs to be set up soft enough to allow good weight transfer. If you have it rock solid your wheel will spin. Too soft and you will get too much sag wasting all that acceleration. You need to dial it in and find the sweet spot on your bike. Start by getting the front lower and go from there. set your rear compression dampening about half way and set your rebound up a little more then half way(slower rise). Also make sure your preload is correct on the rear spring for your weight.

As far as getting off the line that really depends on the bike. I use to ride alot of motox and i used to leave the line in 2nd if it was a long start. This might work for you at the track if you have a large enough displacement motor. Lowering your revs in 1st will also help so you dont have to feather the clutch as much. Try loading the bike up at the line. Lock your front wheel with the brake and rev the bike up to 4or5k on a 4cyl and start letting the clutch out until your front end starts to compress. When the light goes practice a good speed to let the clutch out and grab a handfull soon after.

good luck

[Gix11]

Welcome aboard Buggzz. The Drag racing guys will be on here tonight, they'll fill in the details for you.

[ozkat]

Gday Buggzz, I reckon the best advice i can give you is to leave the bike as you ride it now the first time you run it at the drags. Absolutley no changes, this will give you a start point. You need a start point to see if any changes made have worked. Then only make 1 change per meeting, you will need to make more than 1 pass to see if you have made an improvement. Im not 100% sure about soft/hard shock settings so it will be test and see. Possibly the best thing you could do is lowering the bike. Strap the front and lower linkages in the rear. Where are you located?

[shift1313]

good point ozkat. Definately if youve never riden the strip give it a go before you change anything.

[Stocky]

While I agree with ozkat and shit1313 , I don't think it'd hurt to tweak it a bit.

Lowering the bike will help it not wheelie but it does make it very different to ride.

For a first time, I'd record where all the damper settings are (so you can go back to them) and then on the rear shock wind both compression and rebound all the way in and then back out 2 clicks.

This stops the bike squating (less wheelies) and gives more traction

Then on the front I'd wind the rebound all the way in and back out 2 clicks.

This slows down the fork extension and makes the bike lift the front wheel as "dead weight" , also helps the wheelies.

You can slip the forks through a bit too but it can make the bike unstable even in a straight line.

Hope this helps.

[abusa]

All good advise! I would go with racing it all stock first up, and when you start to go faster then have a play, firstly settings then height as has been said the bike becomes very different to ride.

Some info from BrocksPerformance
http://www.brocksperformance.com/tech_suspension.htm

Shayne

[Tony Nitrous]

Yeah, same here.

I was always told run it "as-is", and run it again
and again and again and again !!

No point at all in pissing about with tyre pressures,
lowering links, straps etc etc if you cant run consistant.

When all you launches, shifts etc come natural and your E.T's
are all within a few 10th's of each other then you look at ways
to go faster.

Just what I was told by older, wiser and faster Guys than me... ;)