Suspension Matters

Suspension Matters Motorcycle suspension tuning & dyno testing. Authorised WP suspension service centre. Specialising in Enduro, Trail and Adventure bikes.

The data shows that the forks spend the most amount of time rebounding in the 0 - 250mm/s velocity range.So it makes sen...
26/02/2026

The data shows that the forks spend the most amount of time rebounding in the 0 - 250mm/s velocity range.

So it makes sense to focus on getting the damping working the best it can at these speeds, right? Especially considering all the higher shaft speeds events start and end in this same velocity range too.

That brings us to rebound bleed. These velocities just so happens to be when the bleed (fixed or adjustable) is influencing the overall damping force the most.

The rebound clicker is an adjustment or***ce, that allows oil to bleed past the stack at ALL velocities, but with the greatest influence at these low velocities. The clicker is able to adjust the flow from (almost) zero to whatever the maximum flow rate of the clicker circuit is.

As this bleed reaches its flow capacity, the pressure inside the cartridge will rise to the point of the shim stack opening. So effectively, the bleed through the clicker is adjusting the velocity at which the stack starts to open.

Close the clicker = less flow = more pressure = stack opens sooner (at a lower velocity). Open the clicker = more flow = less pressure = a delay in the stack opening (higher velocity).

A bleed hole is a second (non adjustable) flow path for the oil. This increase of flow, creates a delay in pressure rise and increases the velocity required to open the stack.

With the bleed hole and clicker working in parallel, the clicker is now only adjusting a fraction of the total oil flow, making the clicker less effective.

Read the comment attached to each photo for more details.

Last nights post about ideal rebound damping in forks, got people talking. So let’s look at it from a different angle. H...
24/02/2026

Last nights post about ideal rebound damping in forks, got people talking. So let’s look at it from a different angle.

Here’s an overlay of 17 different dyno runs of complete forks, fork cartridges and valving kits. All of these options are designed around “average offroad” and are designed to run spring rates in the range of 4.2-4.8N.

Complete forks include stock Xplor, AER from WESS edition, WP CC bladder forks, 2024 WP XACT CC, Cone Valves, KYB SSS and Showa 49mm.

Cartridges include Ohlins TTX22, Dal Soggio Sphere, Lanier Epica, MX-Tech Lucky, WP6500 and WP7500.

Valving kits include Kreft Revalve Control, K-Tech ORVS, Kroozetune Flow and the mystery valving kit from last nights post.

This comprehensive comparison gives us a great overview of what OEM and aftermarket manufacturers are producing and how much rebound damping they think is ideal.

Regardless of what colour stickers are on your forks, or what tuning company you’re affiliated with, or what kit you’ve installed in your kids forks, we can’t deny there is an overwhelming trend here amongst all companies. The majority of them are within a 20% window.

Then there’s the forks from last night. That’s the black line way down south all by itself. This valving kit has 45% more rebound damping than the median of all others. And remember, this is with one fork producing less damping due to the cartridge bush being pushed out. Imagine how much damping it had when originally assembled 🤯

A pair of WP Xplor forks came in recently, that were fitted with one of the most expensive “valving kits” available. As ...
23/02/2026

A pair of WP Xplor forks came in recently, that were fitted with one of the most expensive “valving kits” available.

As always, I dyno’ed them to get an idea of how they were performing before disassembly.

Straight away, I could see that they were soft with excessive rebound damping, which is common for this brand of piston, due to the port design.

On disassembly, one of the cartridge rod bushes had pushed out the top of the cartridge and was found loose on the rod, instead of pressed into the top of the cartridge.

This would have decreased cartridge pressure and therefore damping.

So if the bush was still in place, this fork would have had even more rebound damping !!!

Did the excess cartridge pressure, hydraulically push the bush out?

KYB Triple AdjusterHere is a quick summary of a series of early tests I conducted when the first triple adjuster came ac...
23/01/2026

KYB Triple Adjuster

Here is a quick summary of a series of early tests I conducted when the first triple adjuster came across my dyno some 10 years ago.

I completed a sweep of clicker positions, but to simplify the data, these graphs compare the LS and HS compression clickers both on full hard and full soft.

After the first round of tests, I swapped the triple adjuster for a conventional high speed adjuster. No other changes were made to the shock. The same tests performed of the clicker sweep.

The Triple adjuster made an 11% change from soft to hard. The conventional adjuster made a 14% change.

So to answer Brian’s question, the effectiveness of the triple adjuster looks bad when you look at it on its own, but if the “other shop” compared it to the effectiveness of a normal spring and shim type HS adjuster, you’d see it’s not that bad.

With the small volume of oil seen by the BV, in forks and shocks, the comp clicker is never going to provide a large percentage change in overall damping.

Interestingly, the triple adjuster made less damping than the conventional adjuster, with the differences being greater at full hard and less at full soft.

22/01/2026

I’ve been absent from socials for a couple of years. But there’s been a recent surge of new followers, so thought it was time to fire the account back up again.

We’re still doing our thing. Riding bikes and striving to improve our craft.

We’ve accumulated more 9,000 dyno tests and still making regular discoveries about damper operation, and refining our ideal damping targets for a range of applications.

Here’s the new Stark Varg EX shock getting a base run before the tuning begins.

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