Hey can i just bring you my bike and you set mine up for me
Also can we take this road set up and just drop the bike and head to the drag strip?
Him: To answer your 1st question?....sure...if you'd like to come down my way I could take you and your busa out to moroso here in west palm beach, fl (or fly me up to IL) and I could watch you launch a few times and make recomendations/adjustments to help you set-up your busa's suspension for optimum launchability..but that's not real practical or realistic so..to answer your 2nd question?...
Not really...as road racing settings and drag settings are two different worlds but maybe I could share some thoughts/knowledge here to maybe help you (and others here) to better understand the physics behind optimizing your suspension.
First one must understand that springs are springs and damping is damping...as follows...
Springs: only serve to support the bike and riders "sprung weight" but must be of the proper compression rate to "Optimize and Maximize The Suspensions Effective Working Travel".
Damping: yeilds a fluid feel to what is a mechanically spung suspension but it's primary purpose and use is to "Control Wheel/Spring Velocity" on a vertical plane in both directions of compression and rebound.
Drag racers need to find a happy medium balancing the scales between reducing both rear wheel spin AND keeping the front end down..and it dosen't help when a good tight hard launch dictates that the rider at the line applies front brakes to "load the clutch" which serves to slightly lift the rear while compressing the front...then as the yellow light flickers to green all that energy is suddenly released and reversed as the slightly raised rear trys to squat (from loaded and raised) and the preloaded front releases and rises...and DAMPING under these conditions can best be exploited by max damping up front (thereby decreasing rebound velocity and slowing down the rise of the front) and maximizing compression values in the rear to help slow down the squatting reaction..greatly reducing the transfer of weight from front to rear and lessening the bikes propensity to hoist the front wheel....a balancing act.
To help avoid wheel spin and breakking loose at launch some drag racers (pending technic) will actually be better served with a slightly softer rear suspension as this will help dampen "The Torque Hit" to the rear wheel and help the rear retain it's traction values...acting sort of like a buffer for the clutch impaired if you will. LOL!!!
But like I said...all bets are off when draggers start making drastic changes to the bikes suspension geometry with dogbones, straps and lengthened swingarms..and the best you can do there is tune for a happy medium between reducing wheelyability yet retaining maximum rear wheel traction levels.
Road Racing and Drag Racing...two very different suspension worlds and two extremely large cans of worms.
Hope that helps and L8R, Bill.
