Once you’ve got the sag in roughly the right region (70mm is pretty good as a third of 200mm travel is 67mm) then the next thing to do to verify that the setup is ideal is to check the amount of stroke the shock is using.

On the centre stand (no load) fit a thin cable tie to the piston rod and slide it up to the bottom of the shock body. (Some shocks, like my Yacugar, have a rubber O-ring already fitted to check the stroke; the Ohlins might too?) Load the bike up with what you consider an “average” or everyday cargo (and fuel load). Go for a test ride on a route that covers varied terrain – road, speed bumps, a bit of off-road and some hard braking and accelerating. Hard acceleration is important; more weight is applied to the rear suspension under hard acceleration than even hitting the hardest of bumps due to the fact that all the bike’s and your mass is acting on the rear.

When you get back home, examine the position of the cable tie/O-ring and see how much unused stroke there is. If there’s lots (+20mm) you can take out some preload, if there’s a small amount 10-20mm you’re about right and if there’s less than 10mm then you need more preload (or a higher rate spring). Ideally you want the shock to be using all of its stroke, with just a little spare for unexpected impacts etc. Remember 10mm of stroke at the shock is roughly equivalent to 30mm travel at the axle.

Make any adjustments and repeat the same route and observe any differences. Re adjust and go again round the exact same route.

Maybe? But don't give up...

Continual adjustment of preload is the only way you’ll maintain the correct sag and use of the shock’s stroke with varying loads on a linear spring. Remote preload adjusters help here, but sadly not available for the Ohlins shock. Variations in payload/weight can be a reason to consider a progressive spring. Whilst I’m not a fan of progressive springs for forks (for reasons explained here), they do have a place on the rear as the spring rate increases in proportion to load, negating the need for continual preload adjustments. In fact you can’t really set sag on a progressive with the preload adjuster as all you’re doing is squashing out the lowest rate part of the spring which is why they are hard to set up and racers don’t use them and it is even more crucial you get the right spring rate range for your weight. If you get it right though, the joy is you never have to adjust preload apart from under extreme conditions.

Another thing you could consider is trying the linkage bones in another position? A 3mm reduction in hole centres gives a rise at the axle of approximately 10mm, which can help to maintain the bike’s attitude/geometry whilst running slightly more sag on the rear. For example, if you run 65mm of sag with dog bones at +15, the ride height will be the same as 75mm of sag with 3mm shorter hole centres (+25 position). The other thing shorter linkage bones do is reduce the leverage on the shock, therefore effectively slightly increasing spring rate. So in the example above, the 75mm sag on short dog bones (although the same ride height) will give a slightly “stiffer” feel and less shock travel will be used. Longer bones have the opposite effect, reducing leverage and giving an effective “softening” of the rear. Neither actually changes the actual rate of the spring itself, just the overall “effective” spring rate of the whole suspension system.

The moral is, don’t rush setting up the suspension. There’s a lot you can do and one thing affects another. Adjustments are free and relatively easy to do, they just take time, patience and copious note-taking. Take your time; try things out and test them and keep repeating the process over and over. You’ll get it right in the end. I reckon, since first tinkering with the stock suspension on my Z, it’s taken me the best part of three years to get it right, and even now there’s room for further fettling!

It's all good, honest fun though and satisfying when sorted. Happy spannering!

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