| Author |
Message |
    
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - 05:28 pm: | 
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My friend Snail has an S3 that does not handle as well as it should. Let's help him diagnose the cause(s) of its ill-handling and get it resolved.
Snail,
Can you describe the symptoms for us? |
Jammer
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 05:49 pm: |
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I have a 97 S3 and it rails through the corners with verve. This wasn't always the case. The front end would bottom out regularly. it would wollow through corners. On right handers the bike felt like the rearend was kicking out and on left handers it felt the rearend was leading the corner. Which added to the psycological right hander as opposed to left hander feeling of confidence. I could go on but this is what i did.
I purchased the race springs for the front end from the factory and set the sag using pieces of PVC as the spacers. This solved the front end problem.
I bought the Sportbike Performance Handbook by Kevin Cameron and followed the Suspension Tuning section which goes through setting the sag front and rear and then tuning rebound and compression dampening front and rear. It's kind of a long process that has you riding after every click of the adjusters but that's the fun.
Before every ride i check tire pressure and set it to the factory recomended setting no matter what tire i have on it.
Make sure the rear wheel is in alignment. I used to use a micrometer to do this and set it from the axel to the end cap. I accepted the fact that my confidence through left handers was always going to be greater than right handers. Then i purchased a tool called the Sag Setter for my dirt bikes and that changed everything. It has the ability to check the rear alignment from the center of the axel to the swing arm pivot point. So i checked the S3 and found it to be 3mm off center, thats hugh. After resetting it i found that the bike was the same through both right and left handers which greatly increased my confidence level.
I hope this helps.
Jeff- |
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Snail's Ill-Handling S3. Please help!