16
HP
Velotechnik
Purpose of the adjustment of the
suspension
Your GrassHopper is fitted with a suspension
fork for the front wheel and a rear swing arm
for the suspension of the rear wheel.This sys-
tem compensates slight bumps on the road so
that riding is comfortable and the strain on
your bicycle is reduced.
A well-adjusted suspension improves the trac-
tion of your bicycle on uneven roads.
Especially when riding in a bend this allows a
higher speed and also improves the safety.
In order to achieve maximum riding comfort,
the suspension settings have to match your
weight as well as the road condition.
The goals of the adjustment are:
●
maximum use of the available suspension
travel without the suspension frequently
bottoming out
●
quick reaction of the suspension without
obvious oscillation after having passed
a bump
●
avoiding self enforcing oscillations, that means
increasing oscillations of the suspension
system due to pedaling influence, rhythmic
body movements or permanent wavy
underground
Suspension and damping
The suspension systems of the suspension fork
and the rear swing arm are fitted with the
actual springs and dampers, which are
mounted separately.
Often, the terms suspension and damping are
used inappropriately in everyday language.
The
spring
is the elastic element that com-
presses and decompresses through the load,
which occurs on bumpy roads.While decom-
pressing the spring releases the same energy it
has saved during compression.
The front fork of your recumbent bike is fitted
with steel coil springs and springs made of mi-
crocellular foam elastomers. (MCU).The rear
swing arm is suspended with steel coil springs
in the standard version.The optional rear
shock DT-S
WISS
XM180 uses air as spring
medium.
The
damper
slows down the process of com-
pression and decompression.That means that
the bicycle after having passed a bump does
not immediately "spring" back to the initial po-
sition or even further than that.The damper
converts spring energy into friction and finally
into heat, and thus takes away energy from the
suspension system.That way the damper pre-
vents that the spring swings uncontrolled after
an initial stimulation. In addition the damper
helps to avoid self enforcing oscillations of the
suspension that may be caused by reoccurring
stimulation like pedaling forces within a crank
revolution or the rhythmic up and down
movement of the legs.
The hydraulic damping of the rear suspension
is adjustable, in case you have mounted the op-
tional suspension element DT-S
WISS
XM180.
Adjusting the suspension