Whyte 146, Supplementary Service Manual

Page: 11 / 32

Page 11 2010 Edition 1
WHYTE Service Manual
pressure in the shock absorber determines the spring rate. The correct ‘sag’ can be found
using the sliding ‘o’ ring fitted to the shaft of the shock piston. Slide the ‘o’ ring against the
shock body. Then gently sit on the bike in your normal riding position and with normal rid-
ing gear, including back pack if applicable, and also raise your feet off the floor. Carefully
dismount and measure the distance the ‘o’ ring has moved away
from the shock body.The optimum distance for the Quad-Link rear
suspension system is shown in the table to the right. If there is less
than that distance fit a shock pump and release air pressure. Con-
versely if there is greater than that distance, fit the shock pump and
increase air pressure. Repeat the ‘sag’ test until the recommended
sag distance is achieved.
Rear Suspension Set-up - Rebound Damping:
When the damper unit is being compressed, this is known as the compression stroke. As
the suspension unit recovers from compression back towards its full length, this is called
the re-bound stroke. All the shocks fitted as standard to the Whyte full suspension moun-
tainbikes have factory set compression damping, and manually adjustable rebound damp-
ing.
Rebound Damping Adjustment:
This adjustment fine-tunes the speed at which the rear wheel returns to its normal ride
height after hitting a bump. Please refer to the relevant Shock manufacturers technical
information to find out how to adjust the Shock. To demonstrate the effect of this, turn the
adjuster to its slowest setting. Press down on the saddle to compress the suspension, then
release the load. The suspension recovers very slowly to its original position.
Repeat the above with the adjuster turned to the fastest setting and the difference will be
seen immediately the load is released. We recommend the optimum setting is to adjust the
re-bound damping to be as slow as possible, but not so slow that the normal ride height is
not recovered. On very rough terrain, if the rear of the bike becomes progressively lower
as more bumps are hit then the re-bound damping is set too slow. On the other hand if the
bike feels choppy and not plush then the re-bound damping is too fast. A bit of trial and
error is needed to get the exact setting.
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE:
Always stop riding when making adjustments of any kind to the bicycle!
Platform Damping Adjustment.
The rear Shock fitted to your Whyte bike may have a facility to adjust the slow speed com-
pression damping. Please refer to the relevant shock manufactures technical information to
learn how to adjust these features. Please note, that the Whyte Quad-Link rear suspension
system has been designed not to rely on excessive low speed compression damping to
obtain efficient pedalling performance, and turning on too much low speed damping on the
rear shock will compromise the suspensions sensitivity to small bump absorption and trac-
tion.
Model Sag
E-120 T
-120 14mm (25%)
146 17mm (30%)