Merida City Bikes, Руководство по эксплуатации

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e
f
g
h
Suspension forks
Most city/trekking bikes and pedelecs are equipped
with suspension forks
(e+f)
. This feature gives you bet-
ter control of your bike when riding cross-country or on
rough road surfaces and ensures more ground contact
for the tire. It noticeably reduces the strain on you and
your bike caused by the mechanical shocks from the
terrain.
Suspension forks differ in their types of spring elements
and damping. Suspension forks normally work with air
spring elements or less often with coil springs. Damping
is usually done by oil.
i
Suspension fork manufacturers normally in-
clude instructions with their deliveries. Read
them carefully before changing any settings
or doing any maintenance work on your suspension
fork. You can find the instruction of the suspension fork
manufacturer on this MERIDA CD-ROM.
I
Also observe the suspension glossary at the
beginning of this chapter.
Adjusting the spring rate
To work perfectly, the suspension fork has to be adjusted
to the weight of the rider, the sitting posture and the in-
tended use. Be sure to have this adjustment carried out
by your MERIDA dealer at the time of delivery.
Note in general that the suspension fork must give in a
little even when you are just sitting on the bike – this is
the so-called negative suspension travel or sag. If you
ride over a pothole the spring is decompressed and the
suspension fork compensates for the unevenness. If the
air pressure or the spring preload is too high, this effect
is lost because the suspension fork is already fully ex-
tended. This means that an important comfort and safe-
ty factor is lost if the tire briefly loses contact with the
ground.
The suspension fork should yield by 10-25 % of the
maximum suspension travel.
To measure the travel you can use the rubber ring
(g)
mainly located on the thinner, plunging tube of the sus-
pension fork. If there is no rubber ring, tie up a cable tie
around one of the stanchion tubes
(h)
. Make sure it is
not too tight, you should still be able to move it, it should
however not slip by itself.