Motorcycle enthusiasts always look for methods to ensure that every part of their bikes is durable and provides high-quality performance. There are parts like the engine, tyres, and brakes that need to perform well when riding. Another part of the motorcycle that is just as essential as the other parts are the suspensions.
You have the suspensions to thank for giving you a smooth ride every time you drive through rough and bumpy terrain. You even have the option to upgrade your suspensions if you don’t feel comfortable on the stock ones. Motorcycle parts companies like Teknik Motorsport are there to help you whenever you need the suspension upgrades.
How a Motorcycle Suspension Works
A suspension isn’t just a piece of tube with a spring inside. Over the years, suspensions have kept improving to ensure riders will have a better, smoother ride. There are several parts of a suspension that you need to know of. At some point, you might need to do some self-inspections before riding out. By knowing about the parts of motorcycle suspensions, it can give you an idea if it’s functioning correctly or not.
Related Post
The main responsibility of a suspension is to absorb irregular surfaces on the road when riding over them. Aside from giving a comfortable ride, its other purpose is to keep your tyres planted on the ground most of the time. It’s critical that the wheels keep contact on the ground for the rider to ensure better road grip. And when you are riding at high speeds, the suspensions act as stabilisers to maintain the required geometry and prevent the bike from losing control. Lastly, a suspension helps maintain stable cornering, turning, and braking.
What’s Inside a Motorcycle Suspension?
You have two parts of a motorcycle suspension, which are the front and rear suspensions. You can find two variants of the front suspensions like the inverted or telescopic upright type. If you choose the inverted type suspension, it gains higher rigidity and performs really well in terms of handling. You can mostly see this type of suspension on performance bikes. Another cool fact about the inverted suspension is it can achieve lower unsprung mass. You need this if you need to maximise road grip and stability.
Inside the front suspension, you also have the cartridge or damping rod. The damping rod type is usually found in daily commuter bikes because of its simple and cheap construction. Whereas for the cartridge type, you can find that it’s better suited on performance bikes. It has increased damping because of the piston controlled oil flow.
Next is the suspension located at the rear of the bike. A motorcycle comes in either mono or dual shock type. You can usually find mono shocks on high-performance bikes, while the dual shock is commonly used for daily commuting bikes. The mono-shock can provide the ride great cornering stability, which in turn provides longer wheel travel and gets rid of the twisting torque on the swingarm.
Like the front suspensions, there are two internal constructions for the rear. These are twin-tube or monotube type. The monotube type shock absorber comes with a higher size piston or better damping and dissipates heat efficiently. For the twin-tube, it doesn’t have any fancy features and is constructed simpler.
There are also sub-categories of the rear suspensions, which are pure hydraulic or gas charged. As the name suggests, the hydraulic type solely relies on oil to make the damping more efficient. Whereas for the gas-charged type, it uses inert gas pressure to lessen the damping response of oil.
Now that you know about motorcycle suspensions, you might want to change your stock suspensions to a better one soon. If you ever need reliable motorcycle suspensions, you have businesses like Teknik Motorsport to provide you with the service you need.
