HP Velotechnik Spirit - Manual (Page 18)

HP
Velotechnik
16
Purpose of the adjustment of the su-
spension
Your Spirit is fitted with a suspension fork for
the front wheel and a rear swing arm for the
suspension of the rear wheel.This system
compensates slight bumps on the road so that
riding is comfortable and the strain on your bi-
cycle 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 bot
toming 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 under-
ground
Suspension and damping
The suspension systems of the suspension fork
and the rear swing arm are fitted with the ac-
tual 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 Spirit is fitted with coil springs of steel at
the suspension fork and the rear fork swinging
arm.
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 inforcing oscillations of the
suspension that may be caused by reoccurring
stimulations like pedaling forces within a crank
revolution or the rhythmic up and down mo-
vement of the legs.
The suspension fork of the Spirit works with a
mechanical friction damping.The rear suspen-
sion element has a hydraulic damping cartridge
with a specific damping rate.
Adjusting the suspension