This is an interview I had with Brian Trudeau of Fluid Suspension Science (aka FS2) at his shop at home in Spanaway, WA.  When Brian first started working on my bike (2012 Ducati Monster 696 ABS) the front forks were very soft and the rebound was way too high (causing the forks to spring back quickly).  Brian changed the fork oil to slow down the rebound, he changed the 7.5 wt oil to a 20 wt oil in the rebound fork (compression and rebound are controlled by separate forks) and in the compression fork he changed the 7.5 wt oil to 10 wt oil to take out some of the “sloppy squishiness” from the forks.  On the rear of the bike, Brian found that the sag was too little and needed to be relaxed, he explained that I didn’t weigh enough for proper amount of sag and it needed relaxing.  I mentioned that my ride was rough and my back end tended to skip when I took corners (READ:  NO TRACTION LADIES – very bad!).  Brian took 4 turns of preload out of the shock and checked for correct rider sag.  I took the bike out for a spin and I was stunned the difference it made.  I had always said I didn’t trust my bike, but after I had this setup done, I could honestly say that I not only trusted my bike, I could enjoy cornering at higher speeds with confidence.

Women riders really need to look at setup for their bikes,  the fact is that bikes are dialed in for the average 175-200 lb. male and if you are lighter than that, your ride is definitely too stiff for you.  The honest truth is that you have no traction ladies…no traction is bad!  If you find your back end hopping or you have no rebound, you have no traction.  Please don’t think that setups are only for racers, they are for everyone, get one done and see the difference it will make in your ride and confidence in your bike and how it will perform.

Carol T. Carpenter