Next - rear suspension. I have absolutely no freaking clue how
Dave-Co was meaning to set the springs and valving up in this thing. First I want to say in earlier thread posts I did make the move from 80/100 springs to 175/100 springs top/bottom. This kind of went against the norm of putting a lighter spring up top, but I really wanted to feel a heavier start before crossover. So the rates go from about 65lb to 100lb per inch with about 800lb total at fully compressed.
If I go through some smooth jumps and landings, this spring rate feels great. I almost completely fixed my bottom-out. It only touched ground twice on the last ride (So I'll add another 1/2" bump stop).
The main freaking problem with this thing is the rear has absolutely ZERO compression and ZERO re-bound. Taking a tip from Steve, I took a look at the shock piston. Lets just say Dave-Co got a little silly with a 3/16" drill bit. He drilled 4x 3/16 bleed holes in the shock piston - which essentially completely eliminates all forms of compression and rebound damping! He might as well have saved himself the cost of shock oil as the valving was likely getting completely bypassed!
This was causing the shocks to completely pack-out in both directions.
1. Tossing the machine over the whoops - and the rebound was too fast that it was causing the machine to buck in the rear. That is - suspension pressing UP on the rear, lifting it off the ground.
2. On smooth landings, the rear would bounce twice like a pogo stick. Ideally the rear should only really bounce 0.5 times (Compress, or release and then immediately return to ride height)
3. On multiple compressions, or when taking an increasing height hill (Like, going fast toward an upcoming incline), and the rear would drive hard, and sometimes dive twice - causing the machine to bottom out.
I called KarTech. They asked for some pictures - Txt'ed them. I heard a few guys laughing about the bleed holes lol. So I ordered some new factory pistons to start. As for bleed holes, well, I'm going to just keep to the one factory 0.070" hole for now, but I can always drill a few to speed things up if 30# shims are still not fast enough.
Valve shims in this things are both 70#, for compression and rebound. KarTech recommended I pick up 2 stacks of 30#, and 2 stacks of 50#, and start with the factory pistons with 50# shims. With the combination ordered I should be able to hit any position - 30,35,40,45,50,55,60,65,70#.
Hope it all goes well!