Originally Posted by dirtracin58

I am glad to see some people are starting to try to mathematically calculate their setups along with using Fred’s practical bounce method. I have a spreadsheet that I personally have been using for a long time based on the equations in “Race Car Vehicle Dynamics”. I have found that the easiest way to account for the spring motion ratio is to clamp the chassis to a stand with the shocks hooked up but no springs installed. Measure the exposed shock length at full droop, then measure the distance you can bump the wheel until the shock bottoms out. The ratio of those two numbers is your average motion ratio for the entire range of travel. I make a table of all the motion ratios available for each shock mounting configuration so when I want to make a setup change, I can easily look up the new motion ratio and enter that into my spreadsheet. I can get into more of the details of the spreadsheet and how I use it to tune based on roll rates and ride frequency if there is interest, but I don’t want to hijack this thread. I am impressed at how well most of you are able to balanced setups using Fred’s method, I just prefer a more analytical approach.