I just picked up a 2004 YZ250F that has suspension apparently tuned for enduro riding and a 185lb rider - which describes me. I am an avid mountain biker, and trail ride a longer travel mountain bike with custom tuned coil suspension.

Maybe my expectations are unreasonable, but I am wanting to know if I can set up my moto suspension similiar to my mtb. My mtb suspension is tuned to be soft and plush, but can be still hammered hard at speed without blowing through the travel. My moto feels way different. The rear feels plush just pushing on the saddle, but when riding it square edge hits on roots and rocks deliver a jolt through the saddle I don't get on my mtb. The moto fork feels much firmer than the rear shock, and doesn't seem to use nearly as much of its travel. The moto kind of pings around in roots and rocks, where as my plusher mtb absorbs more and maintains better traction without a lot of deflection.

The shock sag is about 4".

Are my expectations for the moto suspension unreasonable?

Edited by Jim EG, 10 May 2012 - 10:16 PM.

They shure have the potential. Who was the company revalving them and when was the last rebuild?

The 04 fork is much better than the terrible 03 , but the 06 forks are a good step above both,  and its a easy conversion,  and I believe others have fitted a 06 shock,  but the shock isn't really hard to get working well,  you need to ride a few other bikes to see how your expectations compare with what's out there

Get in touch with Push.  They do mt. bikes and moto's.

Jim EG, on 10 May 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

You didn't say how much moto experience you have, I'll assume it's minimal and suggest you ride the moto more before you get too crazy with suspension mods. Besides having a much heavier bike that can't ever respond like your 35 pound bike, you now have a throttle to control. The coordination of the throttle with the weighting and unweighting that you allready know about, is a big part of riding smoothly. A heavy flywheel weight makes throttle control much easier.
Also now that you have all that power available you may find that you want to ride with less rearward weight bias than you're used to. You can us the throttle to unweight the front end and center your weight over the bike. That will affect how the suspension works and feels.
That being said, modern MX suspension, unless it's been heavily modified, is brutally rough in the rocks and roots.

Edited by moto vita, 11 May 2012 - 06:42 AM.

Thanks for the reply's.

JSR suspension did the suspension tuning, and I'm not sure how long ago.

I grew up racing motocross, and swtiched over to mountain bike 20 years ago. I have not ridden moto since then, until recently.

PUSH tunes my mtb suspension. Good suggestion. I forgot they did moto too.

Don't expect the suspension to react to the smallest chop the same way the mtb has skip much less unsprung mass..  but in stock trim mx supension is bruital off road.

It may be worth checking with the shop that made the revalve. Some shops will revalve for a new owner for just the price of a rebuild. It could be two birds with one stone if you are due for a rebuild.