Clickers,
How your bike handles on the track and from track to track has a lot to do with how you have set up your clickers on the forks and shock. Just because your manual says you should be out 12 clicks or whatever, is just a starting point, having your bike set up for you will make your bike faster and easier to ride. Assuming you have already set your sag, the best way to start is to write down where your clickers are set are now. I do this by counting the # of clicks it takes to go in. When counting the clicks don’t tighten up the clickers too much because you will damage the needles inside. Once you have written down where you are on the compression and rebound on each end and returned them to where they were, it is time to experiment. Find a section of track that usually gives you grief and ride through it and mentally take notes on how your bike feels. Better yet have someone time you through the section, then make one change at a time to your suspension to see how this affects your bike. I like to start with the compression on the Forks, I go 4 clicks softer and see how this works. If its better I go 4 more. If its not better I go back and click 4 clicks stiffer and so on. You can fine tune down to one or two clicks as you go but its good to start with a large change so you can tell if your going in the right direction. Once I have the compression dialed in then I do the same with the rebound. One thing to remember is that too much rebound will cause your suspension to pack up and not let your tires return to the ground resulting in a loss of traction. Once the forks feel great I switch to the shock and follow the same procedure until the back feels great. Then I re-check where all my clickers are and write this down with a brief description of the track so when I encounter similar circumstances I can put my suspension where I already know it is going to feel right. I have different settings for hard pack, sand, high speed and technical tracks. Plus if you experiment enough you will know how a few clicks here or there will affect your bike for changing tracks. Remember, since you wrote them down, you can always go back to your original settings if you get confused or lost. Your clickers won’t care.
Greg