RUST magazine: RUST#37

ENDURO
THE REVISIONS
SUSPENSION
I can’t help my feelings of prejudice;
I’m just not immediately ready to liken
Sachs suspension to WP or Kayaba for
quality. I’m sure it is just prejudice, but
until I get a chance to test a Beta and
say a KTM back to back (which I must
do) I’m still half wondering if the Sachs,
even with ZF stickers, are up to the top
level.
So is the 2019 kit better? Not easy to
say, but probably yes. At the launch
venue, Hell’s Gate, it was super-rocky
and pretty much any suspension is
going to take some work to settle on
this stuff. On the stock settings, I was
getting jarred and shocks through the
bars all the way. Fortunately, using the
RR390 as my test mule – and working
on backing off both the compression
and rebound damping on the forks,
and the high-speed compression
adjustment on the shock – within three
rides and three sets of adjustments
(about half an hour’s work) I was able
to find a very acceptable setting. The
jarring and shock disappeared and a
feeling of plushness came over the
ride. So I was extremely pleased to find
the adjusters worked so well – and this
plushness came within three clicks of
the standard settings, so there’s some
range to the adjustment available. Good
stuff.
As well, like on the latest Husqvarna
TE/FEs, there’s now a preload adjuster
on the forks (again a tool-less item)
and this worked equally well, with
max preload holding the forks high –
probably ideal for sand riding.
In all the feeling is the new
suspension is good, it worked well once
it was dialed in for the extreme setting.
How well it’ll work where you ride, and
over a protracted race environment –
that we’ll have to wait and see.
FOUR-STROKE REMAP AND THROTTLE
UPGRADE
Yes, I liked the revision here. The
throttle action on all the four-strokes
felt smooth and nicely graduated. There
was no jerkiness when going from
no throttle to some, the RRs picked
up nicely, smoothly. An extra 10%
fuel economy is always welcome too,
that might be the difference between
making the next refuel and a long push.
NEW CLUTCH MASTER CYLINDER
This is said to offer a lighter clutch
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