How to "loosen up" the ride on Viper S

C

caldwell54

New member
Joined
Sep 10, 2004
Messages
15
Age
63
Location
Grand Blanc, MI
I bought a new Viper S for Christmas ! :WayCool: and put about 200
miles on. I am moving up from my 1997 700 SX I purchased new.
I loved my 700 SX but the Viper is definitely a step up with much
better quickness and traction.

I was lucky in that my 700 SX was set up perfect from the dealer
so I rode it bone stock with no adjustments needed.

But my 2004 Viper S is a little tight and rides a little rough for me.
Can you tell me the best way to loosen up or soften up the ride ?

Thanks
Dean
 

Loosen Up Viper S

About 190 lbs. I have not adjusted front ohlins but they
should be easy with the clicker knob. How about
the rear adjustments ?
 
i thought my 700 sx had much better center of gravity and hadling overall in the tight twisty trails. My viper s stock had extreme inside ski lift so i needed to tighten it up but if your lookin to loosen it up i would start with loosening the spring preload on both rear and center shock and maybe bring down the tranfer rods a line or 2 and this will also give the rear suspension a more cushy ride. start with the rear first and do small adjustments.
 
adjust the full rate to the softer setting....but the ideal setting would be with your weight on the sled that you have the same gap above and below the trasnfer rods. Do the rear before working on the front.
 
If you like a soft ride that absorbs all of the moguls then turn your compression damper all the way counter-clockwise than turn 1-3 click to the right. Also set your spring preload proper sag with rider on sled 1/3 of total bumper travel.
 
If you want it softer then you need to adjust the FRA, I think if you look the shocks are set almost all the way loose already. As far as the turning goes, you went from the short to the long sospension so you automatically loose that go cart turning ability that you had. The Viper S does pitch alot in the turns because the front is set up loose from the factory. Tighten the front springs 1/4" and set the shocks at around 8. Thats as good as it gets before you start loosing ride quality. The problem as you said is the CG of the sled. If you want to fix the problem install a front sway bar kit from CB Performance. The sled because of its hieght has too much roll in it, a sway bar controls roll. The bigger sway bar is the ticket and you retain the original ride quality.
 
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