Motorcycle Suspension School

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Motorcycle Suspension School The UK's first motorcycle suspension school, with a range of courses for beginners through to professionals.

Since 2013 the Reactive Suspension School has been holding a unique set of courses where students learn the art of suspension servicing and tuning. In 2015 we will be launching a Motorcycle Data Logging course where racers and track day riders can learn to optimise their own and their machines performance through the use of data logging.

𝐈𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬, 𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.I never have understood these Hipster abominations, take a bike that was really crap in the 80’...
17/10/2026

𝐈𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬, 𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.
I never have understood these Hipster abominations, take a bike that was really crap in the 80’s and make it worse!!
This “plastic maggot” features something we talk about on the courses. The assumption that if a shock fits, then it must work. You can take any old random shock and fit it to your bike and it will just work. Leverage ratio and progression go out of the window. Invariably it’s a shock that didn’t work well on the bike it’s designed for, never mind one that it wasn't.

Pressure Testing Masterclass: A damper produces hydraulic force through pressure differentials. That pressure acts acros...
15/10/2026

Pressure Testing Masterclass:
A damper produces hydraulic force through pressure differentials. That pressure acts across the piston, while the pressure distribution across the shim stack determines how it loads and deflects.

Measuring that pressure turns it into a powerful tuning tool, so you’re no longer relying on assumptions about what’s happening inside the damper.
In our Pressure Testing Masterclass, you’ll learn how to capture pressure data, read it, and use it to build better suspension.

Format: Live webinar over three days, 14th, 15th, 16th December, at 8pm UK time. You’ll need to be available for all three sessions.
Language: English
Price: £258.75
To book: https://forms.gle/nLxWewFnbfNNpXnP8

In his book the Suspension Bible Paul Thede made the observation that riders respond to percentage change, not the absol...
10/10/2026

In his book the Suspension Bible Paul Thede made the observation that riders respond to percentage change, not the absolute number. A 10% shift is noticeable, a 5% shift is noticeable for sensitive riders, and anything below that is too small a change that doesn’t help the rider, it just adds confusion.
Thede’s figure of around 10% for most people, and 5% for some riders, is consistent with perception research done by Weber in the 1830s with lifting weights and force-discrimination studies (Jones 1989; Pang, Tan & Durlach 1991; Allin, Matsuoka & Klatzky 2002), which put the threshold at roughly 5-10%.
I’ve heard things said on podcasts, written in posts, and had conversations with teams and riders where they claim that riders can feel tiny changes of 1-2%, so what’s going on?
This can be one of the harder subjects because it involves the psychology side of the business. It affects everyone, whether they're riders, tuners or engineers.
When you carry out dyno tests on adjusters, there might be a graphical difference between each click. People look at one trace being higher or lower than the other, rather than looking at the percentage change.
In this graph, the orange trace is 19 Newtons above the standard trace at 1900 N. I've had it said to me, “Well, 19 Newtons isn't nothing.”
It is something, but compared with 1900 N, it's only a 1% change. The question is whether that change is significant, and whether anyone can feel it?
There are several possibilities. The change might genuinely affect the way the whole bike behaves, even if the difference on the dyno looks small. The rider might also be detecting a real difference, but not necessarily for the reason they think. Which leads us to the psychology.
The placebo effect. If a rider expects a change to feel different, that expectation can influence what they experience.
Confirmation bias can also play a part. If someone believes they're particularly sensitive to suspension changes, they're more likely to interpret a sensation as proof that they're right. If they've tried a setting before and believe they know exactly what it feels like, that expectation can be what they feel.
There's also the influence of the tuner. If someone says, “You'll feel this, this and this,” it's no surprise when the rider reports those exact sensations. Nobody wants to be the person who can't feel what everyone else seems to be feeling. And riders often want to please the person working on their bike.
None of this means riders are lying. They may genuinely feel something. The question is whether the sensation is repeatable and whether it can be linked to the change that was made.
We also need to be careful not to assume that a small percentage change in damping force is automatically insignificant. A small change in one particular part of the curve could have a different effect from the same percentage change elsewhere. A dyno measures damping force, not what the rider feels, and the two aren't directly interchangeable.
When making suspension changes, we should have a good reason for believing the changes are worthwhile. A difference on a graph doesn't automatically mean a useful improvement, and a rider saying they can feel something doesn't prove that the change caused it.
Make a change big enough that they can feel; you can always come back a bit.

About twenty years ago, I sold a handful of titanium springs. They were expensive and came from a company that eventuall...
05/10/2026

About twenty years ago, I sold a handful of titanium springs. They were expensive and came from a company that eventually stopped making them. Not because they were failing, but because the economics didn’t work. Small batch titanium coils were costly to produce, and the market for them was tiny.
Back then, though, the paddock chit-chat was filled with horrors.

The Rumour: “Titanium springs go soft with temperature”
That one is probably still doing the rounds, but the logic doesn’t add up.
If it were true, the spring rate formula would include a temperature term. It doesn’t.
k=(Gd^4)/(8nD^3 )

If temperature had a meaningful effect, you’d see a “T” in the equation, or at the very least manufacturers would publish temperature dependent rate charts.
They didn’t because the change in modulus between typical operating temperatures is tiny. Even with big swings in temperature, it’s below manufacturing tolerances and rider perception. Any tiny change in rate would be imperceptible compared to the damping fade.
In other words: the rumour never had any physics behind it.

The Rumour: “Titanium springs fail with use”
Stories of springs “going soft”, “losing rate”, or “cracking” circulated freely. None of it matched the real world that we saw.
Titanium’s fatigue behaviour is different to steel, but not worse. Properly processed Titanium has excellent fatigue resistance. The real challenge is manufacturing consistency. Titanium is harder to coil, harder to heat treat, and harder to QC. That’s why they were expensive, not because the material is inherently fragile.
The Titanium Spring in the image is like new, it’s twenty years old and has done countless miles on a road bike. No rate loss, no cracks, no problems.

Rumour vs Reality
The gap between paddock chit-chat and engineering reality is often enormous. Suspension is one of those areas where people speak confidently about things that simply aren't true, usually because the underlying physics is invisible and their audience is too incurious to question it.

I always say that one of the enemy’s of shock seals is chain l**e. People spray half a can on the chain; it’s designed t...
02/10/2026

I always say that one of the enemy’s of shock seals is chain l**e. People spray half a can on the chain; it’s designed to be tacky so that it sticks to the chain. However not all of it does. Some flies off, hits the shock, then you have a very sticky substance on the shaft of the shock.

The tacky film on the shaft attracts grit, sand and dirt which then gets dragged toward the seal. As you can see in the image the wiper seal has done it’s job, but it would only be a matter of time before it gets overwhelmed.

I’d like to pretend this corroded adjuster came out without snapping thanks to an advanced technique and a deep understa...
29/09/2026

I’d like to pretend this corroded adjuster came out without snapping thanks to an advanced technique and a deep understanding of metallurgy.

In reality, it moved because the universe took pity on me for once.

After the summer break, it was Back to School for us this week, with another course completed. It’s always good to see a...
26/09/2026

After the summer break, it was Back to School for us this week, with another course completed. It’s always good to see a group really get to grips with the details that usually get overlooked. Watching them connect the pieces for themselves is always rewarding.
They learned the fundamentals properly, not the myths, but the actual physics, while building confidence through hands-on experience. That’s how standards in the industry improve: people choosing to understand the work properly.
If you’re looking to increase your understanding, the next course will be the Master Technician Course on the 26th of October, where we still have some spaces available.
The Complete Program at the end of the year is now fully booked. We have people travelling from all over the globe for that one, it should be a great course.

We have in the past been asked why we don’t franchise our suspension business like some of the U.S. companies. You do s...
22/09/2026

We have in the past been asked why we don’t franchise our suspension business like some of the U.S. companies.
You do see companies offering franchises with upfront fees, monthly royalties, and access to a database of valving specs. It looks impressive from the outside, but the reality is a revolving door. New tuners pay huge money for a shortcut to credibility; then eventually realise riders choose the person holding the tools, not the logo on the fork leg.
When the tuner has gained experience, built trust locally, and figured out how best to serve their customers, the value of paying ongoing royalties disappears. The franchisor knows this, which is why they keep everything behind digital portals that they can shut off instantly. No lawsuits, no drama. They just remove your access and sell the same territory to the next ambitious tuner.
That’s the problem with franchise model. If they’re unscrupulous, they can make more money from replacing people rather than supporting them.
There is a buzz of activity at the moment on social media with a franchise owner having problems. He’s not the first and I’m sure won’t be the last.
When you look at the numbers it benefits the franchisors to have a high turnover rate. There are upfront fees of around $15,000, then monthly royalties of around $600.
If a single location stays open for 5 years, the franchisor collects the initial $15,000 plus $36,000 in monthly fees ($600 x 60 months), totalling $51,000. However, if that same territory churns through three different owners over the same 5 years the franchisor collects three separate upfront fees ($45,000) plus the ongoing monthly fees, instantly bumping the revenue to $81,000 for the same territory.
For a new business owner, the $15,000 upfront fee is a significant financial outlay. Eventually they realise that the $600 a month isn't providing enough corporate marketing or local leads, but they can’t afford the legal fees to fight to get their $15,000 back and have to walk away and write it off as a loss.
The reason this model successfully attracts a steady stream of new buyers despite the high turnover is that it offers a shortcut to credibility. Setting up a suspension business and building a reputation from scratch takes a lot of hard work over a number of years.
For an aspiring suspension tuner, paying $15,000 feels like buying a pre-packaged reputation, immediate recognition, and a database of settings that would otherwise take a lifetime to learn. When they realise that local success relies 90% on their own hard work and hustle, and 10% on the corporate name, they’ve already fed the cash machine. The franchisor takes the keys back, updates the website, and waits for the next ambitious local tuner to step up to the plate.
We only offer suspension training here, and it’s second to none. We don’t tell you how to run your business, we don’t offer lifestyle advice, and we’re not interested in selling you a “system” to follow. Our job is to help you learn the art of suspension tuning, what you choose to do with that skill afterwards is entirely your own path and we’ll help you along the way as much as we can.

On the drive into the workshop this morning the news was full of doom and gloom about how AI was going to kill us all in...
10/09/2026

On the drive into the workshop this morning the news was full of doom and gloom about how AI was going to kill us all in 10 years. I struggle to see how that’s possible.
I’ve seen it written that AI can read every scientific paper on a subject and make new discoveries, but most AIs don’t have access to those papers. A lot of research is behind paywalls, written in an academic language which is hard for models to understand. What there is an abundance of are forums, blogs, Reddit, Facebook posts, which AI scrapes and churns out as verbatim.
The internet is mostly unverified sources, type in any suspension related topic and Thumpertalk and MTBR become the oracle of all suspension knowledge, Youtube grifters become leading authorities.
A lot of the answers you get are nonsense, but to the uninitiated it’s gold dust. Beyond making cheesy images for Facebook posts... If you poke it, prod it and argue with it, you can get some good information out of it, but it’s not easy.

So today I won’t be digging a bunker and filling it with tinned food, I’ll actually do some suspension work and learn something.

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Unit 38 Alan Farnaby Way
Sheriff Hutton
YO606PG

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