Spring Rate & Damping

TitanRev

You think I print money?
Helmet Clan
Moderator
Mar 3, 2005
8,180
3,678
5,213
All sifu, I will just try to explain a little bit to Marv about the damping and spring rate so don't shoot me la ok..I also noob....

Marv, for you information. definition of Spring rate means "How much weight is required to deflect/compress the spring an inch. the unit that is used is either in kg/mm or lb/in. So if you see a spring that has a rating of 8kg/mm vs another 1 with 6kg/mm. The 8Kg/mm will be a stiffer spring. different rating springs has it's own oscillation pattern (a softer spring will have a bigger, longer and wavy pattern while a stiffer spring will have a fast, narrow pattern). Imagine a pogo stick. It only has a spring when you apply a compressing force to the spring. It always wanted to react the opposite direction and this force will keep going and going (the oscillation pattern).

Then to damping. The main function of the damper is to control the oscillation motion of the spring (to keep it within control). The main thing to damping is the compression and rebound control. The damper will absorb shocks that will increase the oscillation motion of the spring which would send the spring bouncing out of control this is consider external force (road bumps, pot hole..etc) When you fiddle around with the damping setting. You are actually changing the wavelengths of the oscillation movement of the spring. With a hard damper setting, you will need more energy (kinetic energy) to move the piston inside as you are limiting the flow of the hydraulic fluid of the damper. With a softer damping, the damper required less kinetic energy to move the piston. This makes your ride able to absorb more of the bumps and holes and still able to control the spring's oscillation movement. On track, you need a harder damping setting because you want to limit the movement of the spring and damper to a more linear state quicker turn in response as track surface are smooth you do not need to worry about hitting a bump or holes that would upset the car's handling and also to control the load transfer during braking and accelerating. On daily road, you need to have more damping so that you car can stay planted on the floor even you run over holes or bumps, you do not want you car to jump or hop as this makes you lost traction and also to absorb the sudden external force.

Above is my understanding and 2 cents. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
 

6UE5t

6,000 RPM
Senior Member
Oct 8, 2010
6,756
1,300
1,713
Kuala Lumpur
All sifu, I will just try to explain a little bit to Marv about the damping and spring rate so don't shoot me la ok..I also noob....

Marv, for you information. definition of Spring rate means "How much weight is required to deflect/compress the spring an inch. the unit that is used is either in kg/mm or lb/in. So if you see a spring that has a rating of 8kg/mm vs another 1 with 6kg/mm. The 8Kg/mm will be a stiffer spring. different rating springs has it's own oscillation pattern (a softer spring will have a bigger, longer and wavy pattern while a stiffer spring will have a fast, narrow pattern). Imagine a pogo stick. It only has a spring when you apply a compressing force to the spring. It always wanted to react the opposite direction and this force will keep going and going (the oscillation pattern).

Then to damping. The main function of the damper is to control the oscillation motion of the spring (to keep it within control). The main thing to damping is the compression and rebound control. The damper will absorb shocks that will increase the oscillation motion of the spring which would send the spring bouncing out of control this is consider external force (road bumps, pot hole..etc) When you fiddle around with the damping setting. You are actually changing the wavelengths of the oscillation movement of the spring. With a hard damper setting, you will need more energy (kinetic energy) to move the piston inside as you are limiting the flow of the hydraulic fluid of the damper. With a softer damping, the damper required less kinetic energy to move the piston. This makes your ride able to absorb more of the bumps and holes and still able to control the spring's oscillation movement. On track, you need a harder damping setting because you want to limit the movement of the spring and damper to a more linear state quicker turn in response as track surface are smooth you do not need to worry about hitting a bump or holes that would upset the car's handling and also to control the load transfer during braking and accelerating. On daily road, you need to have more damping so that you car can stay planted on the floor even you run over holes or bumps, you do not want you car to jump or hop as this makes you lost traction and also to absorb the sudden external force.

Above is my understanding and 2 cents. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
Pretty much it already. :biggrin:
 

vr2turbo

Beyond 20,000 RPM!
Helmet Clan
Moderator
May 11, 2010
29,998
8,385
1,713
Petaling Jaya
All sifu, I will just try to explain a little bit to Marv about the damping and spring rate so don't shoot me la ok..I also noob....

Marv, for you information. definition of Spring rate means "How much weight is required to deflect/compress the spring an inch. the unit that is used is either in kg/mm or lb/in. So if you see a spring that has a rating of 8kg/mm vs another 1 with 6kg/mm. The 8Kg/mm will be a stiffer spring. different rating springs has it's own oscillation pattern (a softer spring will have a bigger, longer and wavy pattern while a stiffer spring will have a fast, narrow pattern). Imagine a pogo stick. It only has a spring when you apply a compressing force to the spring. It always wanted to react the opposite direction and this force will keep going and going (the oscillation pattern).

Then to damping. The main function of the damper is to control the oscillation motion of the spring (to keep it within control). The main thing to damping is the compression and rebound control. The damper will absorb shocks that will increase the oscillation motion of the spring which would send the spring bouncing out of control this is consider external force (road bumps, pot hole..etc) When you fiddle around with the damping setting. You are actually changing the wavelengths of the oscillation movement of the spring. With a hard damper setting, you will need more energy (kinetic energy) to move the piston inside as you are limiting the flow of the hydraulic fluid of the damper. With a softer damping, the damper required less kinetic energy to move the piston. This makes your ride able to absorb more of the bumps and holes and still able to control the spring's oscillation movement. On track, you need a harder damping setting because you want to limit the movement of the spring and damper to a more linear state quicker turn in response as track surface are smooth you do not need to worry about hitting a bump or holes that would upset the car's handling and also to control the load transfer during braking and accelerating. On daily road, you need to have more damping so that you car can stay planted on the floor even you run over holes or bumps, you do not want you car to jump or hop as this makes you lost traction and also to absorb the sudden external force.

Above is my understanding and 2 cents. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
This is sifu lah!....:adore::adore:
 

marv3

Known Member
Thread starter
Jun 5, 2014
496
57
528
Kuala Lumpur
All sifu, I will just try to explain a little bit to Marv about the damping and spring rate so don't shoot me la ok..I also noob....

Marv, for you information. definition of Spring rate means "How much weight is required to deflect/compress the spring an inch. the unit that is used is either in kg/mm or lb/in. So if you see a spring that has a rating of 8kg/mm vs another 1 with 6kg/mm. The 8Kg/mm will be a stiffer spring. different rating springs has it's own oscillation pattern (a softer spring will have a bigger, longer and wavy pattern while a stiffer spring will have a fast, narrow pattern). Imagine a pogo stick. It only has a spring when you apply a compressing force to the spring. It always wanted to react the opposite direction and this force will keep going and going (the oscillation pattern).

Then to damping. The main function of the damper is to control the oscillation motion of the spring (to keep it within control). The main thing to damping is the compression and rebound control. The damper will absorb shocks that will increase the oscillation motion of the spring which would send the spring bouncing out of control this is consider external force (road bumps, pot hole..etc) When you fiddle around with the damping setting. You are actually changing the wavelengths of the oscillation movement of the spring. With a hard damper setting, you will need more energy (kinetic energy) to move the piston inside as you are limiting the flow of the hydraulic fluid of the damper. With a softer damping, the damper required less kinetic energy to move the piston. This makes your ride able to absorb more of the bumps and holes and still able to control the spring's oscillation movement. On track, you need a harder damping setting because you want to limit the movement of the spring and damper to a more linear state quicker turn in response as track surface are smooth you do not need to worry about hitting a bump or holes that would upset the car's handling and also to control the load transfer during braking and accelerating. On daily road, you need to have more damping so that you car can stay planted on the floor even you run over holes or bumps, you do not want you car to jump or hop as this makes you lost traction and also to absorb the sudden external force.

Above is my understanding and 2 cents. Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Thank you so much for this detail and long write-up yo. Appreciate it......I just need to wrap my head around the correlations between the springs and dampers.
 

TitanRev

You think I print money?
Helmet Clan
Moderator
Mar 3, 2005
8,180
3,678
5,213
This is sifu lah!....:adore::adore:
I'm no sifu...just a noob...

Thank you so much for this detail and long write-up yo. Appreciate it......I just need to wrap my head around the correlations between the springs and dampers.
Marv, below is a graph I took to show you about the oscillation of spring. It is describe as kinetic energy. It's just an example.
From the chart. Imagine the 1st chart is a stiffer spring and the 2nd and 3rd is a soft spring. See the difference in the wavelength? That's what I was trying to explain.

Activity Based Physics Thinking Problems in Oscillations and Waves: Mass on a Spring
Mx-01c: Simple Harmonic Motion (Computer)

On damping, below is some useful website about damping,dampers that you can read.
Shim ReStackor example calculation retuning a shim stack to be three clicks softer
Damped Harmonic Motion
To learn and share about dampers / shock absorbers - Forum - F1technical.net
Koni Adjustable Koni Shocks | Adjustable Shocks & Struts
 

LittleWhiteWagon

1,500 RPM
Senior Member
Oct 12, 2009
1,656
187
1,663
P.J
Yooo.....Thats a good feedback/opinions/review. Thanks dude.

You are not using the original springs provided with the BC V1? Would you say the feedback/performance would be different if you were using the original springs that comes with the BC V1??

Handling TT?? Sounds good. Shall we set a date?? Hahahahahhaha. :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Sorry for the late reply, no problems man, I try to help wherever I can haha.

Of course! I switched the rates, i'm using s.w.i.f.t springs (not from a suzuki swift, you can google them up) at a higher rate, front 9kg/mm and rear 6kg/mm, the original was 6kg/mm fronts and 4kg/mm rears. They could absorb bumps a lot better, but personally I find it lacking a bit of overall travel... and rebound. But that's just nitpicking la haha. I'm free the whole month, just tell me a date, time, and place. :biggrin:
 
Last edited:

marv3

Known Member
Thread starter
Jun 5, 2014
496
57
528
Kuala Lumpur
Sorry for the late reply, no problems man, I try to help wherever I can haha.

Of course! I switched the rates, i'm using s.w.i.f.t springs (not from a suzuki swift, you can google them up) at a higher rate, front 9kg/mm and rear 6kg/mm, the original was 6kg/mm fronts and 4kg/mm rears. They could absorb bumps a lot better, but personally I find it lacking a bit of overall travel... and rebound. But that's just nitpicking la haha. I'm free the whole month, just tell me a date, time, and place. :biggrin:


Well guys....looks like we got something in the schedule then.....:rofl::rofl:
 

Supra_Fanatics

Beyond 20,000 RPM!
Senior Member
Sep 17, 2008
20,673
3,998
1,713
Night time talk kok tt easier to organize......hhahhahahhah:rofl:
Only problem is most TT is on Friday night. Kinda dilemma to choose which to go. If go to that one, then the other group bising u no join them :rofl:

So if joining other group TT have to go secretly adi :rofl:
 

vr2turbo

Beyond 20,000 RPM!
Helmet Clan
Moderator
May 11, 2010
29,998
8,385
1,713
Petaling Jaya
Only problem is most TT is on Friday night. Kinda dilemma to choose which to go. If go to that one, then the other group bising u no join them :rofl:

So if joining other group TT have to go secretly adi :rofl:
You go to one for half and hour, then go to next one, then next one, show face at every tt the people cannot make noise.....hhahhahahahhahaha:rofl::rofl:
 

Izso

NA NA NA NA NA
Helmet Clan
Moderator
Mar 28, 2004
15,389
6,411
5,213
KL
Yesterday I started to fiddle with my damper stiffness.

Front 8k springs, 30 clicks max - I went to adjust 2 clicks stiffness
Rear 6k springs, 30 clicks max - I adjusted 8 clicks stiffness.

Now got stock comfort already with 17" 45 profile bumpiness. Not bad wor
 

Random Post Every 5 Minutes

hi guys...
juz wana share d result of my upgrade on LED lighting...



changing d led is easy, but be careful wif d dashboard panel.. bcoz is made by plastic..

from yellow to bright white...!... yippeee~~~ :biggrin:


another shot... V...
Ask a question, start a discussion or post something for sale!
Post thread

Online now

Enjoying Zerotohundred?

Log-in for an ad-less experience