TE 250 suspension setting help?

I'm a new trail rider with a recently purchased 2007 TE 250 and I'm looking for some guidance with the clicker settings. I ride in New Jersey with a lot of sand whoops that are kicking my butt. Appreciate any input that will get me in the ballpark if someone has the same bike. I'm 6'-0" 180lbs and not very fast at the moment.

Sand woops you want the bike to have a super stiff front fork. It sucks to race with both sand woops and rocks/roots, as the set up is the opposite.

Anyway, i dont have the clicker settings to tell you. But i will say you want the bike to skim accross the top of the woops, and to do that you will want it stiff.

For sandy wooped out desert races ive run 2" of preload in my forks. The old 'pile of washers' trick. It pushes the spring down, getting rid of a bit of 'sagging' and making it that much more ready for the woops.

Try using the rebound to stiffen things up for ya. Try clicking the top clickers 2 clicks to the right (clockwise) and then hit that sand woop section. Then try 2 more clicks. Repeat, till it is just TOO hard.

In general you want the compression clickers within, say 4-6 clicks of the rebound. So if you are WAY out there with rebound, then back it off and use a bit of compression to get the two closer.

Ball park, shooting from the hip from a guy whos never ridden an '07 TE 250: (i weight the same, and have a '07 with those forks)

5 clicks of compression (go to full counterclockwise, then click it 5-7 clockwise)

10 clicks of rebound. (right in the middle, get there however you want)

Most important thing of all with sand woops is TOTAL COMMITTMENT!

You have to have a fast entry speed. Stand up. Pin it, and if you are going fast enough you will skim over the top of em.

Slightly higher tire pressure is also good.

Thanks for the tips. I didn't know you can adjust fork preload( I don't have a manual). It seems that the rear end comes up and whacks me in the backside when I try to pick up speed through the whoops. Will the fork adjustments affect that?

I was in your boat a year ago. I live in S. Jersey and the sand whoops in Wharton were KILLING me. The front of my '07 TE250 was always really harsh, so I figured increasing the squishiness would help. I backed the compression and rebound out to near full soft. Sure enough, the front end started using more travel, but it actually didn't help in the whoops. It was using way too much travel and I ended up deep in the valleys between whoops instead of on top of them. I tried the soft settings in a enduro and at a reset I put the clickers back near the stock settings. Much more control.

Now, I am NOT a pin-it-in-the-whoops guy, but I do carry some speed. I'm just about to graduate to the B class, so I'm not agonizingly slow, just very not fast. As you get more experience with the whoops, you'll find yourself hitting them harder and faster, and they'll become much less tiring. Approach while standing, weight centered over the pegs, ready to transfer weight rearward as you enter the section. Stay loose, let the bike move under you, but keep a bit of a grip with your lower legs. Keep the power on.

That's about all I can contribute. After all, if you do everything exactly like I do, you'll still suck.

...over simplified for obvious reasons...YMMV

420:

180lbs may be the far end of your weight range for the stock springs. Might not. May be ok for a beginner/mild novice- depends on many factors.

First- you must set your sag. W/o same set propperly yer chasing your tail.

After setting your sag correctly:

If the bike popps you in the butt, add two clicks rebound, one click high-speed compression damp to the shock. (i.e.- shock is too fast...)

If the bike swaps, subtract two clicks rebound. (shock is rebounding too slow)

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Do this AFTER you set your sag.
Repeat the sections giving you trouble.

Try not to adjust the bike too much for one particular section. Go for an average of decent handling over varied terrain.

Practice, practice, practice.

Thanks All, I've got some homework this weekend. (And Practice)