In case it matters, I am talking specifically about motorcycle suspensions, although I assume the principles are the same.
Everyone says that when you get serious about track day riding, you first upgrade your suspension. All else comes after.
For the record, I couldn’t find anything online answering my question.
In: Engineering
Basically everything else is going to rely on the suspension to be “good”. You want the shocks to absorb enough energy that they can take the pounding you intend to give them, depending on what type of bike/surface you’re working with, but not so strong they’ll bounce you back up, you want the springs to help take the roughness out of it, and keep the wheels in contact as much as possible, and you might want some degree of adjustability so you can change it based on surface/conditions. This is also all going to want to be done as light as possible, which is another thing you’re upgrading by going beyond stock.
The suspension itself is simple, it’s two forms of compression that work together to cover each other’s downsides, and you’re using two of them to get the cheapest/lightest/best balance of what they both do, that’s really all it comes down to. When you’re buying stock, they’re having to take into account a lot more of the cheap part, a lot less of the light part, and a lot more potential longevity and complexity. By swapping it out, you’re getting what you personally want, without needing to design something for thousands of variables.
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