You must respring your bike based on your weight.

[mikesova]

Here's the deal. I'm a heavy short guy. 235lb. and barely 5'9". I buy pants with a 30" inseam, but they drag on the ground. I started out offroad on an XR200r. I had a blast, I did notice a pogo effect on the bike. It just caused me to slow down and take it easy. Fast forward to the present. I bought a KLX250s last fall. When I first rode it offroad, it felt AMAZING compared to the XR200r. The suspension was GREAT. Now I read that it's sprung for a 150 lb. guy or something and that I really need to replace the rear spring and the front fork springs, blah blah blah. How necessary is that? I mean, I am perfectly happy with it the way it is. Actually it could be a tad shorter for my short legs, but I can touch on both sides in most instances. Should I go on with my "ignorance is bliss" way of looking at it, or what? I'm not going to hurt anything right? I just won't be able to appreciate the bike to it's fullest potential?

I guess long story short, any other fatties still riding on stock suspensions?

[perterra]

I'd stay with ignorance is bliss if it were me.

[Dismount]

Don't fix stuff that aint broken.

[B.Curvin]

For it to be its best, respring it.

BUT!, if you're happy with it, keep on truckin'.

Proper suspension will let you go faster with less fatigue, but again if you're happy.

[dillon]

If youre happy who cares.

[FezDaForeigner]

I only change suspension when I get to the speed that it starts to wallow until then its perfectly capable for me. BTW I've only changed suspension on 2 bikes (technically 1 since the first was destroyed by an old lady right after I finished so I bought a replacement and changed that to my liking) out of 9 bikes. I've owned one dual sport and all I did was up the preload, but it was a great platform to start with anyway a 2008 wr250r. The bike I did change was my sport bike and well I was tired of it wallowing and bouncing in the canyons when I was being aggressive so I gave it an upgrade.

TL;DR
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[PT Rider]

Respring and set the preload for the correct sag (no, we aren't talking about pants here). The bike will perform better under you. Also consider ways to improve both the front and rear damping.

Sag:
http://www.dirtrider.com/tech/141_0411_set_up_your_dirtbike/index.html
(Scroll down to SUSPENSION, and also search for other articles for dirt bike sag)

[ph0rk]

Originally Posted by B.Curvin

For it to be its best, respring it.

BUT!, if you're happy with it, keep on truckin'.

Proper suspension will let you go faster with less fatigue, but again if you're happy.

I find that being only 150-155 lbs is easier than respringing for me :)

[bobnoxious67]

If you're happy with it, what else matters?

[LittleRedToyota]

if you are used to a performance factor of 1 (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best), and then get a bike with a performance factor of 5, you are going to think that the performance factor 5 bike is the best thing since sliced bread.

does that mean you should not modify it to up its performance closer to 10?

i dunno.

but, if you get to ride a bike with a performance factor of closer to 10, your performance factor 5 bike might suddenly not feel all that great anymore.

will you miss what you don't know you are missing? probably not. however, if you ever do find out what your missing, you might want it. and that might mean you really wanted it right from the beginning, but just didn't know it.

[Spiritwalker2222]

you should see what your static and race sag is. If there around 1" and 4" respectively (I'm assuming the KLX250S has 12" of travel?) than your all good. I would suspect that your numbers are way off and you could see a hugh improvement in handling with different springs.

But if your only riding on gravel and paved roads than it doesn't matter(as much).

[gmiguy]

Seems to me that it's a shame to buy a nice bike and then not get the best it's capable of in order to save just bit of expense and labor.

I fall in the same part of the bell curve that stock suspensions are sprung for, but my larger friends have always reported good things after respringing their bikes to match their weight and application.

[WormShanks]

My general philosophy is to address weaknesses as they present themselves. The downside is that I might never know how good things could be but, more often than not, I'm having plenty of fun so the actual point of it all is covered.

[perterra]

Originally Posted by gmiguy

Seems to me that it's a shame to buy a nice bike and then not get the best it's capable of in order to save just bit of expense and labor.

I fall in the same part of the bell curve that stock suspensions are sprung for, but my larger friends have always reported good things after respringing their bikes to match their weight and application.

Maybe he's a plonker and not a racer?

[gmiguy]

Originally Posted by perterra

Maybe he's a plonker and not a racer?

Maybe. Even if I'm just "plonking" I can still tell the difference between a suspension that's adjusted correctly and one that's not.

Springs are cheap and easy to install, and the tools to select the proper spring rate are readily available.

Why not get it set up correctly?