Hello, new to Cf moto and the forums. Just picked up a '22 zforce 800 trail a couple weeks ago. Took it for its maiden run yesterday. Wow, does it ever ride rough. Adjusted the front shock clickers today as to some posts I found here. I couldn't find any info here on adjusting the rear springs when I searched. I know how to do it but does someone have any insight on how much tension I can release for a start? I wont be carrying alot of weight in the bed. Eventually I want Bandit springs.

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

They come with too much preload most often which makes for a stiff ride. Ideally, fully loaded, you want the preload to be set where the wheel end of the axle is center of its travel from fully extended to fully collapsed. Having equal distances of travel in both directions we can call that 50/50. Now you can still add a little more preload so the body is lifted a little more..say 10% more. We can call that 60/40 as you now have 60% of the travel for compression and 40% for rebound or extension. And more and you are back to the milk crate on a buckboard wagon. Visually, the lower a-arms will be straight to a slight downward angle toward the wheels. Now, measure between the ground and the very back of the flat part of the skid plate in the center. Now go to the front of the skid plate. Remember this all has to be done with all the normal load you will be carrying. That front number needs to be the same, level, to 1" lower. No more. Set the front preloads to make that happen. Now lets set the compression and rebounds on the shocks. Set all compressions, that's the upper knobs to full Fast, then 1-2 clicks to ward the slow. Start with 1. If it feels a little stuff, go full fast. If it feels a little mushy, try one click at a time toward the slow. As I recall the trails don't have compression adjustments on the back so- Now for the rebounds. set them all the way to the slow then open the valve, or set toward the fast 1-3 clicks. Its' likely you won't need to do any more with these. Set all the same. This is the best you are going to get out of the CFM shocks. The Bandit springs are heaven...night and day, but nothing compares to a full set of Elkas or Bandit shocks. It will make a different machine out of your trail. 

Thanks NMK!

Save yourself the headache and hemorrhoids, the stock springs are terrible. You'll want those bandits or elkas sooner rather than eventually haha

I just backed off the rear pre-loading .5 inches on each side. That made me sit level with tire pressures 10 front, 14 rear. I opened front clickers to the first solid click from full fast on both compression and rebound and left the front pre-loads alone.

Maybe at some point I will swap springs but one reason I bought the 800 trail was price and am not looking to drop a lot of cash on new shocks.

If anyone was looking the Bandit springs for the trail model are in stock.

Lowering the tire pressure front and rear to 8psi will also help.

I took my first real trail ride on Saturday after setting everything to full 'fast', removing the sway bar, and installing the Bandit springs with a pre-load that puts me level at 9". Front tires at 10 psi and rear at 12 psi.

It made a world of difference. While I don't thing it is possible for the trail model to be 'plush' because of the very short A-arms, it went from very uncomfortable to actually 'pretty good'. I hit some whoops at speed and it seemed to take them in stride. Ran over a lot of big rocks at speed and it took them 10x better that stock.

Bandit springs r back in stock as of 5 min ago