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The spring may be implemented with a steel or titanium coil, compressed air, or even an elastomer. Different spring materials have different spring rates which have a fundamental effect on the characteristics of the fork as a whole. Coil-sprung forks keep an approximately constant ("linear") spring rate throughout their travel.
A selection of conical coil springs. Spring rate is the measurement of how much a coil spring can hold until it compresses 1 inch (2.54 cm). The spring rate is normally specified by the manufacture. If a spring has a rate of 100 then the spring would compress 1 inch with 100 pounds (45 kg) of load. [1]
In other words, the spring for the rear suspension is a coil spring that is installed over, or around, the shock. In terms of adjustment, rear shocks span the range from no adjustments whatsoever to pre-load adjustments only to racing shocks with adjustments for length, pre-load, and four different kinds of damping.
A torsion spring's rate is in units of torque divided by angle, such as N·m/rad or ft·lbf/degree. The inverse of spring rate is compliance, that is: if a spring has a rate of 10 N/mm, it has a compliance of 0.1 mm/N. The stiffness (or rate) of springs in parallel is additive, as is the compliance of springs in series.
The most common example is in a vehicle's suspension, where it is used to describe the displacement and forces in the springs and shock absorbers. The force in the spring is (roughly) the vertical force at the contact patch divided by the motion ratio, and the spring rate is the wheel rate divided by the motion ratio squared.
The downside, though, is weight, and they are severely travel limited compared to a conventional coil spring when free length is not an issue. A wave washer also acts as a spring, but wave washers of comparable size do not produce as much force as Belleville washers, nor can they be stacked in series.
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Wheel rate is usually equal to or considerably less than the spring rate. Commonly, springs are mounted on control arms, swing arms or some other pivoting suspension member. Consider the example above, where the spring rate was calculated to be 500 lbs/inch (87.5 N/mm), if one were to move the wheel 1 in (2.5 cm) (without moving the car), the ...