alt Hacker Newswhat's the reason? it surely isn't ride smoothness, it's control.
similar to a race car -- you don't compensate the speed with damping and spring rates in order to maximize a smooth ride , you do it to more quickly transfer the movement energy OUT of your car, into the ground and traction patch so that the car can remain dynamic for the next force.
this does not equate to ride quality, most race cars (and bikes) are bone-shakers.
ride smoothness in the medium frequency range = control. if you're bouncing all over then you're weighting and de-weighting constantly, which is terrible for control.
high performance cars are mostly bone shakers at slow speeds when not in their ideal operating range. at high speeds they should level on top of it all, just watch a rally truck go over dunes or the video of an F1 wheel well stabilized to the frame of the car. sure you have low-frequency high-g-force weight transfer during acceleration/deceleration, and you have high frequency signal from the road texture, but medium frequency parking-lot-speedbump-style bouncing should not be happening at all or you're going to lose the race.