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What is damping? Seems to be a setting easy to adjust thus likely important. Should I just leave it alone or is it something to play with?

Is this weight and riding style specific? If so, 200 pounds laden with gear and novice rider.

Thanks!!

You will notice some benefit from playing with it.

If you are on the stock forks the rebound damping is not adjustable except by changing the weight of you fork oil. the compression damping is under little rubber caps at the bottom of the fork leg, I think. Maybe it is on the top cap, it has been a while since I fooled with the stock fork.

If you want to feel the differences I would pick a short loop, maybe 3 to 4 minutes in length, and ride it a few times. For both the shock and the fork write down your "clicker settings". By convention the setting is defined as number of clicks out from fully turned clockwise.
I would make a pretty big change in one of them, say shock compression fully hard, and go around the same loop to get a feeling for what it does. Put it back where it was and try again with one of the others. Do be careful, the bike can do surprising things with one clicker at an extreme.
Generally, you should get shock rebound and fork compression set where it seems best to you while shock compression is at the middle position and then make 2 or 3 click changes to shock compression to dial it in.

Whole books have been written about suspension tuning. There is a lot of material to cover. Have fun!

Once you develop a sensitivity to the changes, you will find that rebound adjustment (on the rear shock) also affects compression damping. This is because the bleed hole (located in the shaft itself) allows fluid to flow in both directions. Race Tech makes a one-way "check-nut" that can be installed in place of the stock piston nut, that eliminates this.

Good info, thanks. Waiting to do the top end and then get this green machine to the dirt! Forecast to be 100 degrees here for the next week plus so am balancing desire with comfort...

Scroll down the list on the left, lots of great info on suspension setup..
http://www.brucessuspension.com/