Suspension SETUP, a 'how to' guide...

PB Forum :: Mechanics' Lounge
Suspension SETUP, a 'how to' guide...
Author Message
flag Haddow-B
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 14:14 Quote
what i tend to do when setting up is one dial at a time put it to the lowest and do a run or two then move it to the highest and do a run or two . from there i adjust it in or out . i do that with every dial
flag MarkHob
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 14:25 Quote
Rebound tries to oppose the spring returning (either coil or air) after compression.

As a rough rule for rebound I would say that most shocks are designed for approx 70kg riders as an average. So if you're around that weight I would start at about the mid point on the rebound adjuster, ride and adjust +/- for feel from there.

If your lighter you will probably have lower air pressure or a lighter coil spring and as such should need less rebound (faster), if you're heavier more rebound (slower).

I personally find rebound much easier to evaluate than LSC which I am still struggling to find a happy balance with on my pikes.

Cheers

Mark H
flag kroky777
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 14:56 Quote
MarkHob wrote:
Rebound tries to oppose the spring returning (either coil or air) after compression.

As a rough rule for rebound I would say that most shocks are designed for approx 70kg riders as an average. So if you're around that weight I would start at about the mid point on the rebound adjuster, ride and adjust +/- for feel from there.

If your lighter you will probably have lower air pressure or a lighter coil spring and as such should need less rebound (faster), if you're heavier more rebound (slower).

I personally find rebound much easier to evaluate than LSC which I am still struggling to find a happy balance with on my pikes.

Cheers

Mark H

Thanks man ,so where do have yours set at the moment? ,from centre
flag kroky777
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 14:58 Quote
brigand wrote:
As fast as i can without loosing the bike from my feet, i run flats. That's on the slower side of things when i look at my friends settings Smile

Its literally insane how much of a,difference it makes! Feels like a completely different bike now .
flag MarkHob
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 15:24 Quote
kroky777 wrote:
MarkHob wrote:
Rebound tries to oppose the spring returning (either coil or air) after compression.

As a rough rule for rebound I would say that most shocks are designed for approx 70kg riders as an average. So if you're around that weight I would start at about the mid point on the rebound adjuster, ride and adjust +/- for feel from there.

If your lighter you will probably have lower air pressure or a lighter coil spring and as such should need less rebound (faster), if you're heavier more rebound (slower).

I personally find rebound much easier to evaluate than LSC which I am still struggling to find a happy balance with on my pikes.

Cheers

Mark H

Thanks man ,so where do have yours set at the moment? ,from centre

I'm 80kgs so I normally have rebound at about 1-2 clicks faster than the mid point.

Cheers

Mark H
flag kroky777
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 15:37 Quote
MarkHob wrote:
kroky777 wrote:
MarkHob wrote:
Rebound tries to oppose the spring returning (either coil or air) after compression.

As a rough rule for rebound I would say that most shocks are designed for approx 70kg riders as an average. So if you're around that weight I would start at about the mid point on the rebound adjuster, ride and adjust +/- for feel from there.

If your lighter you will probably have lower air pressure or a lighter coil spring and as such should need less rebound (faster), if you're heavier more rebound (slower).

I personally find rebound much easier to evaluate than LSC which I am still struggling to find a happy balance with on my pikes.

Cheers

Mark H

Thanks man ,so where do have yours set at the moment? ,from centre

I'm 80kgs so I normally have rebound at about 1-2 clicks faster than the mid point.

Cheers

Mark H

Ah sweet , what I'm running at the moment would be considered quite slow so . thanks a lot for your help . Good to have some kind of starting point ☺im finding 5 clicks in from wide open on the LSC knob a happy place
flag brianl
Posted: Aug 25, 2015 at 19:13 Quote
Good to hear you improved it, but if you just randomly picked a slower setting, it may not be as good as it can get yet.
There are lots of tuning guides on the net, here is one I recently saw, just referring to the fork, but still pretty good:
http://enduro-mtb.com/en/back-issue-tune-it-up-front-suspension/
flag kroky777
Posted: Aug 26, 2015 at 4:28 Quote
brianl wrote:
Good to hear you improved it, but if you just randomly picked a slower setting, it may not be as good as it can get yet.
There are lots of tuning guides on the net, here is one I recently saw, just referring to the fork, but still pretty good:
http://enduro-mtb.com/en/back-issue-tune-it-up-front-suspension/

That's great ,thanks . definitely looking to fine tune it as much as I can
flag panaphonic
Posted: Sep 11, 2015 at 0:43 Quote
kroky777 wrote:
brianl wrote:
Good to hear you improved it, but if you just randomly picked a slower setting, it may not be as good as it can get yet.
There are lots of tuning guides on the net, here is one I recently saw, just referring to the fork, but still pretty good:
http://enduro-mtb.com/en/back-issue-tune-it-up-front-suspension/

That's great ,thanks . definitely looking to fine tune it as much as I can

I'd call that an extreme beginner guide. Though I did like it at the end where they discussed the super stiff set-ups of the pros.
flag ctd07
Posted: Sep 13, 2015 at 21:39 Quote
Mrthebob wrote:
Alright thanks guys, I may just send it to push. Im a little frustrated though cause i just bought it from someone on pink bike a few weeks ago and only just rode it on real trails a couple of days ago so i was hoping it would be something i would be able to ride and not have to mess with. Oh well, thanks for the help everyone

Sounds like it might have no or not enough damping oil in it!?
flag gpgalanis
Posted: Sep 13, 2015 at 22:46 Quote
Hi. After many attempts I am still trying to dial my Pike and Monarch Plus Debonair in my Enduro 29. I initially started with a lot of sag in the attack position (around 35%) and then in every ride I kept adding air until I resulted in a much stiffer setup (around 27.5% in both ends) that I seem to prefer because it gives me a much more controlled ride but I don't use all travel (maybe 75%) in my regular rides.

Having heard the "use your full travel at least once in every ride" obviously I should remove some air but this will spoil my preferred setup so I decided not to follow the above rule. After all do you think that it is normal to always use all travel (160mm in my case) in all rides regardless of the type of trails (flowy vs gnarly)?
flag panaphonic
Posted: Sep 13, 2015 at 23:08 Quote
gpgalanis wrote:
Hi. After many attempts I am still trying to dial my Pike and Monarch Plus Debonair in my Enduro 29. I initially started with a lot of sag in the attack position (around 35%) and then in every ride I kept adding air until I resulted in a much stiffer setup (around 27.5% in both ends) that I seem to prefer because it gives me a much more controlled ride but I don't use all travel (maybe 75%) in my regular rides.

Having heard the "use your full travel at least once in every ride" obviously I should remove some air but this will spoil my preferred setup so I decided not to follow the above rule. After all do you think that it is normal to always use all travel (160mm in my case) in all rides regardless of the type of trails (flowy vs gnarly)?

My opinion is that the "use all your travel at least once per ride" is a load of crap. I think it applied back when most people were riding 100mm travel trail bikes.

I've got a Patrol (155/160) and have it currently set up to use about 140mm front and 150mm rear of travel at both ends on a normal ride on my local tracks. I've been experimenting with firmer and softer setups over the past month and have found the softer setup is only very slightly more comfortable and grippy, but the slightly firmer setup is much faster and more fun

However if I do go and ride at different area I know of quite a few features that will use all of my rear travel and will use all but 5mm of front travel.
flag gpgalanis
Posted: Sep 14, 2015 at 0:00 Quote
This is also what I think. Thank you for your feedback.
flag brigand
Posted: Sep 14, 2015 at 11:27 Quote
I'm also on the "stiffer" side of the things on Monarch + and XF Vengeance, the bike is much faster and controled with less sag, i do bottom it out on a drop we have on one of our trails with about 15mm more to go on the fork.
flag brianl
Posted: Sep 14, 2015 at 12:06 Quote
gpgalanis wrote:
Hi. After many attempts I am still trying to dial my Pike and Monarch Plus Debonair in my Enduro 29. I initially started with a lot of sag in the attack position (around 35%) and then in every ride I kept adding air until I resulted in a much stiffer setup (around 27.5% in both ends) that I seem to prefer because it gives me a much more controlled ride but I don't use all travel (maybe 75%) in my regular rides.

Having heard the "use your full travel at least once in every ride" obviously I should remove some air but this will spoil my preferred setup so I decided not to follow the above rule. After all do you think that it is normal to always use all travel (160mm in my case) in all rides regardless of the type of trails (flowy vs gnarly)?
If you like how it rides but only using 75% travel, maybe worth checking for volume spacers that can be removed?

 


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