Scout Suspension Setup & Review (Vorsprung Corset, Fox & RS)

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Scout Suspension Setup & Review (Vorsprung Corset, Fox & RS)
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flag crazbiker4
Posted: Jun 2, 2017 at 12:28 Quote
As the title says, this is a setup & review of the Corset, Fox Float X and RS on the Scout.

I have been riding the Scout since the early summer 2015 and have become very familiar with the bike. I love this bike as it works very well for the type of riding I do. Originally I was set on a Patrol but when they were first released they were out of stock which was disappointing for me. However, I went back to the drawing board and looked into the Scout a little further. I thought the rear did not have enough suspension and I needed more ect..... But the Geo stacked up perfectly with the bike I was currently on... The Bottle Rocket! The BR was a sick bike no doubt about it and I am still impressed when I take a rip on it. I then thought well maybe the Scout is for me since it will probably pedal a little better and be overall better for trail riding. Once I took the first ride there was no looking back and I am still happy with this bike!

Anyways, back to the main subject of this post.

The one thing that was fine during my first month or 2 of riding the Scout was the rear shock. Then the performance seemed to decline fast, which was mainly due to it needing an air sleeve service. After I did the service it went back to normal and I went on my way. The following year the performance seemed to decline quicker and quicker. And then on a few rides the positive air seemed to have leaked into the neg chamber and my shock got stuck down. The first time I was able to put my foot on the lower chainstay and lift up on the main frame and get the POS/NEG springs to equalize. But there was one time I had to release the air by popping off the debon air can. Kinda annoying when you are trying to get in a ride before work ride at 6am....

I always thought the RS felt a little notchy when pushing through the shock and the POS/NEG spring equalizing. With other shocks I did not have this issue. So all of this sent me on the hunt for a new shock. I was mainly looking for a Fox Float X to match my fork.

My Stats are 187lbs loaded up and 5'8 tall.

Just to quickly talk about my tune on the RS
- 3 volume bands
- 200psi
- sag 30-33%
- stock Transition tune (not sure the compression/rebound shim stack settings.... maybe someone can help because I do not know what the tune sticker means other than the color.)

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After some searching this spring(2017) I found a new Float X in the 7.5x2in size (190x51). Checked the tune (CG5F) and it was med tune for compression, rebound and the climb switch See below:

2014, FLOAT X F-S, CTD-Adj-K, Fox, Eng, 7.500, 2.000, 0.6 Spacer, CM, RM, Climb M

The shock also had a 0.6 spacer in it which I left in when attaching the fox without the corset. I did want a firm climb for fire roads but the med is actually pretty firm and will work great.

Once I got the Float X shock all mounted up, I set the sag:

-0.6 volume spacer
-175psi
-30% sag

You will notice that the air pressure it significantly lower than the RS, which I believe this is due to the smaller neg spring side over the RS.

First thing I noticed how plush the new shock was over the RS. Did not feel notchy when pushing through the travel and just felt super plush. Small bump compliance was really good! Being so plush it did however blow through the travel quickly and lacked the mid-range support that the RS had. This did impact pedaling as there was a slight quiver over the RS. I for the most part ride in the open mode so this was a little bothersome. The next issue I had was the the rear seemed to be softer then the front and the bike was unbalanced, I like my bikes to feel balanced between the front and rear. For me balance is key for setting up a bike, when balanced the bike corners, pedals and just carries itself better. I know some people prefer softer rear for going down and I am not sure who would want a softer front as to me that would make the bike push the front more and feel less lively. But this is all my personal pref so you will have to setup the bike your way.

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Since I was not completely happy with the new Float X I set out to find a solution. Since it did not come with the EVOL air can, I looked into getting one but I had read some reviews in the past about the Corset from Vorsprung Suspension and decided to look more into it.

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Based on the nice graphs they provide about the product you can see the difference between the 2 fox air sleeves and the Corset.

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https://vorsprungsuspension.com/blogs/news/should-i-buy-a-corset-if-i-already-have-an-evol-sleeve

The issue I was trying to solve was the soft mid-range stroke because it caused the bike to bob and blow through that portion of the travel too quickly. Yes I could have added a bigger volume spacer but that only controls the ramp up and has no effect on the sag and mid-range.

Looking at the graph in the link above you will see on the second one down how much more support it has. This was exactly was I was looking for. I think on air shocks the NEG spring design is very important. It helps the tip in or break away force and can make the shock feel more linear to get them closer to a spring like feel.

I went ahead and purchased a Corset and volume spacer kit in case I needed a little more progressiveness in the end stroke. After about a week the Corset arrived in one piece and I installed it right away! I left the 0.6 volume spacer in even though Vorsprung says you will probably not need it, but I wanted to experiment.
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It looked great on the bike as well!!
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After installed on the bike I filled up the shock to 150psi and equalized the chambers. Did this process up to 200psi. At 200psi I was still under sprung but the shock felt super solid... maybe too solid! After getting the sag set, I was at 260psi and it was super solid and it was worse then the fox sleeve for how solid it was. Defiantly super progressive in the end stroke. So I popped out the 0.6 volume spacer and stuck in the smallest one in the Vorsprung kit (not sure of the volume)

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After the change I set the sag again and noticed that i had too much air in the shock as i was at 30% not 33% (Transition recommendation). The difference here is 15.3mm (30%) and 16.8mm(33%) or 1.5mm difference. For air pressure this is like 5-10psi so somewhat significant. So it is set at 255psi with the smaller volume spacer.

This setup felt a ton better so i rode it a bit to confirm the overall ride. I found that the small volume spacer to be too much for achieving close to full travel. In the photos below you can see where my sag rings are after a hard ride. During the ride I even cased a double and still did not get full travel.

Quickly I want to give the setup of my fork... Fox 36 140mm set to 85psi and 2 orange volume spacers. I cannot remember my HSC/LSC settings but I am running around 1/2 way on the LSC dial and maybe 2-4 clicks of HSC. You can see I am getting about all the travel after this ride.

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So to counter the result above I took out the small volume spacer and added nothing in the rear, in the front I added a couple PSI (87psi). Went back on a few rides and the result is great! The front and rear feel very balanced and I am getting about all the travel. One thing I want to say about getting all the travel is that I hitting G-outs, jumps drops ect to make sure I can ride many average trail features and be able to keep the same tune. I try to get to about max travel but i like a tad of insurance.

I took the photos below after a couple rides to show the setup differences and how my sag rigs look after a ride.

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The bottom out point on the rear is about 1/3 way on the Kashima print and on the for the front, the bottom out is just above the kashima print. On the fork that sag ring is a little further from bottom out but previous rides I was about mid-way on the Kashima print so I will leave it as the bike feel balanced.

Overall I am very satisfied with the Corset. It does exactly what they say it does. The tip in force on the rear shock is way lower than any air shock I have ever ridden to the point where if you pick up the back end of the bike and drop it on its own weight you can see the shock compress. I have only seen spring shocks do this. The mid-range is way more supportive and the bike pedals great. There is plenty of ramp up with no volume spacers, however if I find i need one in the future i will probably drill out the small one in order to reduce its volume a bit. Square edge hits are good but not the best because like said above the mid-range is more supportive. However over consecutive hits (root beds and such) it feels great. This is from the Corset being linear through the stroke.

I hope this helps anyone out looking to change out their shock!
flag leman2112
Posted: Sep 13, 2019 at 5:19 Quote
Hell yeah bro ! Good to know! May try this on my new used scout coming in the mail!

 


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