Kona Process 153 forum

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flag ktm48
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 5:51 Quote
Thanks guys, I need all this info too! I'm around 183 so you and I might be pretty close
flag buddymtb
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 11:02 Quote
buddymtb wrote:
eshew wrote:
You guys have any recommendations on where to start with pressure? I've got a 153 CR 29 headed my way & was curious if you all have a favorite PSI for the Super Deluxe? I'm roughly 175 lbs.

Hoping this bike will be as fun as the other 10 or so kona's I've owned.

Don't know specific pressures for your weight but I have settled on 30% sag on the rear shock with the redound almost all the way open. I am running 25% sag on the lyric fork with rebound 4 clicks from fully open. These sag and rebound settings are perfect form my riding style and weight. I am 205 lbs in my full kit.

Wanted to add that for my weight at 205 in my full kit, I am running 180 psi in the shock with 2 tokens and 100 psi in the fork.
flag sham8723
O+
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 16:47 Quote
ebrooker wrote:
buddymtb wrote:
How are you liking the performance of the MegNeg compared to the standard rockshox suerdeluxe? Being thinking of doing the same thing. How did it effect the climbing performance.

The problem I was trying to solve was either bottoming out all the time while around ~30% sag, or having the upper part of the stroke be harsh with the air pressure high enough that i wasn't smacking against the bottom all the time.

I went with the MegNeg specifically because the leverage curve for the process isn't particularly progressive, and the air can makes the shock ramp up more in the middle of the stroke, and much more at the end of the stroke (compared to using volume spacers)

I think it's a big improvement. I'll admit that I haven't done a full test bracket for the best combination of negative and positive volume spacers. I'm currently running it with 1 positive volume spacer. I've tried it with no spacers and felt I wanted more support. I should probably try some other combinations as well.

Climbing performance is roughly the same (I typically always climb with the climb switch on), possibly a little more active than the stock can, but I haven't done any back to back testing to confirm that for sure.

Sram recommends ~20% more air pressure with the MegNeg, so keep that in mind if you're nearing max pressure. Here's an example curve from the service manual, confusingly they don't have an english version of the MegNeg service manual, really wish they'd stop removing old resources (or current ones in this case) from their website

Also, the MegNeg kit comes with all the negative volume spacers you need plus 2 sets of seals


MegNeg Aircan Curve

Hey, are you using the megneg on the new Process series (2018 and greater)? 27.5 or 29?
How is it going, are you still using it and would you recommend it?
flag ktm48
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 18:37 Quote
Oh man, you guys are confusing me! I'm procrastinate when it comes to learning suspension. Rode mx with my friend today and we were just talking about this!
flag ebrooker
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 19:07 Quote
sham8723 wrote:
Hey, are you using the megneg on the new Process series (2018 and greater)? 27.5 or 29?
How is it going, are you still using it and would you recommend it?

I’ve got an XL 2019 Process 153 CR 29.

Yes still using the MegNeg. I like it a lot, don’t think I’ve got it dialed yet though. I’d recommend it. Still haven’t played with the negative spacers, might be time to. I ran into one of the RockShox product managers on LOTS in Whistler and bugged him about the English megneg manual, so that’s now available on the SRAM service website.

I’m 185-190lbs with gear, I run 190-195psi with one positive spacer. Rebound 2 or 3 clicks from closed depending on the terrain. 2 or 3 clicks from open of LSC. Don’t use my settings though. Set your pressure based on ~30% sag as a starting point and then ride and adjust.

If you read my previous posts, you’ll see that I’ve been messing with my process a lot. Probably time to give an update for anyone who is interested.

I’m running the Lyrik at 170mm and a -2 degree works angleset, ends up being ~63.99 degree head angle by my calcs assuming the same diameter tires.

I’m very happy with the shape of the bike now, much better than stock. It is an aggressive setup though, it demands that you stay forward otherwise you lose front tire grip. Haven’t been thrilled with the fork lately, I was having trouble getting the rebound fast enough, a damper bleed helped, but it may require more work. Doesn’t help that the weather has been getting colder.

My 210mm oneup dropper arrived today, it fits fully slammed in an XL frame for anyone who might want the same.

I’ve been having some weird rear brake resonance, not sure what’s going on, it’s not the brakes themselves, seems to be something to do with the frame or wheel. I have new pivot bearings on order, hopefully that sorts it out.
flag sham8723
O+
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 19:14 Quote
ebrooker wrote:
sham8723 wrote:
Hey, are you using the megneg on the new Process series (2018 and greater)? 27.5 or 29?
How is it going, are you still using it and would you recommend it?

I’ve got an XL 2019 Process 153 CR 29.

Yes still using the MegNeg. I like it a lot, don’t think I’ve got it dialed yet though. I’d recommend it. Still haven’t played with the negative spacers, might be time to. I ran into one of the RockShox product managers on LOTS in Whistler and bugged him about the English megneg manual, so that’s now available on the SRAM service website.

I’m 185-190lbs with gear, I run 190-195psi with one positive spacer. Rebound 2 or 3 clicks from closed depending on the terrain. 2 or 3 clicks from open of LSC. Don’t use my settings though. Set your pressure based on ~30% sag as a starting point and then ride and adjust.

If you read my previous posts, you’ll see that I’ve been messing with my process a lot. Probably time to give an update for anyone who is interested.

I’m running the Lyrik at 170mm and a -2 degree works angleset, ends up being ~63.99 degree head angle by my calcs assuming the same diameter tires.

I’m very happy with the shape of the bike now, much better than stock. It is an aggressive setup though, it demands that you stay forward otherwise you lose front tire grip. Haven’t been thrilled with the fork lately, I was having trouble getting the rebound fast enough, a damper bleed helped, but it may require more work. Doesn’t help that the weather has been getting colder.

My 210mm oneup dropper arrived today, it fits fully slammed in an XL frame for anyone who might want the same.

I’ve been having some weird rear brake resonance, not sure what’s going on, it’s not the brakes themselves, seems to be something to do with the frame or wheel. I have new pivot bearings on order, hopefully that sorts it out.

Maybe to get the rebound faster, you could remove a whole or half bottomless token, and add a few psi to firm up the initial stroke? The initial stroke is so soft on the new debonair.... sometimes it seems a little too lethargic to react... of course the middle of the travel is super active.

I'm currently on a 2018 Cr 27.5 with a short offset 170mm fork and a works components -1.0. I have a Marz bomber CR coil shock but want to go back to air (or just own both). I'm looking to make the switch to wagon wheels though and will probably have the same setup in 29er only with an air shock... and idk maybe stay at 160mm on the fork, we'll see.
flag ebrooker
Posted: Oct 9, 2019 at 19:21 Quote
sham8723 wrote:

Maybe to get the rebound faster, you could remove a whole or half bottomless token, and add a few psi to firm up the initial stroke? The initial stroke is so soft on the new debonair.... sometimes it seems a little too lethargic to react... of course the middle of the travel is super active.

Ya, that’s what my plan is for next ride. Took the last token out and upped the pressure. It wasn’t packing up, it was just glued to the ground, which was fine until I tried to lift the front wheel and it didn’t want to lift.

I think that the bike benefits from the longer front end, I really wish I could buy Connor Fearon’s custom chain stay setup with the operator drop outs to balance the back out. I considered the reduced offset, but i didn’t want to bring the wheel back towards me. How do you find it?
flag sham8723
O+
Posted: Oct 11, 2019 at 11:42 Quote
ebrooker wrote:
sham8723 wrote:

Maybe to get the rebound faster, you could remove a whole or half bottomless token, and add a few psi to firm up the initial stroke? The initial stroke is so soft on the new debonair.... sometimes it seems a little too lethargic to react... of course the middle of the travel is super active.

Ya, that’s what my plan is for next ride. Took the last token out and upped the pressure. It wasn’t packing up, it was just glued to the ground, which was fine until I tried to lift the front wheel and it didn’t want to lift.

I think that the bike benefits from the longer front end, I really wish I could buy Connor Fearon’s custom chain stay setup with the operator drop outs to balance the back out. I considered the reduced offset, but i didn’t want to bring the wheel back towards me. How do you find it?

Just google "rockshox lyrik upper CSU" and you can find some short uppers.
Or.... if you have a pair of standard (boost) offset uppers in your garage for 27.5 they will be short for 29"
Or... check on pinkbike and see if someone is trying to sell their 27.5 standard offset uppers after switching to short offset.... and run them as short offset in your 29er..... you just have to make sure that the width (boost, non-boost) is the same. Short uppers on a 29 are (I think) 42mm... and standard on a 27.5 are 46mm, whereas standard on a 29 is 51... so either 42 or 46 are options for shortening the offset.

As far as bringing the front wheel back... to me, by slackening the HTA and putting the fork out to 170mm, I brought the front wheel out..... and then had room to bring it back closer to stock with the short offset. You may like it way out front and not want to sacrifice that extra front center to calm the steering... but to me, short offset gives me some "slack" type advantages without the associated disadvantages, so I was fine with it.... plus the bike rides intuitively enough that I can body position my way to success even if i'm not raked out / wheel forward.

One big factor for me was sag.... with the Kona, if i'm less than 30% sag, I feel the geo change... sounds crazy but my bike depends on that correct sag to put the handlebars into my hands, have a decently low BB, and put that front wheel ... out front.

Another thing you can do too (and this is getting out there in nerdville...) is put grease in the hollow cup of the negative air chamber of your debonair air spring... which will reduce the negative chamber slightly (but still no where near the original lyrik air spring) and this will give you a tiny bit of firmness in the initial stroke, a tiny bit less midstroke, a tiny bit less ramp up.... which could give you the low speed rebound characteristics you're looking for (maybe).

The real problem though, is not the size of the negative air chamber...... it's the position of the equalization dimple.... you have to press down slightly to reach it... so when you equalize, you're not getting equal pressures, you're pressurizing the negative slightly, relative to the positive... that's why it sucks down some of the initial travel (you listening, rockshox?)
flag ebrooker
Posted: Oct 11, 2019 at 13:39 Quote
sham8723 wrote:
Just google "rockshox lyrik upper CSU" and you can find some short uppers.
Or.... if you have a pair of standard (boost) offset uppers in your garage for 27.5 they will be short for 29"
Or... check on pinkbike and see if someone is trying to sell their 27.5 standard offset uppers after switching to short offset.... and run them as short offset in your 29er..... you just have to make sure that the width (boost, non-boost) is the same. Short uppers on a 29 are (I think) 42mm... and standard on a 27.5 are 46mm, whereas standard on a 29 is 51... so either 42 or 46 are options for shortening the offset.

As far as bringing the front wheel back... to me, by slackening the HTA and putting the fork out to 170mm, I brought the front wheel out..... and then had room to bring it back closer to stock with the short offset. You may like it way out front and not want to sacrifice that extra front center to calm the steering... but to me, short offset gives me some "slack" type advantages without the associated disadvantages, so I was fine with it.... plus the bike rides intuitively enough that I can body position my way to success even if i'm not raked out / wheel forward.

One big factor for me was sag.... with the Kona, if i'm less than 30% sag, I feel the geo change... sounds crazy but my bike depends on that correct sag to put the handlebars into my hands, have a decently low BB, and put that front wheel ... out front.

Another thing you can do too (and this is getting out there in nerdville...) is put grease in the hollow cup of the negative air chamber of your debonair air spring... which will reduce the negative chamber slightly (but still no where near the original lyrik air spring) and this will give you a tiny bit of firmness in the initial stroke, a tiny bit less midstroke, a tiny bit less ramp up.... which could give you the low speed rebound characteristics you're looking for (maybe).

The real problem though, is not the size of the negative air chamber...... it's the position of the equalization dimple.... you have to press down slightly to reach it... so when you equalize, you're not getting equal pressures, you're pressurizing the negative slightly, relative to the positive... that's why it sucks down some of the initial travel (you listening, rockshox?)

Lol, I should have been more clear, I was asking how the shorter offset performed on the trail, not asking how to go about acquiring them.

I would definitely want to do back to back testing with shorter offsets if I had them available, but currently the cost isn't worth it for me.

I'm not really in favour of using grease as a negative volume spacer, difficult to control, and I'm not really looking to lose the nice initial stroke.

As far as the equalization goes, the pressures do equalize. You just don't get equal spring force (at the dimple) because the piston area in the negative chamber is smaller. The spring system then returns to its an equilibrium position where the net force is zero when unweighted.

You lose travel because your bike has mass which compresses the fork, its a feature, not a bug.
flag jshad315
Posted: Oct 11, 2019 at 15:08 Quote
Anyone running a 170mm dropper in a medium 27.5 Process 153cr/dl? I am ordering my 2020 frame today and was curious about this! I know that different brands have different insertion lengths. Just wondering if anyone has tried this yet. Thanks ahead of time.
flag sham8723
O+
Posted: Oct 12, 2019 at 18:24 Quote
ebrooker wrote:
sham8723 wrote:
Just google "rockshox lyrik upper CSU" and you can find some short uppers.
Or.... if you have a pair of standard (boost) offset uppers in your garage for 27.5 they will be short for 29"
Or... check on pinkbike and see if someone is trying to sell their 27.5 standard offset uppers after switching to short offset.... and run them as short offset in your 29er..... you just have to make sure that the width (boost, non-boost) is the same. Short uppers on a 29 are (I think) 42mm... and standard on a 27.5 are 46mm, whereas standard on a 29 is 51... so either 42 or 46 are options for shortening the offset.

As far as bringing the front wheel back... to me, by slackening the HTA and putting the fork out to 170mm, I brought the front wheel out..... and then had room to bring it back closer to stock with the short offset. You may like it way out front and not want to sacrifice that extra front center to calm the steering... but to me, short offset gives me some "slack" type advantages without the associated disadvantages, so I was fine with it.... plus the bike rides intuitively enough that I can body position my way to success even if i'm not raked out / wheel forward.

One big factor for me was sag.... with the Kona, if i'm less than 30% sag, I feel the geo change... sounds crazy but my bike depends on that correct sag to put the handlebars into my hands, have a decently low BB, and put that front wheel ... out front.

Another thing you can do too (and this is getting out there in nerdville...) is put grease in the hollow cup of the negative air chamber of your debonair air spring... which will reduce the negative chamber slightly (but still no where near the original lyrik air spring) and this will give you a tiny bit of firmness in the initial stroke, a tiny bit less midstroke, a tiny bit less ramp up.... which could give you the low speed rebound characteristics you're looking for (maybe).

The real problem though, is not the size of the negative air chamber...... it's the position of the equalization dimple.... you have to press down slightly to reach it... so when you equalize, you're not getting equal pressures, you're pressurizing the negative slightly, relative to the positive... that's why it sucks down some of the initial travel (you listening, rockshox?)

Lol, I should have been more clear, I was asking how the shorter offset performed on the trail, not asking how to go about acquiring them.

I would definitely want to do back to back testing with shorter offsets if I had them available, but currently the cost isn't worth it for me.

I'm not really in favour of using grease as a negative volume spacer, difficult to control, and I'm not really looking to lose the nice initial stroke.

As far as the equalization goes, the pressures do equalize. You just don't get equal spring force (at the dimple) because the piston area in the negative chamber is smaller. The spring system then returns to its an equilibrium position where the net force is zero when unweighted.

You lose travel because your bike has mass which compresses the fork, its a feature, not a bug.

Sure, it goes to equilibrium when you let go... but that equilibrium happens at like 5-7mm of travel, rendering some initial travel useless. I'm not talking about bike mass, I mean you literally have to pull on the fork to extend it fully because of that slight pressurization, and then you're riding in the midstroke praising how soft the initial stroke is (so soft you're not even using it while riding).... you wouldn't lose softness by moving the dimple, the softness would just occur at an earlier place and you'd have more useable stroke. The way it is looks great in the parking lot... but the soft feel that you're feeling isn't the dead beginning stroke, it's like 1/3 of of the way into the travel... then you're losing static and dynamic ride height.

On short offset, short answer, I love it and don't want to go back... but I ride technical DH. It only shines when it shines, If I don't ride difficult stuff that tries to knock me offline then it's not a big advantage. I do prefer the way the wheel tracks and stays weighted. It's not worth $360 though.
flag aaronglenn
Posted: Oct 18, 2019 at 1:58 Quote
ktm48 wrote:
Hi All,

I just ordered a brand new 2018 Process 153 CR today. I've been reading alot about enduro bikes and it just seemed like such a great deal, I said F it and pulled the trigger. I hope this bike turns out to be what I'm looking for!

Not much of a mountain biker, but I started doing DH last year and I love it. Figured I'd start riding some trails too. My DH bike does not want to do it. I'm hoping that I like this process enough to sell the downhill bike. Would much rather have 1 bike that does it all.

Bought mine this year, 153AL 2020 version and i really enjoyed it especially with the Jumps, Technical Section, Etc. It is very playful and confident inspiring bike..

Congratulations on your new rig
flag rahrider
O+
Posted: Oct 19, 2019 at 0:19 Quote
I realize this is a 153 thread. I'm looking at a 153 vs 134 in 29er carbon. Wondering if anyone has ridden both. The geo looks very similar. The Wheelbase is within 2mm of each other. The chainstays are 2mm shorter on the 153. Anyone know what the actual weight saving is? Anyone actually ride both, I'm wondering if there is much point to the 134?
flag patch92
Posted: Oct 19, 2019 at 14:47 Quote
Hey guys. Brand new kona process 153 cr 29 owner here.
Got a question / concern for y’all. I have about 20 miles on the bike. And the shock linkage is already popping and creaking. Is this a common theme on these bikes? Or should I already be concerned? Thanks guys.
flag bkchef2000
O+
Posted: Oct 19, 2019 at 15:09 Quote
I thought the same thing on my aluminum one, turns out it was a combo of my direct mount chainring and raceface bb....

 


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