djjohnr

@ajdriscoll: rebound damping is handled by the damper, not the spring. The resistance the damper provides is based on the force of the spring at any given moment, i.e. the higher the spring rate (aka the deeper you are in the travel) the higher the resistance). In theory maybe a coil fork would feel more consistent through rebound since the springs force rate of change is constant, but in practice I've never really felt/noticed that. Long story short, the shitty rebound characteristics you encountered weren't because it was a coil fork.

@adrennan: Yeah, there are several ways to tackle the problem.

@ajdriscoll: There are a few inherent differences between air and coil: - An air spring requires additional seals. Seals = more drag, which equates to more feedback at the handlebars. It's most obvious on small bumps but it's exists on all impacts. This also means you need to break down your fork and grease the seals regularly to keep it feeling as good as possible. - An air spring acts differently at different temperatures, so over a rough descent it can get stiffer as the air heats up. - A coil spring has a linear rate, where-ever you are in the travel the increase in force to move the next increment stays the same until the coils run out of room to compress. An air spring on the other hand requires a high level of force at the beginning of travel, then drops down a lot at the mid-stroke, then ramps up at the end. That's the nature of an air spring. You can design a linkage to offset that to give you a mostly linear progression that's close to a coil shock. However as our forks are telescoping you're stuck with the air springs natural characteristics. The biggest downside for air is that you can either tune it for small bump sensitivity and you'll have a less supportive mid-stroke, or you can tune it for a supportive mid-stroke and you'll have harsh small bump. Conversely with a coil fork you'll have a more supportive mid-stroke, but you don't have the same end-stroke ramp you get with an air fork, so you may wind up running a higher spring rate than you'd prefer; however, the Push system basically puts an air spring at the last 1/3 of travel to manage this, theoretically giving you the best of both worlds. None of this is exclusive to DH, it's all applicable to trail riding as well.

Sweet! Since it sounds like the spring perches are travel specific, how much for additional perches (I sometimes change travel +/- 10mm).

@mikelevy, where is it better/worse than a Magic Mary?

Every person I've actually seen on the trail with an e-bike has been older (not that I'm super young at 40). The other day I saw an older guy, probably in his late 50s, a bit over-weight out riding with his son. Dad was on an e-bike, son was a ripper grom on an AM bike. Without that e-bike that experience probably wouldn't have happened for them. Access is going to be problem, but I don't think my ideas of what is/isn't mountain biking should have any bearing on what anyone else can/can't do.