So, some further ponderings on Spitfire set-up. I put a Luftkappe in a few months ago but last week was the first time I went anywhere with a significant amount of rocks. I think I’ve learnt quite a bit about fork set-up (and omfg the arm pump!)
Basically it took me ages to get my 160mm Pike feeling right first time around, and I settled on 15-20% sag, no tokens and middling LSC and rebound. I’d tried everything from 10-30% sag and up to two tokens but this gave me the best midstroke support (I don’t like forks diving) whilst using the travel when I wanted it to – cornering I tend to be forward or centred but when I hit rough stuff I usually ride more off the back so I’m not that hard on the fork on a full-sus.
The Luftkappe kind of threw me because it made the fork so plush at the start of the travel and I couldn’t get used to it sitting so far sagged (even though it holds up once you’re riding) so over the past weeks I’ve pumped it up more and more – and then I rode Afan with too much pressure in it and my hands/arms hurt (and I only used about 80mm of the travel!) I can’t remember where the sag was, maybe 15%? It’s now at 150mm travel btw.
I dropped the pressure the next day at BMCC (go there, it’s awesome!) and then again at BPW on the final day, but by noon my arms were suffering from the cumulative battering. It was feeling pretty good by then but I came away thinking that with the Luftkappe I could approach things differently.
I went from 160 to 150mm travel to lower the BB and steepen the seat angle (the head angle is stupid slack because it has a -2 deg headset). I remember my LBS saying why don’t I just run the 160 with more sag but I explained I didn’t like it feeling soggy and plungey – with more than 20% sag that’s what normal Pikes seem to do under me.
My room mate on the trip also has a Pike and is a similar weight to me (a bit lighter but goes bigger) so they’re set up similarly. Side by side it’s very obvious that it takes a shove to get his moving but then it’s pretty soft until well into the travel. Mine is very soft at the start and then gets pretty firm feeling much sooner. So that’s the Luftkappe difference.
So instead of running my 150mm Pike at 20% sag, why don’t I run it at 160mm and 25% sag – that gives the exact same sagged geometry but gives me a bit more negative and positive travel to handle the gnar and lets me run it a bit softer so I can use more of the fork. I can then use more LSC when riding locally and plushness is less important than pumping and run the fork more open when hitting the rocks.
I rode Afan in the neutral dropout position and that worked great – those techy rocky climbs need some pedal clearance and it’s not that steep or fast. Dropped it to slack a few uplifts in at BMCC and w00t! proper awesome mini DH bike.
