at the risk of making a fat fool of myself – I’m trying to understand fork setup…

the fork – 2006 F100RL. Std Q/R
the rider – circa 16.5 st riding weight
(the bike, just incase…) 2006 Fisher Zigguratt, light and ‘race’ oriented. had I asked, team STW would likely not have recommended I bought it back then – though I’ve not killed it yet – including the skinny ‘carbon tubes boned to alu from end’ frame… 😉
the riding – cross country, largely in and around Marsden W. Yorks. Wheels on ground, avoiding steep drops kind of stuff..

the Q – looking to get a correct set-up / try to understand how a correctly set-up fork should perform (though I know that’s guided by personal preference) currently at 85 PSI, sag is 25+ mm, rebound adjust is just on the ‘fast’ side of the half way point of adjustment.

Pressure up from previous 80psi and rebound set slightly faster than before to try and manage the diving feeling under braking / rolling off small steps… which really troubles me on steeper drops.
Net result – going slow – fork definately ‘bucks’ up over the bumps. However at speed, feels pretty good – I’m stood, guess weight is a little forward and all appears to work well…

So, suggestions to lose weight and work on my ‘steep bits’ confidence notwithstanding, am I
a. worrying over nowt – just get out and ride
b. as ‘a’ but, actually MM, even at your target riding weight of around 15 stone, coil forks might be a good choice.
c. Tyres and valves need lining up
d. Keep saving for the Cotic or similar – a longer coil fork and slacker angles may help achieve a happy balance of cross country munching, more relaxed descending fun….
e. oh – what about sending ’em in for a service and advising the nice folks a xxxxx tuning how lardy you are and asking them to tune accordingly
f. any other thoughts?

Ta.

answer a I think… follwed by d.
I run mine at 70PSI rebound in the middle & I’m 95kg.
Brakes off brains out with your bum way back for question f

Sorry Why aren’t you adding more rebound damping?

As I understand it less rebound won’t reduce dive, although it will make it quicker to recover after the dive

I don’t know you but I’m wondering if all the usual stuff like heals dropped etc. might make you fell less worried about the diving

A longer travel coil sprung forks could make all this far worse so don’t spend any money until your sure about what you want

cookies – ta!

cheers, ampthill – think that’s me getting my interpretation of damping + adjustment wrong.
I think what i have done is to reduce the damping i.e fork recovers quicker – as above, perhaps feeling a little to quick when seated and slow.

Heals down etc – good point – will try and check if I do that..
After over 35+ years of riding, maybe a skills day with the likes of Ed-O will help identify / correct longstanding bad practice!

If the fork has its standard oil in there it will be under damped and over active for your weight.

You can adjust slow speed rebound with the dial, but low speed compression, high speed compression and high speed rebound damping will likely be too low for you.

Change the oil a higher weight and it will almost certainly be better.

They mayu well feel divey under braking etc, you are heavier than they were designed for. Easy improvement is to put heavier weight oil in the fork, which slows down the rate they will compress and rebound. I cant remember what Fox use but its generally easily done as an normal oil service, you just use heavier weight oil than recommended. Im 15stone and nearly always change the oil weight straight away.

glenh – cheers! had been pondering if a service / ‘tune’ could be in order

scruff –

you are heavier than they were designed for

LOL – arguably true – I recall i was towards the bottom of the list when I first read though the ‘rider weight / recomended pressure’ chart in the manual 😳 However, the weight is coming off, though i’ll never be sylph like… !