Having (nearly) decided on a new orange five I’m having trouble on deciding which shock to go for….

Forks will be 2018 pikes but how do I know which rear shock will complement the forks/rest of bike?

I understand that if one knows how to tune and setup suspension you could probably get most things to feel right BUT err… I dont know much about suspension setup

any tips? thanks, andy

Learn how to set them up a bit, matching a shock brand and not being able to set it up won’t improve things. Know plenty of people who have mixed and it works great. Get the best option for both ends regardless of the brand. For a 5 that is a shock that works well on Single Pivots with their leverage rate.

Thanks mikewsmith
looks like orange dont sell frame without shock, so options would be:

RockShox Monarch DB RT3

Fox Float DPS EVol Factory Kashima

Fox Float X EVol Factory Kashima

just go for the float x and spend time on setup? I’m guessing that all three of the above shocks work with the leverage rate of the five’s single pivot??

thanks again

It won’t matter if they don’t match. Set up your sag and make sure you don’t just put in what pressure the manufacturer says is correct for your weight, actually measure it, 25-30% is the usual ballpark.

Then it depends what adjustments you have on your shock, I like to buy forks with at least low speed compression adjustment, pretty much everything has rebound adjustment. Adjust your low speed compression to dial out brake dive, set up your rebound so everything feels balanced.

That’s enough for most people. If you want to adjust things more you can add tokens into your fork and shock to adjust how the fork & shock deal with big drops/jump where they go deep into the shock.

You can go back to adjusting the pressure after all of this, some people like the fork to sag less if you’re riding a lot of steep terrain, some people like a lot of sag which can help the bike ‘stick’ to the trail more, I like a firmer ride as I feel it makes it easier to pump and jump when the bike gives you a lot of feedback, but things can get hairy in fast rocky terrain! Different bikes work better/worse in different sag ranges too, so it completely depends on the bike, rider & shocks. Experiment 😀

I can recomemd the float x on the five. The basic setup is easy and I havent deviated much from what fox recommends. Just a little bit more air in the shock.