I’m in the process of buying a Nukeproof Pulse Comp. I know that it comes with stock springs so I know it will be soft for my weight. The forks I can figure out what I need to buy – the xfirm spring.

For the shock though I’m struggling. The stroke is 76mm – 3 inch. In my riding kit I’m weighing in around 110kg. Looking at TFTunded calculator it seems to indicate that I need a spring around 450lb. Is that right? The springs go to around 600lb and I thought I would have been towards the upper end of scale for weights so was expecting to need a heavier spring. What do folks reckon.

Without being captain obvious, the best way to work it out is beg, borrow or steal various weight springs til you find one you’re happy with.

I’ve not got much chance of that unfortunately. None of my riding mates have downhill bikes yet.

I’ve checked both TFTunded and Mojos spring calculators and come up with different numbers – by quite a way. One reckons less than 450lb whilst the other recommends closer to 550lb. Maybe I should go in the middle and get 500lb.

You can usually pick up various springs cheaply on eBay, pinkbike.com etc, occasionally on here. Usually easy to sell on if they’re not right, but a few quid lost getting the right spring is worth it in the long run.