Any advice for a technical numpty on autosag settings.

When I bought my camber evo I set the suspension up manually and everything was hunky-dory. No pedal strikes, all felt good. But was a bit lazy about checking suspension – largely due to the fact that I lost my shock pump 😳

Bought a new one recently and checked the front 😳 a bit down and then decided to go with autosag for the rear. First couple of rides it felt a bit harsh – almost like a HT again – so let some out of the rear shock. But only a tiny amount while riding at Swinley. Just with my finger in the red bit (tech term there!)

Then today I was riding round Surrey Hills and was getting several pedal strikes, one which almost had me off. Also noticed that I am going though both suspensions a lot, even when climbing???

So I assume that I have let too much out of the rear shock – excuse the stupid question, but would that be correct? If so, I assume again that the solution would be to add a few more psi on top of autosag setting. Again does that make sense?

I am not a racing whippet if that makes any difference.

Excuse any bad use of terminology – tech stuff is not my forte.

Anyone got quick suggestions?

Reading this before a hot bath!

https://media.specialized.com/support/0000040894/0000040894.pdf

If you connect the pump up after setting the autosag you can find out what pressure that gives (it’ll be a bit lower because it’ll take some air to pressurise the pump). You can then let some air out using the bleed valve in the pump – just try 5% less for starters. It doesn’t take much to make a noticeable difference.

Thanks chief – so less not more? I imagined it would be the other way round?

You are correct about the difference – if I had demoed the bike with today’s set up, I would have hated it!!

I found that my stumpjumper really only worked well with a volume spacer in the rear shock. Prior to that, if I set the shock up so it used all the travel, I got constant pedal strikes. With a spacer, I can run the shock soft enough to get proper sensitivity, but not bottom out too quickly. It also stopped most of the constant pedal strikes.

Btw- I’m most definitely a ‘larger’ person too.

Camber Evo has quite a low bottom bracket, auto sag was quite a way off for me, attach the pump, flick the compression lever to open, sit on the bike and aim for about 25% sag with the o ring. Add/remove air to adjust, sit back on it and check. I still bang pedals on mine although I do run large flat ones. Volume spacer good idea as mentioned above,I might try and get one

Never managed to set any of ours up using auto sag. As above set to around 25% sag with my pack and a half filled Camelback bladder.
Best thing we did was buy a digital shock pump, didn’t realise how far out the others were, especially when setting the front up and wanting to run minimum pressures.

2015 camber evo here

Pedal strikes are par for the course ime as mentioned above it has a very low bb.
I tend to run it in trail moat of the time with descend kept for the higher speed lumpier stuff where I don’t pedal so much.

I’m 100kg and finding the auto sag ok on that basis.

It’s off for a service at TF next week so no doubt I will get a call or bit of paper with some good advice on setup then.

If I remember I’ll post back here.

Thx. Oddly no pedal strike issues until I fiddled with set up recently

…so let some out of the rear shock. But only a tiny amount while riding at Swinley. Just with my finger in the red bit

You would be amazed how much pressure that lets out – there’s only a tiny amount of air in the shock to start with.

Also checking sag with the pump attached is probably inaccurate in most cases – the pump massively increases the air reservoir.

I found that I blew through the travel too easily with autosag when I first got my 2016 Stumpjumper and found that it seems to set it up around 30% sag, so upped it to 25%, but it then didn’t feel as plush. I added a volume spacer. It then worked much better with the autosag

that’s a good point

Some shorter cranks would allow more sag and maintain the low bottom bracket ‘shape’ of the bike, while reducing pedal strikes.

I found I just adapted my riding style a bit and don’t get them so much now.
I try either put a little burst in before an obstacle or ratchet the pedals.

You would be amazed how much pressure that lets out – there’s only a tiny amount of air in the shock to start with.

So I found out – think I went to about 60% sag.

Had a bit of a nightmare with the shock pump and autosag settings today, so a wee trip down to LBS for a quick tutorial!!

Getting there, except for new bloke in LBS planting the idea of specialist shock service and new front forks eventually. Never realised that reva’s were that bad!!

The Evo is a great bike for the price, the price comes from cutting a few corners vs ££££ bikes. Slants are great value vs price imo.

Sag is easy to set (initially) using the rubber ring and a wall. As you have learnt putting air in and out is best done with the pump. I am no expert as you well know, I generally can’t tell which mode the shock is in 😳

I know the theory!

First numpty boob was the black cap wouldnt come off. Even with a bit of WD40. Needed a small spanner.

Second, a shock pump clearly is different to a normal pump in that its all in the final little compression – why is the dial not moving when I am pumping so hard (where have I heard that before 😉 ).

Third numpty bit, WTF is all the air coming out? Oh, my finger shouldn’t be on that little button too 😳

But the practice is a big FAIL

We picked up some 140mm Pikes from the Canyon sale for Abigales Evo. Its her do all bike whilst at Uni so is used for everything, pedalling out to the Peak, or up to Wharncliffe and Greno. Seems to take everything in its stride.

Not a fan of the auto sag so just use the rubber ring as above. Set up for me and the girls is usually the same so not much faffing about with different settings. Kevin gets a bit annoyed, usually at the bottom of the first trail, if Abigale has been out on his and forgot to put some air back in.

Is learning to time your pedal stroke too obvious an answer?

Third numpty bit, WTF is all the air coming out? Oh, my finger shouldn’t be on that little button too

🙂

Fourbangers if you read back TMH was getting pedal strikes riding uphill, far too little shock pressure and 60% sag