Could someone please give me some guidance regarding tuning my Rockshox Reba SL forks?

Understand the basics – setting the sag, general guidelines regarding pressure and rider weight etc.

How should a well tuned fork feel?

What are the symptoms of a a fork with too much or too little positive or negative pressure? Or one with too much or too little damping?

Cheers

Forgot to add – this is for a XC hardtail…

Set your +ve pressure so you achieve about 25% sag. Set the -ve psi to the same value.

Set the rebound to avoid the fork ‘pinging’ you back up. The compression can be set to stop the fork diving under braking. Setting up Rebound and compression is a MASSIVELY subjective issue. If the fork feels good, it’s right. If it doesn’t, go fettle…

If I set my + and – to the same pressure I lose some of my 140mm travel

Its a personal thing – i find that my Pikes need about 85/90psi in the positive but no more than 65psi in the negative otherwise they start to ‘suck down’ on repetitive hits.
My Reba SL’s needed to be evenly balanced – then i left the bike upside down and some oil leaked out 😳 now it’s a similar story for the Rebas, higher positive than negative otherwise they too ‘suck down’.

My tip is to set your positive pressure first then do the negative. It always comes as a suprise to see how resistant to downwards force the fork is without any pressure in the negative chamber.

To keep your floating piston working correctly, let out all the air in everything and pump up the positive FIRST to the desired pressure using sag. Then, move the- O ring DOWN to sit a couple of mm above the seal at the bottom.

Pump up the negative – when the o-ring starts to get sucked down toward the seal, stop after 1.5/2mm or so – you’ll find the negative slightly higher pressure than the positive.

This allows the fork to move “up” easier, and gives a much plusher ride / small bump sensitivity.

loco tuning guide

Well written and easy to follow

Really helpful. Thank you.