And how heavy are you?

Heavy spring (One up from standard) at 16.5 stone

Perfect.

RS spring weights are usually a bit out. I’d be way oversprung if I fitted the one I should do.

Dont go by the spring rate – go by the amount of sag you get. Quoted rates are quite different as I found out when buying a spring for my CCDB.

heavy (one over standard), just under 15 stone. Feels about right.

Soft spring to get the correct sag. Should be medium according to RS guide – but as Trimix says above it’s all about the correct sag.

Dont go by the spring rate – go by the amount of sag you get

Agreed.

80kg – medium spring ~22% sag.

Marginally on the soft side for me, firm spring was that little bit too stiff. I bottom out on ~4-5ft drops to harsh landing (flat or rough, no transition).

By my reckoning, based on the lyriks intended use (all mountain and free-gnar, not two wheels on ground xc and trail centre pootling), rockshox recommendations are pretty much bang on.

If you’re after nearer to 30% sag, go one softer than rockshox recommends.

What’s “correct” sag by the way?

14.5 st and using a medium and probably use full travel once every ride.
Cannot get near full travel with a firm spring.
Might use firm spring for uplift days only.
4 clicks damping.

What’s “correct” sag by the way?

About 25% for XC, 33% for DH.

Set the sag correctly and then stop the bottoming out/bobbing with the compression adjutment. Why would you want to use all the travel on every ride?

Although some people prefer more spring and less damping, and others prefer the softest spring they can get away with and more damping.

10 stone, soft.

11.5 stone – medium (and floodgate removed)

thisisnotaspoon – 🙄

11.5 stone – medium (and floodgate removed)

+1

15.5 stone and firm spring here

82kg here, standard spring with 4 clicks of low and 1 click of high.

74kg, medium spring (no floodgate) and (I think) compression on minimum.

Basically as soft as I can get away with.

I sometimes run a firm spring in the Alps.

Hi folks!

Had a brief look through this one and sorry, just couldn’t keep quiet.

It’s quite confusing, given that some manufacturers are starting to mark upper tubes with ‘% of travel’ markings, but the reaon why sag is so irrelevant when choosing the correct spring rate is because your movements on the bike are so dynamic.

Whilst we are all sitting vaguely over the REAR shock of our bike regardless of the terrain we are correct in making sag a worthwhile consideration, but our body weight will be in a very different place in relation to the fork when descending versus climbing or riding on the flat.

So in what position should we set our sag?

the important factor is to make full travel on your biggest and hardest hits.

In answer to the previous question ‘why?’ the answer is, because it’s there.

There would be little sense in buying a 6″ travel bike and using only 5″ for example.

I really hope this helps and don’t intend on staying here for a debate, so apologies for sticking my nose in.

Cheers!

11.5 stone and soft spring

In answer to the previous question ‘why?’ the answer is, because it’s there.

There would be little sense in buying a 6″ travel bike and using only 5″ for example.

Stil, why?

And when?

When I land a drop? Or hit a rock? Or when I completely stuff something up and barely save it from crashing? Do I set it for 10% of hits, the ‘biggest hits’, or that once a month occourance where A&E is narrowly avoided (say the 0.1% of biggest hits)?

Or is it more reasnoble to set the compression for the other 90% of the time where it;s doign it’s giving better grip and controll over the frotn wheel, and ignore the bottoming out (or sort it with oil/air volume).

105kg and I ran an extra firm spring when I had them. I am quite ‘aggressive’ though – ride on the front wheel, tend to attack things especially when rocky – so the x-firm choice was justified. Otherwise a firm would have been enough.

11.5 st and x-soft u-turn spring

Bottoming out and not reaching full travel are predominately controlled by spring rate and travel, using damping to overcome these problems will cause problems in overall system control. Running too much damping only causes the system to be overdamped, eradicating that “plushness” you thought you were achieving. Too much damping will also give too much feedback on high speed hits that may remove control.

Most companies aim for typically between 20-30% sag, this is particularly important on full suspension frames, too much sag, you’re missing the region of travel where anti-squat has been optimised, you may also bump into issues with pedal feedback if the bike settles too far into its travel.

On this subject, what is suspension there to do? IMO grip,control,comfort, enhance one, at the detriment to the other. It’s about hitting the best balance of compromise for the particular application.

It just so happens that bike companies know what they’re doing, buy an xc bike, run it at around 20-30%, it will work very well for xc riding. But use the same xc bike for AM riding for example, you’ll run into issues of the bike being harsh, you’ll soften it up, you’ll get issues of bottom out, there are also issues of it being strong enough, where do you compromise, how do you get around this, more travel.

Lets reverse the roles, lets say you have a all mountain bike, you use it for xc riding, got the sag around 25%, it pedals around pretty well, you’re not using full travel, you soften things up. You’re now out of the sweet spot for the manufacturers intended anti-squat, pedalling has gone tits up. You are also carrying around unrequired heft. In this xc track, there are also some smooth jumps, manual and bunny hops lines, before, you were in control. Now on these same obstacles with the softer setup, it ain’t happening. There is too much suspension to fight against and react to, the system is now unstable.

I guess the main thing im trying to say manufacturers know what they’re doing, buy the right bike designed for the riding you’re actually doing. Setting up a bike differently to what the manufacturer intended and using it for a different purpose isn’t going to work well.

Im also trying to say the suspension is part of a system comprising of the rider, the bike and the ground. Any adjustment effects all three, when setting up suspension don’t just consider what effects it will have on grip, but also how it will effect the rider and bike.

Also that golden one, no matter how much suspension the bike has, your body has more and can have a far bigger impact on the system.

Mega ramblings that don’t quite make sense.

80kg
Firm spring
I like it hard and fast 😯

What dean said +1

Although I’d disagree on buying the right bike. You can make an AM bike do more XC by adding some more spring and damping, it’ll not be as good as an XC bike, but it wont be as bad as an AM bike. Although I’d not try and do the reverse with an XC bike as you;d run into strength issues and bottom out too often.

I set my Pitch up and leave it. Probably rarely ‘optimum’, but at least it holds no supprises whether the tracks a trail center or a DH track.

Like Cy said about the rocket, he could do a 4″ version for smoother tracks, but what’s the point, it would need to be just as strong (and the same weight), may as well have 6″ travel and not use all of it every day.

Like Cy said about the rocket, he could do a 4″ version for smoother tracks, but what’s the point, it would need to be just as strong (and the same weight), may as well have 6″ travel and not use all of it every day.

Amen to that