I’m riding a 2011 Zesty with a Fox RP2 shock.

Not entirely happy with the rear suspension performance, which feels harsh and a bit wooden, especially when going fast over rugged terrain.

The shock has medium rebound and high compression, which I’m thinking could be the problem. I thought the Zesty benefitted from a low compression tune and possibly low rebound too.

Any zesty owners improved suspension performance with a re-tune? I can’t spring for a Push tune at the moment unfortuantely.

I “re-tuned” my RP2 into a CC BDair…………. 😉

I have a 2011 Spicy with an RP2 shock. Both tunes are on low. Its not hugely sensitive to small bumps, but other than that its okay. I’ve been considering sticking a volume shim in to adjust the spring rate for small bumps, but have yet to buy them!

Having said that… The rebound in mine is up to full, so could just be the compression that’s a bit out

I had a 2011 zesty, loved it, upgraded to a rp23 boost valve kashima shox really didn’t feel that much better but lost the great pro predal off the standard shox!!! Do try the low friction bushes before spending big money on a new shock I found they made a lot of difference.

Hmmmm, I will see about getting it re-tuned to low compression and pop in the small volume spacer that I’ve got sitting on my desk.

I don’t expect it’d need much volume reduction because of the naturally efficient suspension design.

Thanks guys.

I have a 2013 zesty with a fox ctd shock, rebound and compression are both medium but it’s the basic evolution damping. Thinking of upgrading the shock as it doesn’t feel as good since I put a pike fork up front. I thought about a push tune but it can’t be done on the ctd shocks.

What don’t you like about it Duke?

Mine just feels skittery over rough ground, so the bike gets all over the place on rocky sections. Which is frustrating as I know how good they can feel with the right shock/tune.

Sound similar to how mine feels on rocky sections. I keep it in trail setting most of the time as decend mode blows through the travel far too quickly, have tried a volume spacer which helped slightly with diving but still feels a bit harsh. I could send it for a re-tune but might just go for a new shock as I think its the basic evolution damper thats the problem.

So it turns out my suspicions were correct and the shock had completely the wrong tune (high compression).

It may have been swapped onto the bike at some point in the past as it was secondhand.

Got it serviced and Push tuned and it’s riding much nicer.

🙂

Mojo recommended a Medium/Medium fox tune for my 2014 for as and when I go hunting for a new shock to replace the basic Evo I currently have. What tune did you opt for?

Managed to finally get the rear air pressure to something which feels like it is using most of the travel in Trail mode plus rebound about right. I rarely use Climb as bike climbs fine and grips better in Trail mode and tend to forget to use Descend. I’d prefer to get to a point of a single tune / mode for all riding, maybe CCDB is the way forward?

It was a Push tune so mostly new internals with more shims and ports, but a low compression tune I think. Didn’t discuss rebound but I’m assuming TF have done loads of Zestys so have a good benchmark for them.

The new CCDB inline looks v promising for bikes like the Zesty yeah.

Not sure that CCDB is the answer for 2014 Zesty. According to TF, high speed rebound will not be resolved with inline and I don’t think piggy back cans fit the frame without clashing. I’m considering a TF tune.

re: piggy backs, it depends on the shock I think. I had a push’d Van R on mine. Bit of extra weight but the back end was better than any air shock I’ve had. Thinking of putting the same shock on my Covert.

Funny that this got resurrected.

Taking to tf about the ccdb inline the other, the bloke said the rebound damping is not so critical on a 4 bar – which the zesty is.

I’ve sold mine now, but riding another 4 bar design.

Yeah sorry, I did a google search for Zesty tune. I completely forgot when I posted my reply!

My shock came off my 2012 Zesty as the 2014 was a warranty replacement. I have always had to set my rebound slow to stop the back end kicking up and it consequently bogs down on successive hits. I was told this would not be resolved with a ccdb inline.

Interesting the stock fox tune for 2014 onwards is m/m, so my rp23 is already not at the right settings. I suppose this is not a common issue as most folk have the EI shock or at least the right Fox CTD. Shock tune.

The TF recommendation to me was to get my rp23 tuned as there is more scope to do so with pre CTD shocks.

goyawave
I have always had to set my rebound slow to stop the back end kicking up and it consequently bogs down on successive hits. I was told this would not be resolved with a ccdb inline.

er, no. if you set the rebound to slow, then of course, it will, er, be slow! No matter what shock you use.

There is no reason to have excessive amounts of rebound wound into your rear shock. If you find the rear of the bike “kicking up” then you’re riding technique is poor, so fix that rather than add excessive rebound damping!

Any chance you could be a bit more helpful, preferably without the ‘ers’

Always looking to improve so some constructive advise on where I’m going wrong might be useful and save me some much needed cash.

I did do a course last year and the first thing our trainer did was bike setup. He set my rebound to a few clicks off slow based on my feedback and the logic seemed to make sense. Slow rebound equals less kickback but consequence for successive hits….

So understanding and/or technique could be at fault but just looking for advice.

er,

Only kidding!

Too much rebound is only going to make “kick back” worse on successive hits, because the bike will still be low in it’s travel and hence unable to “absorb” any further inmpacts!

Generally, i assume we are talking about getting kicked up the ass on jumps / rollers etc. What this really means is two things:

1) You didn’t “pump” the bike correctly. Either too late (usually) or sometimes not hard enough

or

2) You haven’t “decoupled” your body mass from the bike. ie, you are not absorbing enough with your legs and maybe are putting too much weight on your bars early on the ramp/transition.

What you are trying to do is allow the bike to rotate under you, without that rotation being coupled into your body (because, once your mass starts to rotate forwards, it will dominate, and be impossible to stop (because you weigh something like 5x more than your bike)

Generally, being “stiff” on the bike is bad and leads to nasty things, and this can often occur even in technically good riders, especially when one gets a bit tired.

There are times when you may want a slower than normal rebound setting (ie more rebound damping) For example, if you are sessioning a single large drop or jump, and might be landing it badly at first, more rebound will help prevent the bike jumping back up from the ground. However, in my experience, and landing heavy/bad enough to need that extra rebound will probably be having you off the bike anyway…..

If you are doing anything that has multiple large impacts, then excess rebound will NOT be helping, and it’s technique you need!

Ok thanks, I’ll try a little less damping on my next ride. I do recognise too much weight over the bars early in the transition and pumping late. It is also possible the trainer set us up with slower rebound for a wet Garburn Pass.

Always good to check and challenge.

While I’m at it, talking to TF, shock pressure for my weight (82kg) should be 195psi but I’m running nearer 180psi for the sag setting (mid to FR) on the Zesty. Consequently, I am blowing through my travel easily. So the second change will be to try more pressure. Do/did you or other zesty owners ride high pressures than sag setting indicates.?

Sorry if I missed it Goyawave, but did you say what tune your shock has?

The one that I started this thread about was high compression (not sure about rebound), and it was behaving like you describe your problem.

I’m confident that my technique is sound, but riding places like Garburn was suddenly much harder than on my last bike.

Got the shock serviced and Push tuned at same time and it was much better. I’d recommend it for sure if your shock has the wrong tune anyway.

Taking to tf about the ccdb inline the other, the bloke said the rebound damping is not so critical on a 4 bar – which the zesty is.

I would have to imagine you are misquoting him here, as the type of suspension has nothing to do with the leverage ratio that the shock is seeing.

It’s possible to make falling rate Horst link bikes. It’s possible to make rising rate ones too. And the same for singlepivots.

And it’s that shock rate change that affects tune, not the sort of system.

I’ve jumped on this one, after reading about how high volume cans are/aren’t good for singlepivots on the orange thread the other day.

It’s misinformation / confusion and it’s good not to let that spread.

To clarify Brant, I was asking about the apparent rebound damping issue at high pressure on the CCDB Inline.

The TF guy said it wouldn’t be as much of an issue on my four-bar frame (which was new to him) as on a straightforward single-pivot, for example.

He may have been simplifying the issue for my non-expert mind, but I have reported the chat accurately. Happy to be corrected of course.

Chapaking your quite right I didn’t mention it. I’m on holiday with the Pompetamine! And the family of course!!

The shock is the stock RP2 from my old 2012 Zesty. From memory it’s M/L of which I believe the rebound is L. Either way, l have the wrong shock tune. Interesting you rate the PUSH tune….

If however I do run my shock at 180 psi and I can adapt to less rebound… then maybe it is worth holding out for a CCDB inline?

The Push tune made it way better, but it was really bad to begin with and a different tune to yours. Have you had the shock serviced at all?

I suspect the CCDB inline will be a cut above the PUSHed RP2 to be honest, going from other people’s reports.

Although the service and tune really improved the bike, it still didn’t handle very rocky stuff as well as I had been hoping (though it was mis-matched with a 160mm Marzocchi 55 RC3 ti fork – which is a tough act to follow).

Yes last serviced in April, while waiting for my seatstay to be replaced!

I am running the x fusion sweep fork at 160mm which is great.

Since my shock tune isn’t a million miles away from the correct tune and I’m not too slow,I might hold off a change till end of the year. I don’t want to spend the money on a tune and then end up replacing the shock. Although it would be good to have more support and not blow through the travel so quickly.

Considering there were more than few warranty claims on 2012 frames which are now being replaced by 2014 frames, I a surprised there are not more people with the same issue.

Most 2012 broke so quickly they got 2013 ones:

here’s my 2013 with CCDBa:

😉