Just curious... I've seen a few videos of proud looking chaps dropping there rear wheel from a height and it stopping dead on the ground.
Can someone explain how this is seen as a good set up? Also, I think I've only seen this with coils, is it the same with air?
Cheers
I think they are just trying to show they have set up the damping /rebound, but without the rider's weight on it would have thought it's pretty meaningless. (Though happy to be corrected )
It means nothing and provides no useful guide as to bike suspension set up.
To test your rear suspension simply riding off a small drop and feeling the rebound is a good start.
The static weight of the bike and a small drop will not affect the suspension meaningfully. You need to be on the bike.
Might tell you if your clutch mech is working or not 🙂
Pretty easy to duplicate. Minimal spring force, minimal compression damping, maximum rebound damping. It will ride like a bag of poo but look cool in your sic edit.
BITD it was possible to try the "test" out on some of the earlier sus designs (elastomer sprung, for example) and see if the thing lacked the preload to move and had the damping required to stop it moving.
Some failed!
Back in the day at DH races, tuning companies would turn up with stands and laugh at how people had set up their bikes, using the drop the rear wheel test. The aim was to get it to stick to the ground, rather than bounce back up uncontrollably
A chap called Greg Minaar seems to like doing it. He has been moderately successful at downhill.
My 6 pack with an avalanche tuned rear shock does it but my ibis with a float x2 doesn't (i don't think).
The drop test doesn't prove a bike it set up well. However, that doesn't mean a well set up bike won't or shouldn't do it.
should show how good the initial sensitivty is of both shock and tyre
My old Patriot did it at both ends, that was coil sprung. The rear had way too much compression damping on its OEM shock from a different bike with no compression adjust. The current one is air sprung and does not stop dead when dropped because the stiction in the air shock is too great. Rides miles better though.