I've got a 160mm travel full suspension bike. 160 front and back. The rear is a little long for my sort of riding, so I'm keen to adjust the shock to feel like a shorter stroke (without actually shortening the stroke).
It's a RS Monarch Debonair. No compression setting (just open & lock).
What's the best way to do this? i was thinking of putting some volume spacers in and also putting a bit more air in the shock to make it feel firmer. The downside is that the bike will sit higher in its rear travel and the BB will be slightly higher.
any other suggestions? Besides N+1?
Thanks
Can you not switch rocker plates from another model?
On most (simple) air shocks you can limit the stroke with a spacer clipped onto the shaft inside the air can. I've done it on Suntour (dropped a 170 bike to 120) and X Fusion shocks and on the Stereo 140 I've got I got a cheap, new shock with a shorter stroke (200 x 51 instead of 200 x 57) which dropped it to around 125mm. More air and rebound would do the same job though.
Open rebound/buy a different bike.
Put more air in it
Do you want less travel, or more ramp up? I think that would be the effect of a shorter shock on the same travel bike.
If the latter, a smaller air-can, some of those token things, (assuming either exist for your shock) or I've even seen it said on here a big blob of grease inside to reduce the air volume.
You want to increase the progression not increase air pressure. Increasing pressure won't do much as your usable travel remains roughly the same but your suspension won't feel so nice unless it was too soft before.
Add a full can of 9 tokens, and then a blob of grease too. That should limit the usable travel to something shorter than you have right now without leaving the small bump feeling harsh. And it won't change your geo. You can also limit travel using an internal spacer/bumper but without changing the air volume / progression you'll just bottom out all the time and so it will feel rubbish anyway.
If you get the progression right then you'd only use that last bit of the travel when you really smash the shock and then you're probably grateful for it anyway.
You could also consider increasing the compression damping via a heavier oil if you think the rebound can be opened enough to compensate, but thats a bit more complicated.
Thanks all. Will open it up tomorrow and fill it up with those rubber-band <span style="background-color: #f6d5d9;">spacer </span>thingies.
Cheers,