[Closed] Loco Custom Tune - what to ask for?

As you say, you are a complete noob, so - ride it till it needs a service, then get it custom tuned if you still think you need it. Otherwise you may well be wasting your money, or at the very least you will not know if the shock suits you now or will suit you when you get it changed.

Its an air shock, so it will ramp up. Just put enough air in it to get what you want. Your riding an Orange 5, so it should work fine with that bike.

If you "come up short" then you want some rebound so it dosent ping you off.

Any person tuning it is very likey to ask you what you dont like about it now, you wont be able to answer that.

The suspension tuner should have some idea of what will improve the ride and suspension performance of the bike when they know your bike, weight and riding style but crucially that definition of 'improve' will be entirely their own and not necessarily yours.

So really you should ride it for a while then come back here and tell us what you're experiencing.

Some terms may help you make sense of what you're feeling though. For example a dynamic shock is one that has the ability to let the bike pop off things easily, and the pop gets more pronounced the more you preload the shock. This will makes the bike feel lively, skip about and get airborn quite easily.

When a bike is described as 'slow' its the opposite of this. It will be tuned for lots of grip and means the bike sticks to the ground, hugging the terrain rather than skipping about.

A fast set up can also mean firmer compression damping. This will make the bike feel harsh with lots of chatter over smaller and medium sized bumps but it is faster, just less comfortable. A slower set up is more comfortable but can bog down easily.

A dynamic/fast set up taken too far for a give rider can feel hard to control and just too lively. It will still grip but at speed it can end up feeling a handful. It is more akin to a racers set up because it makes the bike feel very agile, where skill is used to control things and stop them getting out of shape.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, that sounds like a wise plan.
I'll ring up Loco tomorrow, to see if the standard tune would be wildly off for the bike.
In an ideal world, I'd rather get it tuned now, as I can do a basic service myself, and it would be much cheaper then getting it tuned with a service in a few months.

Ah Geetee, didn't see your post. That's really useful - I think you're right - I'd have to ride it for a bit to know what I wanted - besides the standard custom tune for rider weight and bike etc.
I might try and get it custom tuned without a service after a few days out riding.
Thanks for the help!

Forget about the tune! You don't even know if it needs it! You tune a shock so that it does what you want over what it did/didn't do before.

Yeah, I'll see how I get on with the standard tune - if anything feels wrong, I'll probably get back on here to ask for advice.

You may find having a different sized spacer fitted in the Aircan will stop it blowing through it's travel as mine used to suffer from it even running really high pressures didn't help

Honestly, dont bother "custom tuning" it. Its not going to make much difference unless you are a really sensitive top level rider. Its a bloody Orange, just ride it till you know better.

Set the sag and rebound up, then save your money. As for servicing the shock yourself you will not be able to replace the Nitrogen when its starting to cavitate, so wait for that to happen before spending any money.

Custom tunes sound great, but I really think people should wait till they are great riders. Most of us wont have a clue to be honest. Its not going to magically make you a better rider. Practicing and / or spending some time with a coach will do more.

Ive spent money with a coach and on suspension. The coach made a difference that then allowed me to feel when my suspenion could be improved. Before improving my riding technique any suspension would mostly have been wasted on me. I went from Air to Coil, which was a difference for my bike/style.

To play devil's advocate to those above...

The reason you're paying a suspension expert is cos, well, they're a suspension expert! You're paying for their expertise, so use it? Call them and ask them.

I've gotta say, Trimix makes a lot of sense - I think that in terms of riding £35 would be much better spent going towards a coach day, or finishing my build off (that would be useful 😉 )

Custom tunes sound great, but I really think people should wait till they are great riders. Most of us wont have a clue to be honest.

Partly true, but the real issue isn't that a custom tune some how does something different but better. These products are sent out to market with an average weight rider in mind. If you're very light or very heavy, and therefore quite a way from average, then you'll struggle to get the thing working even half right. Custom tuning then isn't so much about trying to make something that already works OK work better, it's about trying to get it to work at all.

Have a Five myself, ride the same area as you, and weigh about the same. The standard tune shock's not far off the mark as standard, you may benefit from one of the volume reducing kits as the later shocks have a higher volume, they're cheap and easy to experiment with, though you won't know for sure without trying it. Loco's site has a tuning guide that's worth looking at for setting up the shock,but you obviously need to understand what the shock is actually doing in any given situation to effect an improvement.

I think whether a custom tune is worth it or not, there isn't much point even thinking about it until I know what I want - I think it probably is worth it when I know what needs doing though.
While I'm not a bad rider by any means, I do wonder whether the money might be better spent on some coaching - anyone been down that route?
I tend to think that regular practice and working to fix poor technique when you recognize you have it is a more economical method.

@Coatsey - how does your five handle downhill at FoD - have you ridden the drops on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, or any of the DH runs for that matter.
I'm curious to see how far I can take my five when it comes to DH....

Orange Five at Gawton (albeit ridden by Rowan Sorrel!)

[url= http://mpora.com/videos/ToveynN0N ]Linky[/url]

The only place I wouldn't like to take my Five would be the likes of Ft.William, just because you'd get a kicking. Anywhere short of that (and FoD is a long way short) is fine

You may find having a different sized spacer fitted in the Aircan will stop it blowing through it's travel as mine used to suffer from it even running really high pressures didn't help

Unlikely to be a problem since the op weighs less than 12 stone.
The reason that 'blowing through it's travel' is such a catchphrase on here is simply that most people that work/test/spec for bike companies weigh a lot less than the porkers on here, and that the high volume cans work well for people of a reasonable weight, but aren't progressive enough for the weight carried around by the stw stereotype.

that most people that work/test/spec for bike companies [u]get to ride their bikes far more [s]weigh a lot less[/s] than the [s]porkers [/s] [u]people who mostly have jobs and families to take care of and therefore are more limited in what they can ride[/u] on here

FIFY you pompous ass

Unlikely to be a problem since the op weighs less than 12 stone.

Nonsense, mid-stroke support can be a problem regardless of the rider weight. The shock won't necessarily be bottoming out all the time but may well be using a lot more travel than desired, putting a spacer in can help give more support mid travel.

Legend, 10stone, mid sized volume reducer (size recommended by Loco)

£35 to have a new shock tuned, or ride it for six month then send it away for a service and a tune, the tune costs the same either way so do it now unless the shock is specced for the bike, wrong tune for a single pivot bike will probably be pants, its £35 FFS.

£35 7 hour shift washing up 🙁

+1 for ride it as is until you are having issues with it. A tune is done to alter a characteristic you don't like. If U haven't ridden it how do you know that

I got mine done to remove the spiking I was getting at high speed

Pay the man the £35 now and get it set up for YOUR weight and style. The info you have given on here will be a good enough for Loco to set it up better than just buying off the shelf. There will be a difference as he will explain when you speak to him. Enjoy!

Yeah, I'll put the money towards buying the last few parts of the build.

@Messiah - I know there will be a difference, but I may as well see if the shock is any good as it is and make do with it for a while and then get it down. My riding will no doubt have improved by then, as I plan to start doing Enduro.
Or if the shock is feeling crap, I can get it tuned without service, a few weeks after my bike is built.

Speak to Loco or TFT etc first. The wrong basic tune could be horrible. I really wish I had got mine done 6 months before I did, it made such a huge difference.

Yeah, I guess there is no harm in speaking to Loco, and finding out how far off a medium tune would be.

What did you decide to do in the end?

Nothing. For the moment. I'm going to build the bike first, and then ride for a few weeks, ride some downhill, maybe an enduro race, put it through its paces, and then I'll decide whether it needs a tune, and what it needs doing.

Good call. Enjoy the bike when you get it.

Thanks! I've got it, just waiting for the last 4 components and I've run out of money - so frustrating!

How can you get it custom tuned to how you want, if you know nothing about how you want it tuned in the first place?

😯

Haha, that's what the whole thread taught me.
Basically you can get the shock custom tuned to match the leverage ratio of the bike, type of riding and rider weight. However, that's quite vague and if I wanted the shock to be perfect, I would need to ride it to find out what needed changing, because everyone want's their bike to feel different.
I'm also not a serious racer, so I may not even need to bother if it feels okay.
Plus I am very short of money at the moment anyway - so all round a good decision I think!