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Hello,
Back story is, I'm an old dog, been biking for about 40 years now, and just taken my first steps into full sus. I've bought a BMC Fourstroke FS03 on our bike to work scheme, mainly because I've been knocked off my bike so much that I'm riddled with achey joints and back and hip pain, so thought a full sus might help (and we've just come out the other side of a redundancy threat so I've kind of treated myself as well).
I plan on riding it anywhere and everywhere, but initially (I've had two rides on it upto now) I'm commuting 9-ish miles each way into Manchester. I figured that I know my routes so well that I'll just be able to concentrate on the bike and get it set up exactly how I want it. Hopefully, that's where you lot come in, as I've no idea how it should feel or what I'm really looking for from the performance, I currently swap between riding a fixie, road cx, rigid ss mtb, depending on the weather/carrying needs.
I've initially bunged some Big Apples on the BMC for the commute and gone for about 25-30% sag (me sat on the bike at rest, is that right?) with the rebound set a couple of clicks out from max. There was hardly any air in the forks or shock straight from the shop (about 80-90 lbs front and 60 lbs ish rear) and the first time I rode it, it bobbed and sunk all over the place. I'm just under 14 stone, so I've got 125 lbs front and about 145 lbs rear today and it feels a bit better, it's got RS Recon front and Scor rear shock if that helps.
I have a vision of wanting it to be lively, so I can pop on and off stuff, although I'm not sure if that's how it should work, but this morning it just swallowed any attempts to bunnyhop.
Sorry to ramble, but I'm completely guessing about the set up at the moment, so any advice would be really welcome, possibly not too technical for now, just what I should be looking out for and maybe a good idea of a base setting and how to move on from there.
Thanks for any help, I'm really looking forward to riding it properly but at the moment it feels like it needs work.
start with sag.
set it standing on the pedals, like you are riding something that wants/needs suspension. set it to 20-25%
rebound (damping) has the ability to be confusing, you want to start with it faster, maybe a couple of clicks (slower) from max. make sure that when you set it to slow/min, you can see the difference (to be sure you are at the right end)
Maximum rebound damping is slow - in my mind at least.
cant comment on pressures - except its no surprise that they are out initially, or even that to get the sag you want, the 'chart' is wrong too.
try not to make it the same as your rigid, just because you notice the suspension doesnt make it a bad thing