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Spring rate vs. com...
 

Spring rate vs. compression damping - fork comfort for sustained rocky descents

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I’d say your fork sounds set up about right, but ultimately if you want to use all of the travel on smaller terrain then your only option is reducing the pressure/spring rate, which will increase the sag regardless of compression settings.

Assume you have no tokens to remove, then adding in some low speed compression dampening will stop you moving further into the travel a bit, but I’d rather have a more active fork getting less travel than the opposite, if that makes sense?

Ultimately, I tend to set things up for my weight, not the terrain and my suspension moves as much as is needed - not more, or less. I inevitably end up at 30% or so sag.


 
Posted : 03/05/2024 8:37 pm
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Did some experimentation on a few recent rides, but nothing totally focused on suspension testing.

On a rough fastish trail centre red (e.g. Laggan), the Gold CTS is more comfortable than the Violet. Presumably the higher HSC keeps the fork up in its travel where it's more sensitive. So more damping, less travel used, improved comfort. However the bike is unbalanced on drops etc. now as the rear has less compression damping and only minimal adjustment available.

On trails with steep steppy technical features to negotiate, the Violet CTS is pretty dodgy. Blows through the travel too easy, pitching you forward, steepening the head angle, and setting you up for a huge rebound energy release (as the Fox guy said). Almost bounced me half off the big staircase at the end of Laggan black. Maybe it'd be fine with a few clicks of compression damping added to add more HSC (which would also add LSC due to there being only a single adjuster).


 
Posted : 14/05/2024 12:54 am
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I remembered this bike check from Pinkbike where for comfort on a long race they used a much lower spring rate but with high levels of compression damping to compensate.

This was specifically low LSC and high LSC. Turns out it's called progressive damping, and apparently it's a racer thing and has some issues. I don't expect it's much use for mere mortals to compensate for a softer more comfortable spring, you wouldn't be riding hard enough for the suspension to create enough force you can push into.

DVO doesn't think much of it, neither do a few posts in this thread.

The Selva CTS options make a lot more sense now.


 
Posted : 10/06/2024 7:33 pm
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