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Potentially stupid / crack pot question..
Intense Tracer 275.
Fork Yari 160m with Lufftakap
Shock Fox Float X CTD.
My bike is plusher and works better in the 'Trail' setting pretty much everywhere, but especially over fast rocky trails - it's pretty plush and fun to ride.
If I stick it in Descent it has the feeling of making the forks much harder and it batters my hands. The effect is much greater since I fitted the Lufftakap.
My theory is since the fork now has much firmer mid-stroke and I haven't adjusted the shock in descent mode it's undersprung in Descent mode, which is shifting the balance backwards and effecting changing the sag of my forks from 25% to maybe 10% and making them harsh.
Plausible or nonsense?
Is there any chance of a confirmation bias, eg you turn on descent mode when riding rockier / harder trails than when you're riding in the trail setting?
Edit- sorry, missed the comment about fast rocky trails. Interestingly, I've ridden hardtails which have felt more compliant at the back depending on different forks used.
Not riding fast enough
I thought that at first but did some back to back testing - it works better in Trail, in Descent the fork seems to skip over stuff without compressing much.
I'm thinking of dropping the fork psi by 10% (I raised it 10%) when fitting the luffkap as per 'common knowledge'. If that has an effect I may raise the shock by 5% and take the fork back 5%. I'm loathed to mess with it because in trail at least it's mint.
You may need to speed up the rebound as its packing down too much in Descend setting.
Bigger faster hits need a fork that will spring back to full extension faster.
Hard to tell from this level of info about what's going on. It feeling harsh could be too much compression dampening, it could be too much rebound dampening or it could be a spring rate that is too firm.
As someone else said, if it's feeling firmer in descend mode than trail mode -it's likely the fork is packing down due to too much rebound damping.
I think your rebound is probably too slow but you're not noticing that in trail mode because the increased compression damping is keeping it higher in the travel.
You could also try running less pressure and more sag - before I put the Luftkappe in my Pike I had to run less than 20% to stop it diving but now more sag feels better and doesn't dive at all. Obviously with less pressure you'll need to speed the rebound up even more.