As a skinny wee runt I'm struggling to set up my bike,
Anyone got any advice for a 60kg rider?
For my shock, the sag is set at 30% (150psi) and I think this is perfect as its almost reaching full travel each trail but has a tiny bit in reserve for a bigger hit if it arises which I think is the ideal.
However - for rebound I started in the middle and each ride gradually adding more and more rebound until i had it set all the way. I think that it "feels" best this way as felt like it was packing down when slower. However surely if it's being set to an extreme like this it is probably wrong. is this normal-ish for light riders?
My fork is a bit better - I originally put it a bit more air than recommended on the rockshox app as felt like I knew better and wanted to hit things hard and then anded up going with its recommendation and its much better
I know suspension is so hard as everyones trails and styles are differnet but is there any light riders who ride pretty hard got any tips?
I find i need very little rebound (set near the fastest) as i need the pressure set low. There's not much pressure pushing the forks back up so the fast rebound helps. I'm also 60kg.
What shock is it? And what forks?
The damper is sometimes a problem for light riders. I didn't get in with Rockshox Motion control dampers. Tried all sorts of things like a lighter oil and even drilled new holes in the bottom of the damper. Just upgraded to a charger 2 damper and the difference for me is amazing.
Lighter weight oil in the forks can help, easy to do as part of a service for non-bladder forks.
Shocks are trickier, best bet would be to ring tftuned or j-tech and tell them what you have and what you want. They can advise best on options regarding custom shim stacks, tunes, etc.
It's not top of the range stuff. 150mm revelations (charger damper and 2021 debonair sprint) and 140mm deluxe RT.
So there isn't really anything other than air pressure, tokens and rebound to play with - at least it makes it simpler!
I find i need very little rebound (set near the fastest) as i need the pressure set low. There’s not much pressure pushing the forks back up so the fast rebound helps. I’m also 60kg.
sorry i probably have my terminology wrong then. I turned it all the way to its 'fastest' e.g. bounces back quickest feels best for me
As long as you're not on the last click or two you won't be doing any damage to the internals but you may want to ask about re-shimming the various circuits come service time. You can give one of the service centres a call if you're concerned though, all of them are usually happy to give you advice onw what's available.
If you’re light then you won’t have much air pressure extending the suspension, so you won’t need much rebound damping adding. Bear in mind that with the rebound set to fastest (lightest), there is still rebound damping. The adjustment on most suspension with stock tubes suits a relatively small range of rider weights.
Thanks everyone
Sounds like the extreme end of fast rebound isn't stupidly far off for a light rider.
The custom tune is interesting, but don't think I really have the funds for that at the moment. Especially when it's a fairly budget shock to begin with - I assume this is like £100ish?
Maybe I'll give them a call and see what they say though. I might be convinced
Sounds like a familiar story!
I'm about 67kg now but was about 62 at my lightest.
Have had massive struggles trying to get stuff to work for me. My old Monarch felt so over damped on the compression it was unreal, and I think the rebound was almost completely open.
I had a 4 year battle with Fox 36s trying to get them to be a bit more compliant. Compression mostly fully open and recline nearly fully off. Best thing I ever did with them was send them to TF for a re valve. They came back like a different fork!
I assume they just released then with a tune for the majority of weights, which just doesn't work for people at the ends of the scale, so a custom tune is needed.
Only exception to this is the DVO stuff on my current bike. A few tweaks and it's better than anything I've tried before, and I suspect a lot of this is down to the 'traction tune', which I'm pretty sure it's just running a minimal amount of compression and rebound.
As another lighter rider here I’m finding that although I like the feel and way my fork behaves, I’m not getting anywhere near full travel.
Fox fork (130 travel) and recommended sag is between 15% (20mm) and 20% (26mm). The latter gets me maybe 5mm more travel than the former but still no more than 110mm of total travel.
That said I like the characteristics of the fork more at around 21/22mm of sag so just over the 15%.
Anyone else found similar ‘full travel’ issues?
It depends what you're riding to be honest. People focus on not getting full travel, but if you're a wheels on the ground rider who didn't ride rough stuff or drops that much it's probably a relatively rare occurrence. So if the setup feels nice but your just not getting bottom outs, I'd just leave it as is.
My trail bike is 130mm, and on standard riding from home and in the local area I rarely bottom of, unless I'm in excited puppy mode.
I'm about 62kg and I struggled for years. Luftkappes in the fork, faffing with shocks. Could never get it quite right. Switched to coil on both ends. Problem solved. Always used Tftuned and they got the best out of what I had and sorted out the fork and shock for the new bike beautifully.
Anyone else found similar ‘full travel’ issues?
Yes. If i set the pressure low enough to get near full travel, I'll have too much sag. But that was with a Moco damper. Charger dampers work much better for me.
I get similar things with tires too. I never get pinch flats and already run very low pressures. 10 psi on a 2.35 maxxis. Don't want to go any lower or I'll be creating too much rolling resistance.
"Fox fork (130 travel) and recommended sag is between 15% (20mm) and 20% (26mm). The latter gets me maybe 5mm more travel than the former but still no more than 110mm of total travel."
In my experience the only way I get full travel out of a fork is to make a mistake and almost crash, or huck to flat. If you're going bigger on jumps and drops then that'll probably do it too but I'm not that confident being further in the air!
What are you doing to reach 110mm travel? Hardtail or full-sus?
Thanks for the replies so far
110mm was reached when dropping over / off a fairly steep (for me) section full of roots etc
It is on a HT
I’m the same weight as you and also riding a hard tail. I bought some Pikes last year which felt really “spiky”. Sent them into TF tuned who reduced the rebound damping and put in lighter oil - much better now and all for free as I bought them from TF tuned (great service!)
Might be worth seeing if you can get your forks looked under a warranty claim?
CHeers everyone who replied. Still struggling with the shock, and I'm loath to send it to get tuned when its a more budget end shock. Perhaps I just need to accept that a better shock would actually help more than anything
Currently settled on 30% sag and 2 clicks from fastest but still doesnt feel plush
I think it comes with a token in it from factory. anyone removed this - would that help with a 'softer' feel?
It would make it more linear, so you would probably get more shock movement for a given pressure. Wouldn't help with initial breakaway or damping rates but may feel "softer" for more of the travel.
