Guidance on setup needed. I’m relatively new to this full suspension malarkey and have a Cotic Flare with 130mm of skills compensator out back. How do you have yours setup? I’m about 12st 5lb without gear and mainly ride around the Peaks, Macc and Marple. Any tips for getting the most out of the shock are appreciated.
Rebound as slow as possible for me, although TBH the rebound knob doesn't seem to do much on the Xfusion shock I had. Seem to remember going slightly lower than the recommended pressure for my weight, but there wasn't much in it. Tended to leave it locked out or one click away for most climbing.
Have since upgraded to a Manitou McLeod, but was happy with the Xfusion to start out.
Just pumped mine up to whatever pressure was needed to get the sag then wound on as much rebound damping as it would give me. It’s still not much damping but I’m happy with how it feels on my FlareMax. I use all 4 compression settings. Firmest only on the road, next for off road climbs, next for flat and most downhill sections and fully open for long sustained descents. It’s nothing fancy but I do like those 4 settings, which is probably why I haven’t upgraded to anything fancier yet.
Cheers guys. Sounds like I need to adjust the damping a bit. I sort of mirrored the fork settings which was probably a mistake.
Yes, I must admit I’m not much of a twiddler and tend to start off just sticking all the adjusters in the middle and riding it for a bit first. But it was pretty clear that my O2 shock had very little rebound damping whatever I did, so I just put on as much as it would give me. Would more be better? I don’t know, but the bike feels so good that I haven’t given it much thought.
I have sometimes thought about treating the bike to the CC shock since everyone seems to say it’s better, but I do like having those 4 compression settings and I suspect I’d just make a mess of a shock with that much adjustability.
FlareMAX ran with about 30% sag in the fully open compression setting then toggled the compression switch to suit when climbing, but I did find I rarely used the two firmest settings - I think the two lesser settings still worked well with the flares suspension for techy climbs.
My rebound seemed odd - at times it felt like very little adjustment, but at other times you could tell there was a difference, almost like a port or shim stack was getting blocked. I just set it up to feel similar speed to my forks, maybe a tiny bit slower.
Just changed yesterday to the cane creek as the xfusion seems to be leaking air, so interested to see the difference.
Just changed yesterday to the cane creek as the xfusion seems to be leaking air, so interested to see the difference
Ooh, keep us posted please. I’d be very interested to hear the differences.
I had a Five before the FlareMax and was very much a fan of a firm lockout for climbing. That was another part of the reason for going with the O2. But I was surprised to find that I never use the firmest setting off road. I do like it on road sections, but it’s a mountain bike and doesn’t see tarmac that often.
I’ve never really used lockouts as I tend to forget and end up leaving them locked when going down. I’ve got the purple dial about halfway and the lever one step from fully open at the moment. I’ll turn the dial anti-clockwise fully and mess about from there. If there is too much to fiddle with I’ll nevet stop, so probably best to avoid the CC offering.
My rebound seemed odd – at times it felt like very little adjustment, but at other times you could tell there was a difference
Mine seems a bit like this to be honest and also seems to use a lot of travel even on the smallest drops. It’s a dark art this rear suspension business 😀
Ah, the leaving the lockout on for descents, that sounds like me😊
I’ve got an XFusion on my RocketMAX and run the rebound full slow, or one click out from full slow - only tend to use the compression lever for long stretches of tarmac or smooth sloggy climbs, and even then I normally use the third from open setting (firm enough to get rid of bob, but still moves if you hit a big bump/pothole etc).
I queried the XFusion rebound range with Cotic and they checked my bike and said it was ok, and that’s how it’s been designed.
My previous bike was a 1st gen FlareMAX and I swapped from XFusion to CC shock on that. IMO, the CC does give the bike a lot more grip, but at the expense of efficiency and a bit of ‘pop’. For fast descending on rough rocky trail in the Peak or Lakes, the CC transforms the bike. They big thing with the CC is set-up, as it’s easy to get lost in the settings and end up wi5h it feeling cr*p. Cotic provide baseline settings, which I found were a good compromise between efficiency, grip and comfort, but I ended up tweaking the settings to get more grip and comfort on rough rocky trails - the trade off was that it felt a bit energy sapping on rolling trail centre type trails, and got more pedal strikes with the shock being more active, so I had to use the climb switch more often than I’d like (then forgot to switch it off for descents!)
You can change the settings on the CC to suit trail centre type terrain, but it’s a faffing around with an Allen key job, which wouldn’t be too bad if the adjusters had clear indents/clicks, but they haven’t. I kept a card in my backpack with the ‘clicks from zero’ setting for all four compression and rebound settings, so that I could adjust it to suit the trails I was riding - in theory this is good, but reality, fiddling about trying to feel and listen for faint clicks on a cold, wet and windy day, was a complete PITA.
If you’ve got the patience to set the CC up properly, then it is an amazing shock that can be tailored to suit a range of trail surfaces. However, if you’re mainly into riding trail centres, you might it a bit overkill and mildly annoying. I’d call the CC shock an ‘enthusiasts shock’, or ‘fiddlers dream’😏
I’ve had the CC adjusted to run on my RocketMAX, but have gone back to using the XFusion shock it came with, as I find it works well for the trail centre riding that I mainly do these days. With the rebound at full slow, I find the XFusion also copes well with most natural trails, and can be just left open all the time off road.
HTH
Thanks bowglie. Glad it’s not just me that leaves lockout on when descending. I don’t often ride trail centres to be honest. Going to try and get out tomorrow and fiddle with the rebound settings and sag. Can’t go far unfortunately as I have an intermittent front brake at the moment 😀
Thanks for typing all that @bowglie. Very interesting. It kind of confirms my decision to go with the O2 as I do tend to prioritise efficient climbing. I spend a lot more of my time climbing and hate having to push. I also doubt that I hit the descents anywhere near hard enough to be able to appreciate the advantages of the CC. Maybe the O2 is the better mincer’s shock and the CC is better left to the gnarly dudes (and dudettes).