or has someone just twiddled the knobs to check they work? i.e. are they all at some factory preset from which to work?

They will generally come with no air (if they are air) so you will need to add some.
There is also no such thing as an average rider too.
There are some good online guides – http://locotuning.co.uk/forks-sag.html
which you can use. In general if you know what the knobs do everything gets easier 🙂 be methodical and change one thing at a time to start with.

If they’re fitted to a bike you’re buying new then the shop should set them up for you, but they might need a bit of fine tuning.
If you’ve just bought the forks then you’ll need to set the air pressure and damping adjusters to suit. They should come with a shock pump.

I always just wind all the adjusters all the way one way, then all the way the other counting the clicks.

I then set them to the middle of the available click range and leave them there ’til I sell them.

Air pressure is set once, immediately after fitting them, and wearing whatever I had on for the maintenance even if they’re lead boots.

I’m pro me.

Why do you need to know the factory setting? Just adjust it to suit your needs.

mike bearing in mind mine have come with the air suggested for a 12 stone rider – i beg to differ. Maybe this was a mistake though, who knows 😉

Factory settings are surely optimal for mr average – like on the cane creek site – they have factory settings to tweak from as a starting point

rob jackson – Member
mike bearing in mind mine have come with the air suggested for a 12 stone rider – i beg to differ. Maybe this was a mistake though, who knows

PMSL 🙂 the suggested settings for my weight a while back left me unable to move the forks….

What is Mr Average, who decides? And how do you know you are Mr Average?

Just adjust the settings till it feels better then keep going till it worse and then go back again.

Regarding to the Cane Creek site, are you talking about the “base tunes” page? That is because its a rear shock, which means settings change massively depending on the suspension kinematics. Forks do not have the same problem.