I see a lot of talk on here from people worrying that they are not using full travel from their forks. Obviously it’s going to depend on conditions and riding style but should I be expecting to use full travel on a regular basis?

I’m no expert by any means but my setup has always been to keep a bit in reserve for if/when I hit something really big. So I usually have my forks set to use all but around 10mm when landing a small 2 footish drop that is on one of my regular rides. Am I doing it wrong?

Hmm, dissapearing thread.

Same for me, and it is quite noticeable the times when I use the final wee bit 😳, normally landing badly of a drop or something into some janky bomb hole and shouting **************** 🙂

Typically have a little in reserve.

What I don’t want to happen is have one of those “oh shit, I’ve dropped a bollock there, I’m going to die” moments and then have to deal with harsh bottom out as well!

Yes, I think you want to be using most of the travel on the biggest stuff you normally ride, with a bit in reserve for when things go bad.

I’m light so never really see full travel tbh

It’s just something I’ve often wondered about. Especially when I watch some headcam footage of riders and you can see their bars going up and down and hear a clanking sound in time with the bars movement. It always makes me think what is going on there? Bottom out/top out clunk? I never hear sounds like that from my forks.

Onzadog

What I don’t want to happen is have one of those “oh shit, I’ve dropped a bollock there, I’m going to die” moments and then have to deal with harsh bottom out as well

My thoughts exactly!

XC / light trail rider here. 1-2ft drops are the biggest trail features I’m likely to encounter on my rides. With my fork (130mm Fox 34) set up with my preferred sag (20%) I usually have a couple of cm in reserve.

Following the oldskool advice of setting up fork pressure to use all the travel during my rides results in a mushy, divey fork.

Almost never. Maybe if I’ve gone a bit fast, clumsy, and front heavy over a drop it’ll get close. Haven’t done any DH for a while and although I’ll stuck a couple more PSI in the tyres, I don’t mess with the suspension for an uplift/pushup day.

My forks have an air pressure top-out that ramps up the final 10-15mm of travel so significantly I doubt I’ll ever get to use full travel unless I’ve been dropped from a plane

I don’t remember exactly where, but I’ve read ‘about once or twice per ride’ bottoming out is the correct answer, because it shows you’ve got the forks set up right for your riding routes and style.
However, for me, the correct answer is never; if I’ve already got enough on the front to fully compress the forks I don’t want that sudden extra bang through my hands trying to knock me off.

I have 36’s and they’re showing around 130mm travel from my last ride. Last time I was in Morzine that would be upto more like 150mm. I could run them softer I’m sure but for the stuff I’m riding here it would make the front too wallow-ey. A shorter fork would probably be a good idea but I only really want one bike and it’s needs to not feel overwhelmed when it gets really rough.

I ride a RS Yari with MoCo.

Full travel remains a dream of ‘one day’….

For every hundred bottom outs on the shock I’d guess I have maybe one on the fork, probably less in fact!

That last 10-20mm is for moments of incompentence, confusion and/or disaster avoidance. That’s on the full-sus.

On the hardtail, it’s the same story of very infrequent use of full travel, except with hucks to flat where my 150mm fork is acting as ~50mm of suspension at the BB, so then it does all get used.

Interesting question OP, I have RockShox Lyrik Ultimate 2020, 160mm. No matter what I do, there is always maybe 20 – 25mm left in reserve. It often has me fretting that I’m not getting enough out of my forks, although the sag is at around 25mm and sensitivity is good.

I also struggle with listening to common “wisdom” and assuming I should be setting them a certain way, as opposed to how they feel on the trail. E. g, I emailed Airdrop for advice and they said the trick is to ride with more than recommended pressure to make sure you don’t ride in the midstroke. Now whatever I do I can’t seem to get away from this advice even if it means I’m not using the full potential (not full travel) of the fork as a result.

I’ve read ‘about once or twice per ride’ bottoming out is the correct answer, because it shows you’ve got the forks set up right for your riding routes and style.

I’d ignore this, TBH!
Set up the sag (static) for about 25%, and then adjust rebound and compression to get a good, non wallowy ride.
For 80% of your riding, you’ll use 80% of the travel.

Suggesting you MUST use 100% travel at least twice PER RIDE is daft!! I’ve a Trail stumpjumper… for an XC ish ride i’ll use 60% travel of the fork (160mm 36er)… and that feels nice, cos it’s set up right, and i’ll only encounter small bumps.
I’ll then take the same bike to BPW or Rogate, and likely use all the travel on big drops and hits.
Again, it feels good because it’s set up right, and i’m encountering big hits.

If i adjusted the settings for each ride, it’d get annoying!

Set the fork up right, and then ride what’s in front of you..

DrP

Rarely, just the oh-shit moments, but then a clunk is usually the least of my worries. As above a bit more for the shock though.

Never on either bike. I regularly use all the rear travel though. But I’m not a jumper and don’t do big drops, so I wouldn’t expect to bottom out a 140mm fork.

Both my Pike and Lyrik are setup so unless I have one of those oh sh*t moments where I really need saving from myself they probably don’t use the last 10mm of travel (both are 140mm travel – 1 on a ht – 1 on a trail fs bike).

I dunno – I just set it up so it feels right. I’m not sure either approach is right – full travel could easily end up with a divey mushy fork, likewise 10-20 mm is reserve could end up in a really stiff fork that you could never realistically use all the travel on. I’d err on the side of using more travel more regularly though – if things are that bad that you’re worrying about the last 10-20mm of travel on an already stiff fork you’re probably already in too deep and that last few mm isn’t going to help.

Surely, if you’ve set the sag correctly the trail conditions and you riding style will dictate how often you use full travel. Set them up hard and the majority of the ride will be harsh, set them up soft and the majority of the ride will be wallowy and too far into the travel.

It’s just about using the “appropriate” amount of travel.

ie, you’re not going to expect to use 200mm of travel on trail center blues, you’re probably going to expect to bottom out a 100mm xc fork on Fort William.

A lot of people in the 130-170mm bracket do seem to think they should be using full travel on a normal ride, see it as a goal to get their “moneys worth”, using more travel than you need to yields no benefit and probably counterproductive because you’ll probably be in a unstable mess.

There was a stern warning on the instructions for my Magura Menja fork that I should adjust the pressure according to the terrain I was planning to ride, and that if I didn’t get full travel then I hadn’t had as much fun as I could have.

Its really personal preference.
I could adjust sag/comp (and then rebound) for every different place I ride but for me that would leave to unpredictable behaviour so I prefer they are there for the “oh shit” moments.

I definitely wouldn’t correlate with the size of a feature in normal riding… rather I’d be aiming to use minimum travel on a good landing with reserve for a bad one.

By way of example? Recently had an OTB .. I’d just sessioned 2 bigger features and probably used a bit over 50% (on the HT) or the ring was sat there most of the day.. but then got past the actual features to a little drop (basically just trail not feature.. barely 2′ into a turn) … at some point (unknown) the tyre blew out and the travel was maxxed out after the small drop…

(For the amusement of Yak and DrP – P Plate)

I’ve a mate who sets his fork up to the recommended settings and he’s always bottoming it out, but hasn’t taken on board my advice to make some changes. So I stopped mentioning it.
He’s just been told the forks on one of his bikes are fubar’d and only good for scrap.

Me. I like a firmer setup anyway and can get a bit gung-ho sometimes so that works to my advantage for those moments when I really should have slowed down / picked a better line / checked what was on the other side of that drop / run out of talent.
Both front and rear have definitely been close to their limits but I’m yet to bottom either out, so as far as I’m concerned they’re set up just fine.

Worry less about how much travel you’re using and decide if you’re getting the right feel/behaviour from your bike. If you’re bike feels right and you’re not smashing your suspension to bits then it’s set up right for you, in which case ignore what everyone says and go for a ride.

There was a stern warning on the instructions for my Magura Menja fork that I should adjust the pressure according to the terrain I was planning to ride, and that if I didn’t get full travel then I hadn’t had as much fun as I could have

Yeah, see, i think this advice is rubbish!!

DrP

set sag and ride.

if you get full travel then: ‘fair play! that was rad!’ / ‘are you ok?’

around our way if i get 130mm out of my 150mm forks i`m doing well.

Oh well, I won’t worry about that one any more. Not that I was really, fairly happy with the way the forks perform. Twas just an idle musing really after reading about people fretting over not getting full travel, made me think it should be happening more often.

There was a stern warning on the instructions for my Magura Menja fork that I should adjust the pressure according to the terrain I was planning to ride, and that if I didn’t get full travel then I hadn’t had as much fun as I could have.

The lesson here, is never take technical advise from someone in Marketing.

I get laughed at by a very good rider as I like to keep a bit in reserve.

He expects to hit the bump stops 2-3x a ride.

I suspect his level of skill (I’m sure he has anti-gravity handle bars) means he knows when he’s going to hit and can use it to his advantage.

Many many many years ago when suspension first turned up, and forks had a claimed 45mm of travel… MBUK said that you should bottom out once a ride.

I guess the thinking is you are using all your travel on a typical ride.

I am not sure this is still good advice as we have so much more travel at our disposal.

I think it’s the nature of the large air spring that it ramps up so significantly, even without volume spacers, that getting full travel and setting them to 25% sag or so is much harder than with the rear shock.

I guess the solution would be a sort of external air reservoir or something