Quick poll….

Presuming you’ve a MTB which has a shock and/or forks which can be run in a variety of modes, such as lockout/climb/descend/open etc, do you use and switch between the various suspension modes, or just leave them set in ‘open’ all the time?

I’m interested in how many riders proactively use the various modes, or whether in reality for the average rider they are just a ‘marketing’ feature.

fwiw – I just leave my shock (Fox Float CTD) and forks (Pikes) in open (descend) mode all the time.

Yes.
But then I am far from average 😛

Nope, I ride all my bikes rigid.
Too old and easily confused.

Shock yes, forks maybe.
On the XC race bike it’s bar mounted so it’s easy and makes enough of a difference when racing to make sure I do it. On the trail bike (vpp) the difference is much smaller but worth it on the big climbs

Fox Float CTD fork always in Trail.
Fox Float CTD shock, use all 3 modes.

what tim said. ALl my stuff (at least for the next two days) is fully rigid. Havent ridden suspension for over 5 years.

never use lock out me. 🙂

Yes I adjust mine constantly. But I know that some of my mates just leave them open all the time.

Yup. Got a Lefty Supermaxso an easy reach for the button and a Fox Dyad with a decent remote. Be rude not to. There again not too much need to do it ’round here.

No because my bike works properly 😀

Fiddle with the rear shock a bit (CTD with trail adjust) but generally leave the fork open unless I’m on a road section. That’s on a single pivot bike (Five).

In general I’d say that I fiddle less as time goes by. I used to always be flicking switches, but these days it tends to be Climb when I’m climbing something relatively smooth and Open the rest of the time, with the fork only being touched once in a blue moon.

I did find that I needed to lock the front fork yesterday when trying to ride uphill through the snow, but that’s pretty rare.

Yes, change my forks from locked / climb / open all the time when riding.

I wouldn’t have bought a bike that I needed to switch. From experience I know that I’m always in the wrong mode due to forgetfulness.

Forks yes sometimes but depends how long and technical the climb is and how fun the descent is as I’ve fubarred my Revs more than once leaving them locked out whilst doing descents with drops, jumps etc, even with the floodgate…..banging full travel with them locked is not good 😆

On my shock I remember to use climb on the ups and then usually remember to use descend mid way on the downs.

Forks, fully open all the time.

I do on the shock but very rarely on the forks. But then I have suspension designed correctly, for descending, without silly compromises.

PS winky face.

Leave them open.

Unless im really sturggling up a climb, then its as firm as they go, in the belief that this will make the climb a breeze.

It doesn’t.

T then forget to switch back to fully open for the descent.

Then at the bottom i swear a lot, switch to fully open and the whole process repeats.

As an example I did 2 stages (of 4) of an enduro with my rear shock (and maybe one of them with the fork done too) locked out. Apparently there wasnt a ‘half hardtail’ category, despite my protestations

Nope. Got it all tuned to a silly level so it’s fully functional full time.

Onzadog – Member
Nope. Got it all tuned to a silly level so it’s fully functional full time

What compromise do you have it tuned for?

Nope, run pike rct3s and a Db inline so appropriate use of low speed compression damping makes it fairly unnecessary. On long climbs I might lock out but usually don’t bother.

Shock just gets left alone. Sag and rebound set to suit me, that’s it, Maestro , ( Giant’s rear set up )doesn’t bob much.
Lock my fork now and again on long fire road or dull big climbs, like many , forget to unlock it , but threshold thing set, so anything nasty and it should ( er hem, ) spring back to life.
Mostly though it just gets left alone.

Same set up as mrhoppy and the same in use too.

When I remember yes

I ride a specialized so yes, I do use the rear lockout on every uphill unless it’s mega tech. On the forks it is rare for me to use trail mode on my Pikes, i run them in open or locked for normal riding and locked on uphills that are smoother than a fireroad. I run them in just trail mode in races.

Forks stay the same 95% of the time (if I am riding downhill I may add a bit of compression damping)

Shock get used in all three settings. Lock for local flat trails and climbing. Middle setting for rougher stuff and fully open for downhill.

I’ve just got a monarch debonair and am very impressed with it and how well it works in all three settings.

Open all the time. I’m quite happy riding like this.

At the minute – no.

PP on the RP2 doesn’t do anything (bought to trial 200x57mm so I knew that when I bought it), but would if I had a CCDB Inline.

De-floodgated the Lyrik.

Mrhoppy & downhilldave – what bikes have you got? My bandit bobs quite a bit with the inline fully open. Will try adjusting LSC a bit more

Shock yes
Fork rarely

Presuming you’ve a MTB which has a shock and/or forks

I love the ‘fully rigid’ brigade whenever there’s a question about suspension. Typical STW response.

mikewsmith – Member
Onzadog – Member
Nope. Got it all tuned to a silly level so it’s fully functional full time

What compromise do you have it tuned for?

Who says there has to be a compromise?

I’m on a spectral now, I had an rp23 on my Bandit and had that tuned by j-tech so that I didn’t need to bother so I’m sure I could have sorted it with an inline.

I tend to find I like a bit more compression and a bit less rebound damping than the factory settings from the 2 bikes I’ve had dbs on.

If the climb is smooth I’ll lock both front and rear (Bos Kirk & rockshox pike rct3), if its a bit bumpy I’ll leave it open

Who says there has to be a compromise?

Even with the most efficient pedal platform I’ve felt lock out to be better for hard pedalling, same as descend being better full open and some being better in the middle trail settings, if you tune for one thing it’s hard to tune for all.

Cheers mrhoppy

Fork- never
Shock- fairly often

Yes with the fork (reba rl) but only for long draggy climbs, but my shock (rp23) spends most of it’s time in pro-pedal 2 (maybe 3 if I’m racing) mode and only really gets fully opened if really thrashing it down a long downhill (eg alps/BPW)

Fork most of the time but on road I am a stand up climber – no tif it is massively rough and i need to track

Rear cannot lock but do switch RP between climb and not climb – though I dont notice much if i forget – up ir down tbh with rear.

Fork – yes. Mainly for the geometry. I find that a 6″ fork tends to waggle around on longer climbs. At 4″ setting, it gets me in a better position over the front for climbing.
Shock – Hardly ever.
Reverb – up and down more times than a whore’s drawers.

On a xc hard tail, so the fork is just locked out riding 2 km on tarmac (includes a very steep hill) to trailhead and fork is left open for the actual off road riding 🙂