I've just taken delivery of a new Genesis Altitude with these fitted. Despite having been a mountain biker for umpteen years, most mechanical stuff passes me by. I've had a look at the on-line user manual for these, but it's incomprehensible.

So, put simply, how do I set them up? I know about adjusting the travel, and about the lockout (the knobs on top of each fork leg), but is there anything else to adjust? And what's the wee red bit on the bottom of the right hand leg?

Cheers.

And what's the wee red bit on the bottom of the right hand leg?

that controls how fast your damping works, should have a picture of a tortoise and hare, slow and quick

Wee dial at the bottom is the rebound adjuster- it alters how fast or slow the fork returns to the fully extended position. Too fast and it'll buck about and not respond to bumps properly, too slow and it'll stay down and you may as well have a rigid fork. There is a range of useability nearer the slow end (should be a picture of a tortoise on your fork!)- try 2 360 turns back from the fully slow setting and work from there.

You also need to asjut the air pressure for your weight- you should find some pressures in the manual, somewhere. There'll be an air cartridge on one of the legs, not sure with the travel adjuster fork where it is but I'd assume on the bottom, on the side opposite the rebound. A shock pump should have come with your bike (if not, go back to the shop and ask for it), and use that to pump it to a pressure near that in the manual and see if it feels good. If it's too hard, let some air out. If it's too soft put more in.

That should see you right.

I woudl assume:

– the dial on the LH leg is the U-Turn adjustment, turn towards + sign for more travel, – sign for less, one full turn = 7.5mm in either direction.

– dial on RH leg is the compression/lockout, the more towards the closed padlock sign teh more locked out the fork is.

– set the rebound at half way between hare & tortoise and take it from there, see how it feels when cornering, descending etc.

I had to log in and Rolf beat me to it.

Air pressure give you your spring stiffness, U-turn your travel adjust, then the red knob your damping speed.

they should be crackin' forks.

Any blue bit, adjusts compression (how hard it is to compress the forks) and anything red adjusts rebound (how quickly the bounce back)
Yours seem to be air and coil. Under the blue screw off cover is a schraeder valve for adding more/less air. Add or let out air until you have 25% sag (i.e. when sat on the bike, as when riding, they compress by 25%). Do this with the travel at 130mm and aim to make it squash to 110mm (I know that isn't 25%, but see how it goes). Your other option if they are still too harsh/soft, is to change the coil spring.
The red doofer at the bottom is rebound damping – turn it fully anti-clockwise, then count how many turns make it go fully clockwise – back it off 1/4 of those turns and see how that goes. Try it all the way off and all the way on and find the setting for you in between (the 3/4 on is a good rule of thumb for me)

Must teach at least one extra finger to type!

Okay, thanks for all that. I've got the damping set to midway now (although is the red bit supposed to pull out?).

Still can't see the compression bit though? There's a blue knob on top of the right hand leg, but it doesn't seem to come off. It just seems to swivel to lock the fork out. And on the bottom of the left hand leg is just a metal allen bolt looking thingy?

you can pull it out in order to adjust something else on some forks.

just set it and stick the red bit in your pack alongside patches etc incase you need to adjust mid-ride.

Will do alpin.