Shock Lockout – newbie question

Currently have a FS bike with remote lockout front and rear. A tad unhappy with how many cables/hoses hanging off the front of the bike (dropper, shifter, 2xbrakes, 2xlockout). Use the lockout but not convinced it’s life changing in terms of bike performance, suspect (with little evidence) that it’s more important for locking out the forks. Dunno.

Have bought a Vitus Rapide FS bare frame and I’m looking for a shock for it. I can find something affordable without remote, just lever operated. Is it much of a faff to reach down and operate this when riding? Never used one before and worried I’ll shove my fingers into the chainring or spokes or something.

Advice and thoughts, please.

You won’t be able to reach the lockout on the Vitus given the shock is mounted upside down.

https://vitusbikes.com/cdn/shop/files/720753934-img-01_2667x2000.jpg?v=1692270622

Looking at pictures online it looks like the shock is positioned so most shocks will have the lockout lever right down between the downtube and rear tube – would think that’s a pain to operate by hand.

Equally it’s a short travel bike so I’d just make sure you pickup a shock that has a decent pedalling platform and adjustable low speed compression. That way you shouldn’t need a lockout lever really.

If they make one that fits that bike a Cane Creek Db Air IL would be a good option I think.

Actually, if it fits Swinnerton are listing the DB Air IL with 165×40 in stock. And the lockout lever is on the top end of the shock.

https://www.swinnertoncycles.co.uk/cane-creek-suspension-db-air-il-trunnion-p108279

Ah, except the trunnion mount is at the bottom of the frame 🤯

not a fan of switching lockouts on anything, so always set my compression up to a happy medium, if i were racing xc then id probably want bar mounted lockout to on the fly switch between open and locked

only other time that id possibly consider using a lockout would be insanely long climbs, which would end in a stop and recoup, like 30 minute climbs, otherwise it stays open

i guess what I’m saying is if you aren’t actively locking and unlocking as you ride, not just, for climbs, i mean hopping into sprints locked out and unlocking for short descents and then sprinting again, i don’t feel you should be overly concerned, especially on a short travel efficient bike.

if i was doing a lot of climbing on something heavier and longer travel, with heavy tyres etc and felt a lot of bobbing, i might reach for it then if every minute amount of energy saving was wanted

My shock has a 3 position lever on it, not actual lockout, it basically just changes damper positions.

It’s not a major faff to reach down and flick if you want to, but TBH I’ve sort of arrived at the point where I just leave it in ‘Trail’ mode 95% of the time.

I rarely use lockout. Modern bikes suspension works really well. The only time I consider it is if there is a long road climb. Fire roads, then I still use the suspension open.

Whenever I’ve had suspension that locked out, on the rare occasions I remembered to use it I didn’t really notice a difference on the bits it was supposed to help (i.e. climbing), but I did when I realised I’d forgotten to unlock it on the bits it was supposed to be off for (like descending).

So…

Advice and thoughts, please.

Don’t bother buying one with a lockout and if you do, don’t bother using it

You won’t be able to reach the lockout on the Vitus given the shock is mounted upside down.

I can on my Izzo with a very similar setup.

you can flick the lockout on the vitus frame, it’s not ideal, but you can reach and get to it.

However.

SIDluxe shocks have the lever lockout 180degrees to open. when locked it’s very very close to punching a hole in the frame. don’t get one of those.

the vitus is very active. don’t get a retail shock unless it’s tuned. the vast majority come set med rebound and med compression and the compression will be far too light for the vitus and will be a mushy mess, or overpressured, with little in between. find something adjustable, or with a high compression tune, or both.

the cane creek shock above will still have the lockout at the ‘bottom’ as that’s where the trunnion mount is, it’s just the air can that’s on the other end.

I ended up with a fox DPS, but that was still not quite right. I’ve hear some have sucess with rockshox deluxe RCT.

also, a 42.5 stroke shock will work in the vitus, but a 45mm won’t.

also….you can potentially upgrade the rear (or rocker, I’m not sure) to run 120mm rear travel as Carbonda, the frame manufacturer have two options for the frame now.

last but not least. you can, if you are stuck, run a trunnion conversion to run a standard 165×38 shoc, have slightly less travel and have a lockout more accessible, and open up a world of cheap used shocks on ebay.

jury is out on how well the trunnion converters work, it’s basically a long internally threaded steel bar, so needs to be pretty strong.

Thanks for the very comprehensive reply. I’m beginning to think I should just stick with my existing bikes, a 2018 Trek Top Fuel 9.8. Or stick with a hardtail. 🙈

I’m only going to use the bike for wobbling round Haldon/FoD, maybe Cwmcarn, plus some routes around Dartmoor,Quantocks etc. I deffo won’t be pushing the bike hard, not enough skills and not enough legs.

I never bother locking mine out.

To be fair, my reply was based on how i like fs bikes to ride, some like them active. I mean, take the specialized fsr 4 bar setup, its pretty active, loads love it, i didn’t.

So you may love it open all the time.

Ony foxy, I leave it open most of the time, as said further up I only lock it off on long slogs (then forget to open it up again) . The back end feels dead if it’s vaguely rough feels horrid though.