This might be heresy, but chanced across an article the other day arguing that the resistance of clutch mech negatively effects suspension performance. Now I understand that in a theoretical matter, but I cant imagine there are any real world differences – or am I wrong? Saint/xx1 gets pretty damn stiff… Any strongly worded opinions, ravings or non-sequiturs’ welcome 🙂

Chris Porter runs his mechs with clutch off for that reason.

Suspect the benefits of a clutch far outweigh any theoretical disadvantage

Take your chain off too. chains also interfere with suspension action regardless of having a clutch or not

Yeah Chris Porter is usually behind this sort of thing.

Anyway, I ran mine off for a few rides because I forgot about it, no the rear didn’t suddenly become super plush and nothing came alive, trails or otherwise, but my chain did pop off.

Yes it does but it’s a prime example of the difference between quality and quantity. Yes it does do it, but by how much?

can’t tell the difference myself with the clutch off or on whilst riding until a big enough drop to cause chain slap.

stayed true even after I tightened the clutch up.

but then I do have a decent bike with minimal chain growth.

What legend said.

You might as well remove the chain if clutch mech tension is an issue.

Yep probably quantifiable but I really couldn’t care as the benefits are there for me. Bit like the massively reduced friction in the specialized shock yolks that kills cane Creek shocks, I’ll stick with bushings thanks.

callmetc – Member
but then I do have a decent bike with minimal chain growth.

a bike being “decent” doesn’t relate to chain growth

It’s a Porterism. He keeps using Neko Mulally’s chainless run as evidence showing removing the clutch makes you faster, and just ignoring that Neko says it was nothing to do with it- it was because he thought he had nothing to lose so just “pinned it as hard as I can” Says it all really.

You can test it yourself though, so why not? That’s where it really falls down- as if every racer and team in the world looked at this and went “Well we could test it… Nah, it’s too hard to flick the lever”.

legend – Member
callmetc – Member
but then I do have a decent bike with minimal chain growth.
a bike being “decent” doesn’t relate to chain growth

but a decent suspension linkage does.

My clutch mech was sticking on my X1 it was creaking when the rear suspension was compressed and friccin annoying !

Stripped it and re greased and still doing it so sent it back to sram and it was replaced under warranty

callmetc – Member

but a decent suspension linkage does.

No, chain growth at the top of the chainring to cassette is closely modelled and designed to give the correct pedalling and suspension characteristics under load the designer wants. But none will look at how much slack the mech has to take up or even what point in the travel it has to do this, as suspension curves are not linear.

This is because the load from the clutch is dependant on what gear you are in, how much chain is flapping about, how much tension you set it to, the position of the mech arm, how much resistance the clutch gives at different points (the highest resistance in the clutch is at the initial movement), etc.

Basically impossible to model well.

It will have an effect, but given 99% of people dont have a personally tuned shock (and I dont mean ticking ‘hucker’ box when posting it to TF), id say its probably not a worry.

It will have an effect, but given 99% of people dont have a personally tuned shock (and I dont mean ticking ‘hucker’ box when posting it to TF), id say its probably not a worry.

Reminds me of the syndicate lourdes vid with preaty ripping the piss out of minaar on the micro adjustments

Anyone who thinks, and can’t work out, that the relatively tiny load created by a clutch mech (i’d estimate something like an additional 10 to 20N, but you’d need to measure it dynamically) is going to have a measurable/quantifiable effect on suspension dynamics (where loads are in the kN’s) on a typical bike is, frankly, not as clever as they think they are……….

So, in summary:

Will it have an effect? Yes, but it’s so small that the benefits (not loosing your chain) massively outweigh the practically non-existent negatives….

Does the clutch get hot? A damper gets hot from dissipating all that bump energy so the clutch temp should tell you if it’s significant.

I’ve not checked it myself, but that’s how I’d go about it if I had any concerns.

Anyway, I ran mine off for a few rides because I forgot about it, no the rear didn’t suddenly become super plush and nothing came alive, trails or otherwise, but my chain did pop off.

+1
except my chain stayed on but it was clattering about like a noisy bagstard!

simple solution to this massive problem is to keep the clutch switched on and replace the shock with a wooden/metal rod of the same length…job sorted!

Can’t tell the difference with the clutch on or off, but I’ve done a few chainless runs on rugged trails and I’m sure the suspension felt better.

Wasn’t so great when I tried to pedal for the (imaginary) finish line at the bottom though.

I’ve done several chainless runs on my dh bike, made no difference I could feel but you do try to keep up your momentum on corners n’that more than normal.