Got myself some new forks and shock and my knowledge of them stops after I’ve put air in them. I suspect they need more of a setting that a tweaking. I can twist the dials and add/remove air but I’m not confident enough to disassemble and reconfigure.
I’m riding quicker but at times I think I can feel both wallowing but other times I can’t feel a thing.
I’m needing to go to someone who knows what to do with a chat about what I want.
Any recommendations?

What fork is it?

Flotec offer this kind of service.

Pike Select RC and a Deluxe RT3 Debonair.

At a guess, the pressures are right as the travel indicator rings are suggesting but I think the internals need a tweak.

Excellent, ta. Have used them previously for servicing, didn’t realise they did tuning, will contact them, ta.

See Andy at Stirling Bike Doctor – he does full service and can advise on set up.

Flotec did a great job of tuning my rear shock, but I knew exactly what I wanted.
Before going down that route maybe try a shockwiz to see what it thinks of your settings. Stirling Bike Doctor hire them out for £35 per weekend. Even if you still need internal work, it might give a better idea of what’s going wrong.

Im just planning some new dates for suspension tuning days (Im guessing were talking the Bird here?). Look out for some dates on FB soon. The nearest to you will probably be Glentress though but I don’t think thats too far…

That would be properly helpful!

but I think the internals need a tweak.

What makes you think that?

On your fork you have…

Low Speed compress adjust (the big blue dial), low speed rebound (the big red knob), air pressure, air volume (the air spacers, grey or Reddy orange).

What you want to do is set sag correctly first (Google this, as there’s loads of videos on it). 0.5/10 for difficulty.

Your low speed compression will adjust how quickly the fork can compress in response to trail chatter. It effectively holds the fork up in its travel. So if you find yourself with a wallowy fork, you can add some low speed compression.

Your low speed rebound has a similar effect, you generally want to set it as fast as you can without it bucking you off the bike.

Volume adjusters, they adjust how much force is needed on the fork to compress it.

If you feel like the fork feels good for small bumps, but blows through the travel too quickly on bigger bumps – pop a volume spacer in. Again loads of videos how to do this. 1/10 for difficulty.

The fork and shock you own have limited scope for set up unless you open them up and shim tune them.

It isn’t that difficult to set up a fork and a shock.

Set the fork and shock both to 25% sag. Use the kerb method to initially set shock rebound and the pull up test for the fork rebound.

Go ride the bike and see what its like. Look to tune initial up to 70% travel by adjusting air pressure. If the fork is too soft braking wise add 5psi, if the shock is too wallowy do the same. If it is too hard release 5psi. If you adjust air pressure remember to check rebound.

Once the suspension is set up for up to 70% travel look to how it reacts to larger hits. at this point you may have to add a volume spacer or if you don’t do big hits (from your own perspective) then leave alone.

as far as the fork LSC goes I’d suggest only adjusting if you need a little bit more support for sprinting and G-out control.

ride the bike for a bit and then see what needs adjusted if anything.

It feels like it is going through its travel too quickly, feels like it wallows a bit.

I’m getting full travel on both but I’m thinking it isn’t a ‘sharp’ as I’d like.

Sag is just over 25% on both, but I think it might be going through its travel too quickly for smaller stuff which is why it feels a bit wallowy.

Haven’t properly bottomed it out but travel indicator is only about 2mm from the limit on rear and 3mm on fork.

I’m not sure how to fix the wallow as the air pressure feels right.

I don’t know enough about the internals and what can be done to do it myself, hence the question.

are there tokens/reducer bands in the suspension?

try adding a bit of LSC to the fork and add a bit of air to the shock (5psi)

No idea what is inside them just now, but I have 3 tokens for the fork – 2 came with bike and I had a spare from an earlier set of Pikes; and I got 2 tokens for the rear shock with the bike.

Previous forks were set at 85psi (2015 Pike RC 130mm), so I’d set the new ones (Pike Select RC 140mm) with about 90psi – gave me about 30% sag…I’ve just added more air so now about 105psi and I’m showing just over 25% sag.

Rear shock is showing just over 25% sag as well. I backed off the rebound to almost zero (all the way to the hare – then 3 clicks towards tortoise).

Then I tried it in the street and it felt a bit tauter whilst trying to pedal out the saddle. Then I took it down a double set of stairs – first lot are 3 steps then a gap and 3 steps and a gap; second set is groups of 6 stairs equally spaced then another 6 wider gaps, then 6 closer gaps).

Bike felt much more planted and I charged down the stairs compared to my usual attempts.

So adding the air and backing off the rebound on the rear end appears to have made a difference. I’ll see how that behaves tomorrow night but it is definitely feeling better – so thanks for the suggestions.

Rear shock is showing just over 25% sag as well. I backed off the rebound to almost zero (all the way to the hare – then 3 clicks towards tortoise).

Off is all the way to slow then turn towards fast to increase.

Ah…hang on…I was speeding up the rebound so the shock returned quicker – so turn towards Hare, yeah?

Either way, the shock feels better as it doesn’t feel wallowy.

This is posted on Flotec’s website. Anyone know what is going on?

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