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After knowing what the tires felt like I unlocked the forks into the middle setting with the adjusted rebound. It was much improved over last time, but still didn’t hook up as well as in climb mode. Then I flipped it down to decent mode and that still sucks lol. I did flip back and forth between climb and trail quite a few times to compare what the front was doing.
What I noticed after the ride is my travel bands didn’t move as far as normal. I’m not sure if it was the rolling resistance slowing me down through fast sections that I normally blow through the travel pretty often or if it was the rebound helping to keep it up in the stroke more. When I set the forks the other day they were at 18%, after the ride they are riding about 13% sag so next time I will try it at 20%. It is hotter today then when I set them so that was my mistake not double checking them before the ride.
Overall my average speed is in the same area as normal, my top speed is down a few mph. So through the fast sections I was slower, but the tight stuff I was able to push more than normal for how the dirt is right now and made up the difference. This was a 10.5 mile ride so I had a good about of time to compare the settings.
Big.dos, yes I’m more moto back ground and prefer a stiffer setup.
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Also, rebound should be pretty quick... try opening it up, and slowing your low-speed compression a little to hold your fork up once your pressures/sag are a bit more on the money.... could be similar our back, you want to be evenly distributed. Could be your unweighting the front.
Tyre pressure – i'm 240-250 pounds, not slow, our trails are rocky... I've got cushcore but run at least 26–27 PSI up front... 28–30 on the back.
I've not had any luck not destroying DHR/DHFs... Lots of our mates run the Assegais from Maxxis. I'm running the Michelin Wilds. So good. Try em out!
But more than anything else – body position is way more sensitive to turning on a mtb. Get up front and you can make that thing turn, literally on a dime. It's ridiculous how quick and tight you can turn even before you start whipping them with your legs or doing cutties.
Get your setup sorted for feel, but watch someone like Bryn Atkinson for technique. MTB isn't moto at all.
I tore quite a few minions around the beads so went back to butchers because of price. But the michelins shit on butchers, and are similar price. Maxxis Assegais get a lot of good reviews here too and the DH type guys run double DHFs also.
Honestly, won't be disappointed in Wilds though, they're unreal!
If you are a big fella, and running 35 psi in your tyres would suggest that you are, you really need some volume spacers in the air chamber, allows lower fork pressure while allowing the fork to retain enough ramp up to resist bottom out
use the little oring on the fork to determine how much travel you are using on a normal ride this should be approx 80% of total travel, keeping a little in reserve for when you get out of shape
If the fork feels better in the climb mode that is because the lockout switch is increasing the compression, it is not a true lock out, just increases the compression damping until the fork feels locked
As previously suggested 35 psi is crazy in your tyres, im 200 plus pounds and fast, and i never get close to 30psi
Change your tyres, go to something with a better sidewall and mix and match tyres, grip and support on the front, slightly faster rolling on the rear
Forks wise the compression is maxed and I left them in trail mode the whole ride. Rebound is set at full open. The travel o-ring shows about 90% of travel used. Also of note I took the fork cap off and there are no tokens in the forks.
Tire pressure I put the rear back to 35 and bumped the front up to 28 and that seems like a good spot for these tires, they hooked up better than last ride (30r 25f) and were fast rolling and didn’t drag me down.
The bike did feel better and didn’t push as bad as it has been in trail mode so we’ve made progress, good work guys lol. My legs are sore from Monday’s ride and some leg workouts yesterday so my average speed was a little slower than it felt like when I was riding. I’ll ride again Friday and I’ll keep the same settings, but flip between climb and trail and see if it’s better one way or the other. I’m gonna order the DHF for the front and I think the Aggressor for the rear so hopefully I’ll be able to give those a try next week.
As you decrease the air volume in the fork you can decrease pressure to get better small bump compliance whilst still retaining mid stroke support and enough bottom out resistance to prevent bottoming, spacers are the key as all the dial adjustments in the world wont help unless you get your spring rate correct, and spring rate in an air fork is a function of volume and psi
Pit Row
I've recently got my bike better balance wise... I had too slow rebound out back and it was chattering. I think I still need maybe a little more low-speed compression for g-outs/berms. I have a tendency to run too much rebound and not enough compression, probably the other way around is whereI need to be to stop it packing...
But now that the shock is following the ground quite nicely, i'm experimenting with the fork again – I want to chase a better base PSI then add tokens as needed. I think I can run a higher pressure and low-speed comp to keep the fork where it should be, and maybe 2 tokens (was 3) and again less rebound to let it follow the ground.
I do think it's interesting how sag is kinda viewed differently for MTB and moto. Sag almost only ever seems to be viewed in mtb as an indicator of your spring rate... but the impact on turning etc isn't as readily discussed. In moto it's an indication but people play with it to get the thing to settle or turn.
In moto, no-one wants a fast rear end rebound wise. But in MTB, I constantly hear people wanting "pop"! And then you watch friday fails on pinkbike and EVERYONE is going over the bars off a jump!
Out front I checked for bottoming like he video showed and I can bottom the forks out pushing on them full open, but in trail mode I can only get them to about 80-85%. I forgot to check on my fork size though so I can order the token kit so I'll do that tonight. Once I get them I'll get it setup so they don't bottom in full open and see how is rides. I'm also going to open the low speed compression back up and slow down the rebound 3 clicks and see how that does tonight.
Sounds like some tokens will definitely help you. On my old bike, before I upgraded the Yari to a Lyrik, trail mode was better than open, because I got some ramp up and the initial was shit either way. Now I’m looking for better sensitivity and then the same bottoming resistance.
For how it rode and handles it stuck to the ground almost like the dirt was tacky for the most part. It’s very dry hard pack with some spots chunking up because it’s so dry. The areas I knew it normally slides or pushes it held much better and the sliding it did do was very predictable and I kept peddling through it. The front bite was improved enough that some of the turns with the real loose stuff when the front held I was basically power sliding the rear because as I was peddling the side was stepped out in a very predictable slip. The fast rocky sections it handled the best it ever has with way less deflection then I remember.
Out back I had a little hopping here and there through the loose rock/root section. On the fast sections it stayed pretty planted and didn’t do any weird bucking or side hopping. I know that if I drop the rear pressure some that would help.
Overall it was a decent mph average being .1 mph off my PB average and 1.3 mph off my PB max speed. I lend some of that to trail condition changes and the accuracy of my garmin since it’s refresh rate isn’t the best at speeds. I did notice faster speeds than normal in a few sections because of how the suspension was keeping the tires planted better and not losing forward drive due to a hop.
Next step – pull a few unnecessary scandis and burn those tyres out, so you can justify some new ones!
The Maxxis Assegais are meant to be great, same with Minions but i've just never had any luck with their sturdiness. Keep slashing/tearing sidewalls with them. A lot of our trails are dirty rocky shit though too.
I've ridden the DHF for a while and it's given me zero issues over some extremely rocky terrain and hooks up in the loose stuff too. I also have the same tire on my Specialized Demo 8 DH as well. I'm waiting for my order for the Assegai to show up for my rears on both rigs so I can stop spinning my rear butcher on the climbs and in corners under braking.
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