Hey Y'all,
I am currently riding a 23 fc350 and am waiting to build this more into a hare and hound/hare scramble/ enduro build. I have slowly been building the bike up to be better for this but want to start on the suspension now. I was able to get a hold of the valving cards and will be changing the valving next week when the rest of my shims and seals get in. First of all I will be doing the forks, I got some of the red cones from alpine xc to try. After speaking to the owner he suggested I soften my base valving to the stock XC-F setting. Hes going to set the cone valve float to something that is closer to what he said would be good for desert. Hes based in Utah and I've been to some of the races so we at least were talking the same terrain. The 2 round in Utah at little Sahara and I spoke with him about the Idaho City 100. I can podium my local Vet A class hare scrambles but Vet A hare and hound I get pretty smoked but still finishing mid pack in the class.
I am curious if someone could maybe suggest some valving options for the rear. I am worried that my current MX setting will be too stiff overall for a lot of stuff especially loop 2 when we get into the trees it gets rockier and slows down a bit. I was going through my shim stash to see what I had before ordering and found my 22 ktm 450 xc-f valving. This valving was done by a reputable west coast off road tuner for a Open B Desert rider. Measuring the tune I was pretty surprised the amount of face shims they used and the larger od crossover and thicker shim. The rest of the stack is thinner so I was thinking its not as stiff as it appears. I know that the leverage rate and chassis didn't change between these 2 generations so its not apples to apples but probably some what close. I am a bit torn on what to install. Part of me thinks just go to the stock XC setting but I am a little worried it wont be stiff enough but the other tune I have might be too much. Any suggestions on direction here? Anyone got a good desert/enduro setting for the new gen bikes?
Trying to get this figured out this week, there is a good chance I can come race rd 5.
Race the same class as you at NHHA, major sandbaggers who race pro/aa in other series. But anyway I’ve found the mid-valve set up to be much more important on the AER then the base valve to deal with the rocks. My valve stack is much softer than stock xc and float at 2.0mm. I like my forks planted and able to absorb all the junk/loose rock/chop. I’m on 450xcf fwiw
Any insights on the base valving you're using?
I ended up with an XC base valve and red cones in the mid valves. I ran 154psi and 12 clicks out I think rebound around 18. The cone valve is set to about .7 float. This was the suggested float for desert riding. I set the rear to pretty close to the xc setting but the shims in the compression adjuster are still the FC setting.
I was expecting it to be much softer but to my surprise it had pretty good hold up but it was kind of dry and shitty out so felt a little scare with the new settings to really charge but grew into it. Still need more testing but the fork still had a lot of hold up and bottoming resistance.
Unfortunately I'd have to open the forks up to get my exact settings. .7 float is very tight imo for offroad, I even found 1.7 too tight and settled at 2.0 but I prefer a soft fork that stays on the ground, any deflection shakes my confidence. I also run a much lower psi, 138. I think when most think desert they think high speeds, sand and whoops, many tuners haven't race the events and the 2nd loops of NHHA are often very technical, rocky and sections can be "slow" making traditional woods/enduro settings shine so don't shy from trying what most would consider a woods/enduro/singletrack set up.
Yeah I agree on the 2nd loop comment. The one year I did Lucerne I was amazed how rocky some of the virgin trail was. .7 float on a cone valve so not sure if its apples to apples.
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Are you on a current gen Austrian chassis? Curious what sag and fork height you run for NHHA racing.
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