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If you want to go faster, you have to pedal harder

Suspension set-up issues

02/09/23 00:47 Filed in: Gear
If you read this blog regularly, then you’ll know I got a new Slash late last year. I took it to Tassie to ride the Blue Derby trails in March. I had the fork off the bike for a while so SRAM could look into its behaviour (oddly, it all checked out OK, despite it clearly being quite different at the end of the week in Tas than I was at the beginning. Maybe it wasn’t right to start?). Now that the bike is back together and summer is coming and the suspension is more or less fully broken in, it is time to worry about getting it set up “just right”.
Previously, I set it up by getting the sag close to correct and then adjusting the dials until it felt right. But I know I can do better than that with a little iterative adjusting.
Last weekend I installed the ShockWhiz on the fork. Getting all the air out of a RS fork is a difficult challenge for me. I am obviously missing the “how to” understanding as both my Zeb and Boxxer have thwarted me in the past in getting them empty. I finally got the Zeb empty when it wasn’t stuck down (the negative spring is the part I am functionally challenged to empty), measured all the parameters necessary, and then went for a ride with 78 psi in the air spring chamber.
After a 2-hour ride at Stromlo, the app suggested I was a little on the firm side with the air pressure. I reduced that to 72 psi this weekend, reset the app and did another 2-hour ride. Nothing changed except the app now says I need to reduce air pressure more (it has gone from amber to red). I don’t know how that is possible. Yet I can confirm I used a lot less travel than the first week, despite dropping 10% of the air out of the fork.
My plan for next ride is to zero the air pressure and pump back up to 70 psi before pedalling away. Can’t imagine it will make a big difference, but it seems worth trying to make sure the negative and positive air chambers are both at 70.
Once I get the fork dialled in, I will be going after the shock.
I never did this with the Canyon Sender for two, practical, reasons. I set the sag and rode it – it felt divine immediately. When I got the ShockWhiz out of the box to put it on the Canyon, I couldn’t find a location where the ShockWhiz would sit on or near the shock (it sits in a small tunnel) and I couldn’t get the air out of the fork to start calibrating. So I put the ShockWhiz back in its box and went back to riding the Sender.
Even with a ShockWhiz, you can set your suspension up badly. There are numerous set-up goals. You need to pick the one that is right for your bike and your riding (do you want planted or poppy, as an example). And the anomaly of my most recent ride aside, it is a valuable tool to baseline your settings and make known adjustments with measured outcomes. It is also good for diagnosing suspension problems. If your rebound circuit fails, that will show up when it calls for more rebound (but you find it is at zero clicks from full already).
For the first time that I can remember, I had to change the battery in the Whiz. The first ride on the Slash reported a low battery. It wouldn’t wake up a week later. Thankfully SRAM/Quarq designed it to be replaceable while mounted on a bike. It is a bit expensive for what it is and does. It won’t work with many forks (Manitou, DT, Formula, Ohlins and so on with dual positive air chambers or progressive air chamber designs). And paradoxically, I find it easier to use on Fox suspension than RockShox units. But all that aside, it is a useful tool. Something that monitored the front and rear simultaneously would be even better because it’s possible to have them working with, or against, each other. The bike shop has a telemetry unit they want to try out on my Slash in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to see it in action.

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