Adjusting Rear Suspension Spring Rate on Downhill Mountain Bikes

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: Just like with your front suspension, the first step for setting up rear suspension is making sure that your spring rate's right. On most bikes, like around 30% or 40% sag is what you want for downhill use and you'd measure it the same way as you would with a fork. You can see I've got a little O-ring here on my shock shaft. So I'm going to, I push it all the way up. Now, I'm going to get on my bike, sort of get into my riding position and see how much sag I get. So, it's hard to measure on this specific bike, 'cause this shock has a hard valving it. But, about, you know that much after, about 30% sag is what we're looking for, and that's about where I am. This is an air shock, so to change the spring rate, there's an air valve right here, so I'd put, I'd add or subtract air to get the amount of sag that I want. Most bikes for downhill and free ride application have a coil shock which the insides are the same, but instead of having this canister full of air here, it has a coil spring. So, coil spring rate, you can't really change as easily as air spring rate. You have to take the shock off the bike and change the coil. It's one of those things, go to a good bike shop, tell them that--sit on your bike, help you to set up your sag. And then if you need a new spring, they'll get you a new spring, but you want between 30% and 40% sag, you want to bottom out your bike at least two or three times a run. Get full travel. Make sure when you get to the bottom of your run, you see your O-ring all the way down here, and then go from there with damping setups."