Weight to Air Pressure ratio's

Buckle

Afternoon all. First post on Bike Radar so please be gentle!

I've just treated myself to a '07 Trek Fuel EX 9 after my 10 year old GF Joshua finally bit the dust. Unforunately, the bike never came with any manuals for the shocks front & rear; Fox Talas RL and Fox Float RPL.

I've checked the Fox site and gather that after measuring the sag, I need to adjust the air in both shocks to my body weight. I did find a table somewhere on the net giving the ratio's but can't for the life of me remember where, but to get to the point, I wonder if anyone out there could just confirm if the info given seems right. I'm 5' 5", 12.5 stone (approx. 80kg or 175lbs) and the table I have says to have the air pressure at about 114psi or 8.2 bar. I know the suspension needs to bed in but it seemed quite a harsh ride.

Does anyone know where there might be a more reliable table as I can't find one on the Fox site.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

supersonic

Ignore the charts and go on sag. If you adjust the pressure after measuring sag, you alter the sag! Aim for 25%

Buckle

Thanks supersonic.

This is where I have a problem though. How do you adjust the shock to make the sag allowance? Do you just keep letting the air out to bring it down by say 15-25%?

I'm really having trouble getting my head around this as surely the shock will sag whenever you get on the bike regardless of how much air you put in or take out.

Sorry for being so rubbish, but I really don't get it. 10 years of coil over shock is now coming back to haunt me...
:oops:

Many thanks.

supersonic

You need to measure how much it sags. if the shaft stroke is 51mm, you want about 13mm of sag - sometimes there is an o ring on the shaft. Get on the bike, stand in your attack riding postion, get off, measure how much the o ring has moved. Reset, add/take air, repeat.

anto164

Also, as they're air forks, the tolerances inside the forks are less than coil forks, hence it will take quite a while for it to bed in fully. my air pikes took a good 3-4 weeks of riding a few days a week to get the plush and working fantastically.

Buckle

Nice one, Thanks for your words of wisdom. Have got some up-to-date info from Fox now, so will be able to get going soon!