Back in the Game!!! Plus a silly Question

Notnormal

After about 13 years away from mountain biking I'm back with my purchase of a Stumpjumper Expert 2008. First ride today- only a few miles local to me. My first time with disc brakes and first time with any suss (last mtb was rigid marin). Nearly put myself over the bars with the braking power!! I'm still playing with the setup, maybe someone can help?

There is a lockout on the front forks but if the lockout is off I can't tell much difference between fully unlocked or just off being locked. Is it just a case of the forks are either locked out or not? Or should there be a progressive adjustment? The forks are fox rlc 120. It may well be that the terrain was too flat for me to tell the difference on the short ride.

Also there is adjustment of low speed compression on the fork. What exactly does that adjust?

Thanks in advance

Denny69

I'll have a "stab" and say it might have something to do with how your suspension reacts at low speeds!! If not then never mind it was a half decent guess!

stumpyjon

Hi

nice bike, I 've got the 07 Stumpjumper Elite and love it. I find my Fox Talas forks to be very similar, I think they are supposed to vary in the impact needed to make them move as you turn the lever (i.e. the lockout lever adjusts the threshold at which the forks become active) but I tend to just run them fully open or locked out when on the road.

The low speed compression damping controls how quickly the forks compress with small low speed hits. Increasing the compression damping will make the forks more rigid, backing off the compression damping will make them move more easily over small bumps. It's a trade off between small bump absorbtion and not having the forks diving easily under braking forces (might be part of the reason you nearly went over the front end).'

You also have rebound damping on that fork (R - rebound, L - Lock out, C - Compression). The rebound damping controls how fast the forks return to normal extension after compressing, back the rebound damping off and they return quickly. Again this is a trade off between handling small bumps well (low rebound damping) and not getting your hands thrown off the bars after a big impact (forks rebounding too quickly). If you have too much rebound damping though it can lead to your forks packing down if you have lots of small bumps, the fork doesn't have time to recover before the next bump.

The same applies to most rear shocks as well but not sure how applicable that is with you bike and the brain.

Notnormal

Cheers for the replies. I've started by setting pretty much everything in the middle of its range and might go to chicksands tomorrow where I can have a decent play to find the settings that work for me. Was a lot simpler on a rigid Marin Hawk Hill but not as much fun!

stumpyjon

Good place to start. My advice is make the time to play with and understand the adjustments. I didn't do that recently when I bought a set of REBA race forks for my hardtail, took me 2 months to realise they weren't working correctly (oil seal had failed in the damper leg so they wouldn't fully compress and the lockout wouldn't work). I just put the poor ride down to me not setting the pressures and damping up properly. Only excuse was i have was that we had a baby between me buying them and realising they were knackered, all fixed now though (the forks not the baby :roll: ).

Rich Hcp

I just went from a rigid to a hardtail (Orange G3) and I'm riding it 'factory', then when I understand it better, I may adjust the rebound etc

Themain thing is to enjoy it