Suspension lock-out, how to use it?

sirlylos

Hi fellas,

My specialized Epic 2007 has a Fox F100 RL 100mm fork which has the option to lock out whilst riding. I'm curious to find out what the best use of this is. I'm going on a fairly big ride this weekend and I've been getting in some practice, whilst on the practice rides I've been toying with the lock-out by locking whilst going up-hill and releasing on rocky downhills which is great but I'm not sure if locking-out on the uphill really conserves that much energy.

Is there a science to this or is it just preference?

Beardface

More preference mate.. what you've said is what I do, I have a F120 RL, and occasionally lock it out on the road or going uphill.. it will conserve some energy, but I couldnt tell you how much..

Most of the time I forget/don't bother though, and just leave it unlocked..

.blitz

The lock out is useful when pushing down on the bars to see if there's any play in the headset

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

The lock out is useful when pushing down on the bars to see if there's any play in the headset

^^Yep.
OR, I find it helps when trying to seat a particularly unruly crown race.
Pop it almost into place, lock your forks, assemble into the frame, and use your bike as a slide hammer
Probably not the best thing to do, but when you lose your rag, and end up trying this, it actually works pretty well!

bomberesque

.blitz wrote:

The lock out is useful when pushing down on the bars to see if there's any play in the headset

^this

I only use mine on road or especially smooth trail climbs

lol at the slidehammer btw

andrewjoseph

I use my lockout on long tarmac or fireroad climbs. I unlock it for anything lumpy, up or down.

ride_whenever

generally you want the extra traction on the front for technical climbs, unless you're racing then lockout is only really actually useful for smooth drag climbs.


That said, if you can vary the blow off pressure you can set it up for racing. Just enough threashold to let you sprint out of the saddle without excessive bobbing, but keeping the fork supple for hits and traction.

llamafarmer

As above, I reckon the gain is so minor it's only worth worrying about if you're racing. On my Anthem I usually lock the forks on tarmac and that's it - mainly because it reminds me to switch off the pro pedal at the rear when I get back on the rough stuff

I've taken the remote lockout cable off my Cube entirely, I'd rather have one less piece of bar clutter than have the fork lockout.

.blitz

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Pop it almost into place, lock your forks, assemble into the frame, and use your bike as a slide hammer

Quality. Bet RS/Fox never thought of that

Daz555

I only use lockout on tarmac or buttery-smooth fireroad. Can't be bothered any other time.

MacAndCheese

Daz555 wrote:

I only use lockout on tarmac or buttery-smooth fireroad. Can't be bothered any other time.

+1 with both my F100 and my Pikes.

sirlylos

Coolio, the fireroads near me are far from buttery smooth. I guess I just need to tighten up the forks a bit so they aren't so loose and then only tighten on the really smooth roads. I can't say I really noticed a severe drain on my energy with the lock-off but didn't want to be missing a trick.

Anonymous

Meh, lock off is mostly a gimmick, I reckon.

Stoo61

I lock it when honking (standing on the bike when climbing) apart from that....only very occasionally.

sirlylos

honking, never heard of that before... Honking generally tires me out so I try to stay seated (is there a name for that) as much as possible.

Chinley Churner

Use it loads for climbing on the single-speed, but then "honking" is the order of the day.

adb1006

Took mine off my Reba's as i never used it, and the remote was cluttering my bars 8)

gs3

Most of the benefit of using lockout is found on climbs where, as Stoo61 says above, you are "honking" as it reduces the amount of energy lost to compressing the forks instead of forward motion.
If you tend to mainly sit when climbing then activating the lockout has minimal effect.

If you want to find out how much the benefit is of using the lockout, find a reasonably steep slope and try riding up
1. seated without lockout
2. seated with lockout (Shouldn't be too much of a difference)
then
3. standing without
4. standing with lockout activated (this is where you will find biggest effect)

At the end of the day just play around with it and use it if you want - just because the function is there doesn't mean you HAVE to use it all the time.

Personally, I agree with Daz555 and only use the lockout on my F120RL's on the smooth stuff.

.

Rich9

If you've got Dart 3 forks (like I have) then lockout is a complete waste of time. The damn things are that stiff, you need to be build like a brick S**t house to get any compression!! :roll:

projectsome

gaining more speed on smoother surface and going up hill.

RealMan

Locking out on descents and unlocking for climbs makes you fitter..

sirlylos

RealMan wrote:

Locking out on descents and unlocking for climbs makes you fitter..

mmm, think I'll just stick to the convential methods of locking out on the smooth and any honking I might be doing

VWsurfbum

sirlylos wrote:

honking, never heard of that before... Honking generally tires me out so I try to stay seated (is there a name for that) as much as possible.

from now on i believe we should use the term "bonking" when seated.

Anonymous

Well, bonking is already used as a term for "hitting the wall" (well, it was, anyway)

RealMan

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Well, bonking is already used as a term for "hitting the wall" (well, it was, anyway)

Still is.

VWsurfbum

"Stumping" then?
maybe we should start a thread of renaming the seated position?