Rock shox air pressure set-up

cbradley1982

Hi all,

I've decided to get more into biking and living in the north of Scotland i'm in the ideal place. Right, i've just bought an orange 5 and need to set-up the forks (rock shox recon 140) to the right pressure. Can anyone point me in the right direction or give any help? I weight about 85kg and need to know what pressure and how to charge the fork. Thanks in advance!

nicklouse

what ever you need to get the sag you want./


the manual has some figure you can look at but they dont mean much.

also have a look in the FAQs if it is a dual air fork.

GHill

Put a cable tie round the stanchion, sit on bike in normal riding gear (in a bit of an attack position), measure sag, adjust air. Repeat until you have something like 20 - 25% sag (or whatever your preference is). 8)

ilovedirt

i think the reccommended sag is 10% for cross country riding, 20-25% for downhill and freeride, so i think anywhere between 5% and 15% you should be ok, it depends on your preference as to how hard you like them, personally i like mine set up pretty tough.

nicklouse

ilovedirt
No.
20-25% for XC 30-50% for FR/DH etc. it depends on what you want.

clwydian_rider92

Look in the manual (or sometime on fork), however i find that RockShox have a habitat of underestimating figures. i.e. i weigh 120lbs and they quote 90-10psi whereas i need about 110-115

diy

I'd suggest setting sag to at least 35% of the travel. If you go out and get to some road or light XC with a steep climb and really only want 10-15% just turn the motion control/lockout on. It takes a while for the shocks to bed in anyway, so you want it softer rather than stiffer to start with.

On the OPs ride I can't imagine anyone wanting their front set firm having shelled out for a decent front air shock. If they are new to full Sus, then running the rear hard might be beneficial to start with.

supersonic

Depends on what you want. Many XC riders run high pressures and minimal sag.

Northwind

It's a Rockshox fork, does it not have a chart of pressures on the fork leg?

Recon 140mms are all single air, IIRC, in which case just fool about with it til it feels good. While sag's important, the pressure also controls how the fork reacts to hits, if you run it really low sag it'll also be very hard sprung and vice versa. It's all a compromise really.

supersonic

The pressure charts are very rough - RS don't know how much weight you have over the front!

I'd recommend going on sag - 10-20% for a firmer feel, 20-30% as standard, 30% plus for a soft feel.

Northwind

supersonic wrote:

The pressure charts are very rough - RS don't know how much weight you have over the front!

Neither does anyone else So we fool about with it til it feels good.

Andy B

Northwind wrote:

fool about with it til it feels good.

this goes for lots of things....

thesim1990

Andy_B wrote:

Northwind wrote:

fool about with it til it feels good.

this goes for lots of things....

Set your sag up at around 25-30% or 30-40% if you're a thrasher. Go test ride and if you're not getting full travel at least once on the ride, then reduce air pressure, even if it means having more sag.

supersonic

So sag is a better guide to feel than air pressure reccs ;-)

Northwind

I wouldn't say so, personally, since you get so many preferences for sag too. The setting on the fork makes a decent starting point for experimentation, and experimentation's the only real way to do it IMO, so whether you use sag or the guide on the forks, you end up in the same ballpark and you do the same thing from there.

supersonic

It is more pronounced with rear shocks as well - with leverage ratios varying so much, air pressure guides for the shock are useless.

diy

supersonic wrote:

Depends on what you want. Many XC riders run high pressures and minimal sag.

Might as well have bought an HT then.