Do people ajust, rebound or not?

blablablacksheep

Just wondering do people actually bother to ajust rebound now-a-days?

Never seen anyone suggest or advice to chance the rebound, most people say keep it as it came with bike, ie" hare"

personally my fork, tora 302sl 100mm it was set to default "hare" tbh i havnt changed it at all, should i put it more "tortoise"?

just wondered as most sites/guides say keep it on defualt setting/"hare"

what you guys have yours on?

cooldad

Didn't answer the poll, as no option for set up for conditions. Too fast (low damping) rebound and you'll bounce, too slow (high damping) and the forks will compress over a series of bumps as they won't return to full travel between bumps.

stubs

Work out where your rebound is set ie how many clicks or turns from fully open. Make a note then try some different settings alter things a click or turn at a time and try riding same short section of trail till you find something that feels good. I set my suspension by riding down a flight of 30 steps off a railway bridge. If I can get to the bottom without touching the brakes or landing on my head I know its nearly right.

cooldad

@stubs Excellent test, but would like to see some video of the failed attempts.

Squarepants

I adjust them when I remember to; which isn't that often. .

I tend to leave my RP2 well alone as the pro pedal seems to do the trick depending on conditions. I adjusted my recons on the last ride - it may have made a difference but I was too knackered to notice..

Daz555

Set it once. It felt about right. Still feels about right now so have not touched in since.

edhornby

wouldn't the length of the fork make a difference as well? a 120 or more would indicate you're more of a jumper and hence a slower rebound, but a 100 or 80mm would make you more of a line picker and benefitting from a quicker rebound?

I'm firmly in the 'as it came out of the shop' camp

cooldad

Nope. Should be adjusted for the individula- weight, conditions, style etc.

TuckerUK

Apart from an initial set up which might include a change of oil weight I dial mine in at the start of most rides if the temperature is much different from the last ride as the damping oils viscosity (and therefore damping ability) changes with temperature. Of course if you don't have oil forks this might not be a concern.

stubs

cooldad wrote:

@stubs Excellent test, but would like to see some video of the failed attempts.

I have never failed to get to the bottom. occasionally I have failed to get to the bottom whilst still attached to the bike

You dont need a video of me just imagine pushing a wheelie bin down some steps

blablablacksheep

whats wied is after reading my forks manual for tora it says "suggest leaving the forks rebound on the default settings as changing can cause adverse affects " lol

i left mine on rabbit setting and havnt changed it at all, tbh cant see the point given nothin bad has happened with it on the full rabbit...though i think higher quality forks probally react a lot more so probally need change..

do you really change though before every ride or type of stuff you going to ride? seems overkill ,

paulbox

Daz555 wrote:

Set it once. It felt about right. Still feels about right now so have not touched in since.

This.

Where are my stabilisers?

No, initial setup seems fine - if I meddle I'll probably make it worse and wont be able to get it right again

Anonymous

blablablacksheep wrote:

Just wondering do people actually bother to ajust rebound now-a-days?

Those who care about it do. Those who don't care, don't. Same as always.
And there will always be lots of people either totally not understanding what it does, or adjusting it the wrong way.

Clark3y

Why would you set it to fully open? Might as well get a fork with no damping in that case, save weight

I use a fairly high setting, no silly pogo stick business, no packing down, just superb front end grip.

Anonymous

blablablacksheep wrote:

do you really change though before every ride or type of stuff you going to ride? seems overkill ,

Oh hell no. Basically, set it to your spring rate, and weight.
(then pretty much leave it until one of the two changes noticeably)

thel33ter

I do, I normally get it pretty much perfect, try to get that last little bit, and ruin it Rebound on my current forks is pretty slow overall, so it gets left about 1/8 turn from full speed (only turns 3/4 of a full rotation)

Torres

stubs wrote:

Work out where your rebound is set ie how many clicks or turns from fully open. Make a note then try some different settings alter things a click or turn at a time and try riding same short section of trail till you find something that feels good. I set my suspension by riding down a flight of 30 steps off a railway bridge. If I can get to the
bottom without touching the brakes or landing on my head I know its nearly right.

*Wanders off to find lots of steps...*

I normally just set mine to the middle as soon as i get my forks, then make adjustments one way or the other whilst i'm out on the first ride... however i'm tempted to try stubs method now

supersonic

Just to add to the above, longer travel forks tend to have lower spring rates. This in turn requires a lower rebound damper setting than a higher spring rate for a given level of return speed.

I like to set my rebound up by riding into a dip or hollow. As you ride into it, the fork extends. As you hit the face of it on the way out, you get a sharp compression. Then it rebounds again. With a bit of farting about you can get it to feel 'right', and track the ground without bogging down or firing back at you.

Or just ride, and make changes, and see what feels best ;-)

joshtp

are you serious? how can you ride a fork KNOWING your not getting the most out of it... I cant....

:?

I always make sure it's set up right for both the terrain and the conditions, as well as my weight...


when you know what you want it doesn't take long to get it just right for the conditions... it's worth it... you could have a gold plated platinum fork with diamond internals.... but it's useless unless its set up right...

theshrew

How are you supposed to set them up ?

I have looked in my manual but it doesnt tell you how.

Is there a rule of thumb or do you just adjust settings and see what you like ?

joshtp

you want the fork to return to full travel quickly ( so it can take another hit) but not so quickly that it jerks your hands of the bars, or is violent in it's return... it needs to come back quickly but smoothly.


TF Tuned have a video on it somewhere... check youtube.

theshrew

Cheers

blablablacksheep

like he said above, problem that i think most people find is that the forks dont really act that badly when set too high/rabit.

only the air forks i belive can jump back too hard while the coils are harder to ajust due to being harder to notice if they jumping back to much.

Anonymous

blablablacksheep wrote:

only the air forks i belive can jump back too hard while the coils are harder to ajust due to being harder to notice if they jumping back to much.

Makes no difference at all. A spring does what a spring does, whether it's air or coil.

nwmlarge

i mess about with mine and find for xc'ish stuff slower rebound is nice if there is a lot of crap on the floor

quick rebound for pumping smooth trails and jumps.

diy

If I am running +ve high an -ve low (i.e. 10psi apart or more) for AM trails I will slow the rebound down to compensate for the fast return and reduce bounce.

If I am running the -ve high (either equal to the +ive or slightly higher) for XC trails, I will speed up the rebound so that it keeps it active.

Never more than +-2 clicks from middle though.

If you run the fork set fully to fast you run the risk of the front bouncing up on DH drops or small jumps.

Anonymous

nwmlarge wrote:

i mess about with mine and find for xc'ish stuff slower rebound is nice if there is a lot of crap on the floor

quick rebound for pumping smooth trails and jumps.

The more crap there is on the ground for the wheel to track over, the faster the rebound has to be in order to ensure it is re-extending properly between succesive hits. That's what rebound control is there for.
On a smooth surface, the rebound can be stiffer, since there's more time before the next bump.

Where are my stabilisers?

I don't alter mine and I don't know if I'm getting the most out of it, but I know I'm not having problems, so I leave it. It seems ok to me for whatever I've ridden over.

I did an uplift day at Cwmcarn a while back and there was a bloke who fell off a couple of times. He was fiddling with his fork setup the whole day because it wasn't right.

So, I think you'll definitely know about it if it's not setup right, but unless you're really experienced, you wont necessarily know if it's set to it's optimum performance for you. If you get what I mean?!

If you have to fiddle with it that much, you're either a princess (the one with the pea), bored, or you didn't set it up properly in the first place

Just kiddin'

Anonymous

Where are my stabilisers? wrote:

If you have to fiddle with it that much, you're either a princess (the one with the pea), bored, or you didn't set it up properly in the first place

Or you're getting so close to the limit that tiny little tweaks are giving worthwhile 100th of seconds of improvements.

oodboo

I set mine fast then rode the bike for a bit (about 2 months) to get used to it. Then I set it slow for a bit (again another couple of months) to see what the difference was. Now I have it a few clicks off slow and it feels just right. You've got to try the different settings in the real world to get to know what they do, only then can you understand the differences and where you need to set it to suit you and your bike.