Not using my full fork travel

pseymour

Hi,

I've got a giant anthem x3 with 100mm travel. However, I only ever use about 2 thirds of it judging by the oil marks after each ride. Should I be using a bit more of my travel and how do I go about it. I'm only 65kg in weight. I have Fox air forx and was going to let some air out of the forks and the rear shock as thats doing the same thing too. I'm not sure whether adjusting the rebound setting might help too. I tried setting the sag, but couldn't get to grips with it, so just really want a quick fix like letting out some air. Many thanks in advance.

Chunkers1980

Set the sag properly.

97th choice

^this.

Set the sag at 25-30% then ride your typical route and see if you get full travel. You should be aiming to get full travel on your rides rather than setting an arbitrary amount if sag so some adjustment on the trail may be in order.

nicklouse

first things first. you do have a fork/shock pump? if no go buy one.

sniper68

nicklouse wrote:

first things first. you do have a fork/shock pump? if no go buy one.

^^^^^^^ Then set the sag properly.What do you mean "couldn't get to grips with it"?

felix.london

ibbo68 wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

first things first. you do have a fork/shock pump? if no go buy one.

^^^^^^^ Then set the sag properly.What do you mean "couldn't get to grips with it"?

JBA

pseymour wrote:

I tried setting the sag, but couldn't get to grips with it, so just really want a quick fix like letting out some air. Many thanks in advance.

Have a read of This.

Setting sag is easy if you have a shock pump.

The Rookie

If you don't - it's impossible!

pseymour

Thanks all for your help.
Yes, I do have a shock pump. The issue I had before with setting sag (not getting to grips) is that the forks didn't really compress while I was sat stationery on the bike. But I'm not sure if I had my forks turned fully on (top right dial) which i'm guessing would be necessary. cheers, Pete.

bennett_346

If you mean they were locked out then of course they won't move

But compression damping doesn't affect sag, so even if you were running a firm compression tune on the dial that won't matter. It sounds like you have too much air in them from what you're saying.

Bear in mind though even with the sag properly set the forks won't often reach full travel, if ever. It takes something pretty harsh to use the last 25% of the travel on a lot of forks (really fast tight corners, or biiig jumps/drops etc).

scarbs85

97th choice wrote:

^this.

Set the sag at 25-30% then ride your typical route and see if you get full travel. You should be aiming to get full travel on your rides rather than setting an arbitrary amount if sag so some adjustment on the trail may be in order.

It makes more sense to me to run your forks a bit harder over rougher ground if your worried about bottoming out your forks, but I've never felt the need to adjust sag so I use full travel, if the terrain doesn't need the full travel to be used.

Not saying your wrong as I don't know, but I can't see a benefit to it either...what am I missing?

mattshrops

Not much point carrying around suspension you're not using...

Anonymous

I have a 100mm travel forks I've got upto 80% travel only been mountain biking a couple of months so I don't wanna try anything to mental and bottom out the forks or anything but my normal trial uses about 80% it could go to 100% if I ride more aggressively.

current forks are

suntour XCR v3 100MM travel mech lockout current sag is set around 25%-30%

not been doing this long at all but my advice would be if you really don't think you do your forks justice changed them or if you don't want to change ride a more aggressively.

bennett_346

Those forks most likely won't ever reach 100% travel. They're advertised as 100mm but aren't really. 80mm sounds about right for the amount of useable travel.

harrybarfield

Here is a pic of my forks after a ride over Llandegla on Sunday:



Do I need to get a stiffer spring? Forks are Rockshox Sektor R 140mm. I was hitting the jumps hard though, not used as much travel at Cannock.

Harry.

sofaboy73

pseymour wrote:

Thanks all for your help.
Yes, I do have a shock pump. The issue I had before with setting sag (not getting to grips) is that the forks didn't really compress while I was sat stationery on the bike.

to the OP, make sure you're in the 'attack stance' ie up on the pedals, weight centred over the bike when you are setting the sag on forks. if you try to do it seted you will get very little movement.

from waht you're descirbing it does sound like you are running them too hard (ie too much air in them)

The Rookie

harrybarfield wrote:

Here is a pic of my forks after a ride over Llandegla on Sunday:



Do I need to get a stiffer spring? Forks are Rockshox Sektor R 140mm. I was hitting the jumps hard though, not used as much travel at Cannock.

Harry.

What on earth are we going to get from that pic to help us work out if you do or don't?

Anonymous

The Beginner wrote:

harrybarfield wrote:

Here is a pic of my forks after a ride over Llandegla on Sunday:



Do I need to get a stiffer spring? Forks are Rockshox Sektor R 140mm. I was hitting the jumps hard though, not used as much travel at Cannock.

Harry.

What on earth are we going to get from that pic to help us work out if you do or don't?

you do make a point a picture of some forks isn't really helping anyone here maybe clean them a bit and then post a better picture and some more information on the problem or issue your having

kevinharley

I presume that the intention of the picture is to show the position of the red rubber ring after said ride (ie right at the top of the stanchion)?

Is it possible to use so much travel that the ring would be pushed right to the top?

97th choice

kevinharley wrote:

Is it possible to use so much travel that the ring would be pushed right to the top?

Of course, but did it happen once, twice, was the fork constantly bottoming out as a result of too much sag or the poster getting 6ft of air, or weighing 28 stone?

Pictures don't mean much unless they are given some context.

The Rookie

Most forks the ring won't go closer than 10-15mm however hard it is hit, suggesting it was rolled up there and therefor meaningless, but the Sektors may be different.

bennett_346

I've never had the o ring go that high, the bottom out bumper won't let them go that far in the Rev/Sektor chassis. Under a crazy hard hit my revs stop about 6-7mm from the crown.

harrybarfield

That's a photo taken straight after I put the bike in the garage coming back from Llandegla. The ring hit that position twice in the ride as I had reset it once. I didn't notice the feeling of 'bottoming out' though, I suppose it's possible I hit the end of the travel and the ring was right up to the top of the stanchion. I weigh 11 stone so I don't think weight is the issue. I'm just wondering if I should be thinking of going to a harder spring or not and if i'm going to be damaging the fork by using so much travel.

bennett_346

Harder spring i'd say.

97th choice

Why, He got there twice in one run and didn't feel like it was bottoming out? sounds about right to me.

The Rookie

+1......unless you feel you need to go harder for other reasons, I see no reason to change that spring.

harrybarfield

Will leave it as is for the time being then. I don't seem to use as much travel when I ride Cannock, Llandegla is a lot more 'jumpy' though. It's only the 3rd ride on this bike so was a bit unsure!

bennett_346

Hmm if it was bottoming when you were hitting jumps it'll be too soft in tight fast corners - jumps almost never bottom out forks and shouldn't because a high speed bermed corner will apply a far greater force to them and would therefore be a problem if they were already bottoming on jumps.

The Rookie

A jump adds more force, just bermed corners have more time to overcome the compression damping....maybe HB needs to add some compression not a stiffer spring!

bennett_346

Does a fork not comrpess the same distance regardless of the level of compression damping? I thought damping was there to slow it down not to stiffen it up.

The Rookie

^^^^what he said....