Reba Sag and Travel

gcwebbyuk

I have a new Trek ProCaliber that came with a Reba RL fork.

I've set the sag on the fork to about 30ish %. I weigh about 75kg in kit and it only needed around 90psi to get that amount of sag. The RockShox chart indicated I would need more like 115psi.

Since setting the sag and doing several rides with some lumpy downhill sections too, I am still only using about 70% travel.

Is this normal for a new fork?

cooldad

If it works for you it's fine.

Have you played with the compression damping?

gcwebbyuk

It has a OneLoc remote lockout, so dont think you can tweak it other than locked out or unlocked?

Btw the fork has full travel if I let all the air out.

JGTR

Don’t worry about the pressure being different to the chart, it’s only a guide and rarely right.

You want to be using the full travel, if your fork has tokens in it then you can try removing one or two as this will stop the pressure ramping up and allow a bit more travel. The tokens screw into the bottom of the air cap and change the volume of the air spring - more tokens = less volume = ramp up in pressure as spring compresses. Less tokens = more volume = lower pressures as spring compresses = more travel.

I had the opposite on my Rebas - when sag set correctly to how I like it the fork would bottom out, fitted 2 tokens and sorted it.

gcwebbyuk

I’ve tried to check for tokens, but the bit you would normally remove with a socket is flush to the fork.

Is there some other way to remove this bit? Can’t see anything in the manual.

cooldad

Might depend which model you have but according to Sram Reba's have both motion control and bottomless tokens.

https://www.sram.com/rockshox/products/reba-rl-1#specs

But sometimes they make OEM versions. Which might differ.

JGTR

Looking here it appears that you’ll need a casette lock ring tool to remove the air cap

https://www.evanscycles.com/rockshox-re ... 8OEALw_wcB

gcwebbyuk

Ah yes it’s the spline type.

Will have to get hold of another cassette tool as my current xtool one has a bit that goes into the qr too so won’t fit.

Thanks for your help

steve_sordy

@ gcwebbyuk: One of the posts said that you want to be using all the travel. I have also seen that in bike magazines, so it must be right, yes?

Err no, it depends. If all you are doing is some lumpy downhill sections then I would not be expecting full travel. But 70% is not too bad. Only you know what is good for you and how close to your maximum you were on that trail. If I set my fork so that I would use 100% on something that I would do voluntary then I'd have nothing left for the "oh sh1t!" moments. The hardest thing I do voluntarily gives me 90% and I'm OK with that. The bike feels great the rest of the time too. If you make the suspension too soft, so that you use up all the travel then you risk it being a bit soggy the rest of the time, and have nothing left for when the trail takes you by surprise.

Exploring tokens is the way to go. More or fewer tokens do not alter the amount of travel you have available, but they do alter the effort required to get there. Unlike a steel spring, which has a straight line force/deflection curve, an air spring has a stretched S shape. And using tokens can change the shape of the S. More tokens reduces the volume of the air spring and makes the fork ramp up sooner. In other words the effort required to get full travel increases. Once you have the %sag set to give you the normal ride that you are happy with (not too soggy, not too bouncy), then more tokens will stop the suspension compressing too much on say a 2'-3'drop. Fewer tokens will allow more travel to be used up. Only you know what feel you want from the suspension. It is great that you have the option to use tokens, but be aware that there is a maximum that you can use, which varies by fork design. Use one more than allowed and you will damage the fork.

The link below from Bike Rumour is a really good guide to setting up your suspension. It probably has more than you need right now, but hang on to it as it will all come in useful, in time.

https://bikerumor.com/2014/10/30/bikeru ... -download/

gcwebbyuk

Thanks all for the info and help.

Will get hold of another cassette tool and see if there are any tokens in there at the moment and tweak accordingly.