Rebound advise

[SeaBee]

Okay, so now I've gotten myself interested in all this fork rebound stuff having played around with it by accident, finding myself as uncomfortable as heck, turning (basically just to count the clicks available) to and fro, back to middle and now it feels better.

 

Now that I've seen what a difference it makes, I want to obviously improve it! But if I want to go off middle again, what will the effect be? What do you feel when you go faster or slower with the settings? I think mine was set to faster when I accidentally played around with it - the front-end just kept feeling like it wanted to wash away under me and inspired absolutely zero confidence. After getting it to center... wow, awesome difference!

 

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but don't have too much time to play around and don't want to enter myself into the nearest medi-city experimenting with this!

 

FWIW, it's a RS REBA, but rebound is rebound, so... what are the effects of setting it this way or that?

[rouxtjie]

Okay, so now I've gotten myself interested in all this fork rebound stuff having played around with it by accident, finding myself as uncomfortable as heck, turning (basically just to count the clicks available) to and fro, back to middle and now it feels better.

 

Now that I've seen what a difference it makes, I want to obviously improve it! But if I want to go off middle again, what will the effect be? What do you feel when you go faster or slower with the settings? I think mine was set to faster when I accidentally played around with it - the front-end just kept feeling like it wanted to wash away under me and inspired absolutely zero confidence. After getting it to center... wow, awesome difference!

 

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but don't have too much time to play around and don't want to enter myself into the nearest medi-city experimenting with this!

 

FWIW, it's a RS REBA, but rebound is rebound, so... what are the effects of setting it this way or that?

Everyone has their own "sweetspot"...mine is one click back when turned all the way to the hare. So quite fast rebound.

[banna]

Jip. I agree with the Rouxtjie. Rather keep the rebound quicker. Mine is 3 or 4 clicks from fastest rebound. But you gonna have to play with it unfortunately. Find a nice piece of technical singletrack and ride it over and over, while every time changing the rebound speed. You will very soon find your own sweetspot.

[Guest Omega Man]

Before you start fiddling take down the settings and write them on a piece of paper. (made that mistake)

[KaKa]

i was/ am looking for the right setting. sometimes the slowest was better, but then i ride a section of road and feel it is not right. for me the difficulty is that tire pressure also influences the feel.

 

for this weekend i set the shock to around middel with a tire pressure of 1.7 infront i felt it performed better.

 

if one cant measure all perameters ie shock pressure, tire pressure, rebound speed and just go on feel it will always be a hit and miss affair

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

i was/ am looking for the right setting. sometimes the slowest was better, but then i ride a section of road and feel it is not right. for me the difficulty is that tire pressure also influences the feel.

 

for this weekend i set the shock to around middel with a tire pressure of 1.7 infront i felt it performed better.

 

if one cant measure all perameters ie shock pressure, tire pressure, rebound speed and just go on feel it will always be a hit and miss affair

 

 

There's your problem. Never, ever, ever set suspension settings based on the performance on a ROAD.

 

EDIT: MTB suspension. Much like motocross / dirtbike suspension. Should ALWAYS be set offroad or single track.

Edited October 15, 2013 by cpt armpies mayhem

[SeaBee]

Ja, but before I toodle off and change things this afternoon, what is supposed to happen when I go either way.

 

Some of you prefer the harder - why? You get a quicker "return"/readiness of the shock for next impact - but what else does that affect ito handling? And what happens when you go softer, why don't you like it?

 

On what terrain does quicker/slower rebound have more benefits? Surely continuous rocky sections will have a different requirement to once-off larger hits?

[RocknRolla]

you have to set for the 90% of the terrain you are riding.

[Mats]

Sjoe, didn't know there are so many guys on the hub looking for rebound satisfaction.

 

Shame

[RocknRolla]

Sjoe, didn't know there are so many guys on the hub looking for rebound satisfaction.

 

Shame

 

Have you seen the topics lately? it's cheating in the bush, cheating at the office...

[KaKa]

There's your problem. Never, ever, ever set suspension settings based on the performance on a ROAD.

 

EDIT: MTB suspension. Much like motocross / dirtbike suspension. Should ALWAYS be set offroad or single track.

 

i did not think i had to spec off road. but that is what i meant...

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Essentially, rebound sets the speed at which the fork returns to the nromal setting. The faster teh rebound, the more forceful it returns, and the "harsher" it feels. But then the fork is back up at the sag-setting (position at which it is when the sag is set) and ready for the next hit. It really is personal.

 

The slower the rebound, the "plusher" it feels.

 

Trade-off - if you've set it too fast, you could get a "pogo-stick" type feel, as it's bouncing back up very fast.

 

Too slow - your fork will carry on diving into its travel and you WILL lose suspension after a while (after extended rock hits / technical sections) because the fork won't get back up to operating level by the time the next obstacle comes.

 

Generally - faster rebound is better. Generally. If you're riding in areas where you have big hits, spaced far apart, then slow rebound would be better as you don't want the fork to pogo back up when you've just landed (resulting in an OTB moment) - think red bull rampage - BIG hits, but spaced pretty far apart - slower rebound.

 

In areas with multiple hits (like in a DH course with rock gardens, mega technical sections and so on, or an XCO course) faster is better as you NEED the fork to reset before the next obstacle comes up.

 

Either way - not too fast, or you'll have a pogo or the front will be "skittery". Not too slow, or you'll not be back up to operating travel by the time you hit the next obstacle, and you'll run out of travel very quickly.

[Wyatt Earp]

The plusher you run the fork, the faster your rebound should be.

The stiffer you run the fork, the slower the rebound should be.

 

Get the air pressure setting right for your weight.

Set the rebound at it's fastest, then compress the fork and immediately lift the bars, turn the rebound knob till you hear that little sucking sound, that should be a pretty sweet spot.

 

Too slow the rebound and the fork tends to "pack on the compression"

Too fast, and you lose your fillings.

[Capricorn]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that rebound control is useless without compression control as well.

 

Rebound set too fast makes the ride really harsh as the fork will attempt to follow the terrain as closely as possible.

 

Rebound set too slow will not allow the fork to return to a normal ride height, leading to what is called packing up (travel gets nibbled away under sucbessive hits until the fork bottoms out).

 

If you don't have good compression control, then set the rebound to the point you dont lose traction, and then set it one or two clicks back (slower rebound) from that point. This however very terrain dependent.

Edited October 15, 2013 by Capricorn

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that rebound control is useless without compression control as well.

 

Rebound set too fast makes the ride really harsh as the fork will attempt to follow the terrain as closely as possible.

 

Rebound set too slow will not allow the fork to return to a normal ride height, leading to what is called packing up (travel gets nibbled away under sucbessive hits until the fork bottoms out).

 

If you don't have good compression control, then set the rebound to the point you dont lose traction, and then set it one or two clicks back (slower rebound) from that point. This however very terrain dependent.

Yeah. Assuming compression control has been sorted...

[SeaBee]

Thanks guys! That's what I was looking for.

 

Interesting comment about the "sucking sound" - had mine do that for the first time the other even when I softened the fork (pressure) and did a test hop in the street. Though I broke something... but found it rode much better.

 

New ventures and exciting times - the thing was on my old bike and I just rode it and trusted the shop sorted it out to be as it should!