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Topic: "I run mine soft"... "I run mine hard"... Advantages and Disadvantages? (Read 1322 times)
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Joe
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Hard Suspension:
(From another thread).
When attacking corners I found the bike wallowed in it's travel and the geometry all changed making the bike harder to control.
If it's harder you can hit the corner with more force and speed, therefore more grip and go around it with the bike in a more 'nominal' position making it more predictable.
Also, if your bike is harder it is doing less work, and (strangely) so are you. The suspension is not absorbing every hole and bump, it isn't getting sucked into compressions and depressions in the track. It's a bit more like a MX bike now; you sit over the top of the holes only hitting the top edge rather than the whole bump. This means you can carry alot more speed and actually makes the track smoother.
Small bumps - that is handled by the bike being progressive, the first inch of travel on the front and the first two or three on the back are alot softer so that traction loss doesn't occur when you're riding through a relatively 'hole-less' bit of track, but still require suspesnion action to be able to pedal or pump.
After spending three and bit months in the alps, the first two weeks of which I had a soft bike, riding a lot of very different trails it is definatly better to have harder rather than softer suspesnion. Riding slow, steep technical; Fast untechnical smooth; fast, very rough and fast and technical - harder suspesnion gives a better all-round feel on the bike.
Says he with the softest rear suspension ever. Run it medium, best of both worlds, i like grip. |
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emily
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i went from a 300lb spring to a 275lb spring a few months ago, and I think I probably preferred the 300lb spring.. but since I sold it to a friend, I've had to wind in some compression on my 5th, which is ok. I'm also running more air in it now too.
I agree that a little firmer is better, because otherwise the bike sits into every little hole and doesn't flow over the top of them. I went to the Quantocks at the end of June and just turning my end stroke compression a quarter of a turn made the bike ride so much better in one section where I was previously noticeable losing speed.
Also at Fort William in May (with the 275lb spring on but all other settings the same as when I ad the 300lb one), I felt like the bike was sluggish over one of the slab rock sections cos it was track the ground a bit too well. So yeah, a slightly firmer rear suspension set up is good I reckon, and maybe I should firm mine up a little bit more in fact. Will have to try it at Fort Bill again next wknd.
I'm not so sure about the front, but I tend to run my forks standard, which is probably a little firm for my weight anyway, and get on with them fine.
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Pages: 1 [2] 3 
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no familiar tracks about! and being the midlands nothing rough 
and your coyote was set up solid! haha. I think im going to keep making it harder until i find a track that needs to be softer 
