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Not another suspension setup question.. No!, or rather yes but I have not seen this question when scanning for tips setting up the right? suspension setup. Yes, I have visited the "what’s the right setup" swamp, tuning, tuning, tuning some more, then tuning it back.. finally realizing there are no "right" setting, just what feels good for you and the style/terrain you run..
But now to my question, I, and many with me I have noticed, have this fear of "bottom out", hence maybe using conservative setting, to have some marginal just to be sure, hence not using the full suspension available. I wonder if the fear for bottom out is unreasonable, hey it’s not like I run Rampage, and if I should accept some bottom out in order to run a less conservative setup?
What’s your take, experience?
//Claes
But now to my question, I, and many with me I have noticed, have this fear of "bottom out", hence maybe using conservative setting, to have some marginal just to be sure, hence not using the full suspension available. I wonder if the fear for bottom out is unreasonable, hey it’s not like I run Rampage, and if I should accept some bottom out in order to run a less conservative setup?
What’s your take, experience?
//Claes
The issue when bottoming out is the stress you are putting on the suspension, frame and you. When it is occasional there's nothing to fear and you shouldn't target to have a "safety travel". But if it is a regular issue (like every time you hit that line/jump/drop) you may end up damaging something. So then you should change your settings.
On the other end, as long as your setup is feeling right it is not an issue not to use full travel on a regular ride (or even a harsh one). That being said, if you really have a lot of unused travel you should try some softer settings and see if they work better for you. They might ad some compliance/grip.
Last thing, it also depends on the bike/travel and riding type you do. If you have a big bike (like an enduro) for mellow riding it's quite logical to have quite a lot of unused travel, and at the opposite if you're riding hard a small travel bike (like XC or Trail) it's logical to bottom out from time to time.
So my point is set your suspensions so that they offer you the best performance and they don't bottom out on a regular basis. But you should not compromise your settings to get a "safety margin" nor to absolutely use full travel.
one thing to consider if you're running coil and your suspension feels dialed but you're bottoming more than you'd like is an upgraded bottom-out bumper.
P.S., if you're really scared of bottoming out, don't look at the g-out project from croatia : )
When riding, for fun lets say, you really shouldn't ever be bottoming out...unless your local trail looks like an EWS track. Ideally, you'd have your suspension tuned so that you're using 80-85% of the travel regularly, but that 15% is left for when things get really rough or you get wild and need some "safety suspension".
Furthermore, as stated above by Spomer and Rems, if you are constantly going through all of your travel with harsh bottoming, you stand to damage the suspension.
But only on certain features that you know there is a massive or high speed impact, there is no point in setting your bike to not bottom out for these generally rarer features which make up a tiny amount of the overall trail as it will be far too stiff for every thing else.
These days, when I'm riding well, I seldom bottom. Like TR, I don't want that harsh metal on metal "i'm going over the bars" feeling. I always leave 1/2"-1" for the oh shit I'm gonna die moments. That said, I do like my stuff more linear than most, I want to use the travel I have, but I also want the very end to ramp really hard, and I want my bike to ride higher in its travel. This seems to be the ticket for me.
Oh, and so we are clear "bottoming" vs "almost bottoming" are very different to me. If the o-ring shows full travel but I don't feel bottom this is a different ball of wax than that all-too-familiar metal on metal THUD.
That being said there's nothing quite like the feeling of getting suspension perfect for your regular trails. If you run Fox, and your sag is correct, its ideal to have the O ring end up in the middle of the logo on your stanchion after riding your go-to trails. Obviously, there can be flaws with using the o-ring as a form of measurement but for those of us who are not racers or race mechanics, this can be an easy way to estimate if your suspension is near what it should be.
Yes you should definitely be afraid of bottoming out too hard too often, especially on a rear air shock because you can end up blowing it out, but that's what warranties and your LBS are for.
But back to the bottom out subject, if you are on an xc ride and trying to recover on the DH, you generally won't be bottoming too much. Likewise, if you are absolutely sending it bottoming out is an event that should happen. The amount that you should be is debatable. On a DH course or enduro stage 1-3 times is generally a good amount. its when you bottom on every single jump or drop, that you start having problem.
If you don't want to bottom out, ride a rigid. Thats the feeling you will have if you have your suspension too hard trying not to bottom out.
I find that if I cruise a trail at 75% to 80% speed I'll use about 90% of my travel, If I throw down a Strava run, I'll use all my travel (but generally don't "bottom out" hard)
This also is based on a rider that can attack a trail and ride it in the top 25% of riders, anyone lesser will probably not use all the suspension unless they have it set up on the soft side using weight/sag as a set point
On the back always set the rear to recommended SAG 30 to 40% depending a bit on your liking and suspension type... Never ever set your suspension outside recommended SAG. Bottoming out on the back is not really a problem if its not a super harsh bottom out (even if you ride fast a couple harsh ones is ok, try to suck more with your legs when landing). You can bottom out once or 50 times in a trail as long as its not super harsh ones all the time. If you feel harsh bottom outs then two options, my number one is that if you ride air shock, put some spacers inside and you should be good to go. If you ride spring then you need high speed compression (but I personally hate this setting as is number one cause of no good traction on braking bumps and flat tires), so I recommend always riding high speed fully open.
Up front my recommendation is never bottom out. Bottom outs on the front or very soft fork usually ends in a over the bars maneuver
RESUMING:
Fear fork bottom outs
Do not fear rear bottom outs
Sorry for the typos, and hope this helps
Cheers,
Cesar.
Conclusion is that I will experiment with a bit less conservative settings, in small steps off cource until I feel more confident experiencing a few minor bottoms out to get that shit out of my head... ;-)
Cheers,
Claes
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