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@Skunk Works Suspension - interested to know your timing setup. Finding a good one has been a constant struggle for me.
Keeping my DVO Jade X Prime shock that's currently on my Sentinel
The timing was all done on a Freelap chip system. It is one of the least expensive ready to go chip systems. A little bulky if you are toting it out to the trails, the transmitters are not small, but it all can fit it all into a larger 100oz hydration pack with the bladder removed. Pretty simple to use on a phone through the app. Just set the transmitters at the start and at the end, you can add a split time if additional transmitters are purchased. Everything is rechargeable and I've run it for 6+ hours without issue. Still very expensive at $700 for just a single chip setup.
A DIY option that is useful for timing; wire a moto kill switch (or similar) to a digital stop watch of some sort.
Mount the kill switch next to the grip for your thumb and wire it so that is closes the circuit for the start/stop button on the watch which is mounted on the bar. Typically remove the back cover, attach the wires where they need to be, and then add a dab of silicone and put the cover back on and bend or adjust it as needed as to not crush the wires. Silicone all around to seal it up. I bet I've made 10 or more over the years, maybe less than $25 investment?
It is just a spring at the end of the day; they both can be tuned to do pretty similar things. I would bet you are probably stoked on the coil life more because of the Jade over the shock that you had on there before, did it replace a floatX, I've gone between both before, it's a stark difference but that has more has to do with damping philosophies than spring architecture. Very, very, very few people can ever truly say that they have tested identical dampers with only the air spring or the coil spring being the difference, at least on the rear shock. Very few people actually get their dampers setup on a dyno, and I would bet, that most people, myself included compare air vs coil when going between different tunes, brands, and even damper architecture, it's not really telling you much other than that you like what the DVO does vs what the FloatX does.
I'll keep it at that.
I liked my V2 Sentinel much better with a DHX2 vs the Float X2 it came with. It even felt poppier than the X2 and I loved the extra traction on the rear. Eventually I got a newer Float X and it worked really well for the trails I rode more consistently. I still put the coil on if I was doing gnarlier stuff when I wanted but I wouldn't say the weight or how the coil rode made the bike worse. Just different for what I needed it to do. And it was LEAGUES better that the X2
Very nice outline of how to do the stopwatch button setup. I've been thinking about this option, but it never occured to me to use a killswitch button. That makes things pretty easy. Do you know any that has a nice distinct "click" when pressed?
Great write up and testing, really appreciate it!
Did you have any clearance issues with the Bomber CR reservoir? I've seem some people mention that the stock res. on a Bomber CR will cause frame interference on this model enduro. In your picture it looks like the Ava res is shorter but I can't tell if the fluid focus can is stock res or not.
Good eye, the Avalanche Racing CR does have a shorter reservoir. It was shortened to clear Transition frames such as the Sentinel.
There were no issues with the longer stock reservoir and the Specialized Enduro. The FF tuned Bomber CR has the stock reservoir length and did not have any issues running at the full 65mm stroke.
Agreed, I've had good luck them. I'll add: if they're good enough for the Norco factory/Gracey, they are good enough for me.
Canadians are required to use the Sprindex system or risk a visit from Schleyer and his thugs.
The standard reservoir did not fit my Enduro.
I've had great success with sprindex - they're probably more accurate than some other springs out there at the moment, and I've never seen a broken adjuster. I can only guess someone tried to force it when there was too much preload on the coil
Interesting, what size frame? Where you running it in the low or high position?
S5 in low position
Also doesn't fit mine, just barely scrapes (took the paint right off lol). But I'm running the WRP mullet link, and have to run in the low position, S3.
I found Spingdex to work really well when the spring rate was open or only closed a few clicks, but when I tried to close it off a lot to increase spring rate it seemed to make the spring super progressive.
I struggle with coil suspension due to the spring rate issues. The springs have large gaps, are inaccurately labeled, I change weight and gear, etc.
I thought it was the opposite of that the softer the setting the more progressive it is.
It's been 3 years Since I used one, but it was when you bound up some of the coils which I thought made it more firm.Opened up, well it's just a straight rate spring at that point.
That is correct - they are technically a progressive spring when in the softest setting, and turning the dial closes the soft "section". So you have the stiff part for the whole travel. So it probably didn't feel too progressive when closed up, it was just feeling harder
The adjuster is on the progressive wind. So by setting it to the higher spring settings you’re “deactivating” the progressive portion of the spring.
In short
Lighter spring rate = more progressive
Heavier spring rate = less progressive
One more thing to throw out in this discussion... is that with progressive coils, the spring length vs the stroke length of your shock starts to become something to look at. Meaning that if the progressive rate spring is the constant in this thought process, that a 57.5, 60, 65mm stroke shock are going to dip into that progressiveness at different points in the travel. It makes using progressive springs a bit of a moving target and a non-exact science. It would be really nice if providing spring dyno sheets was common for aftermarket springs.
I realize this is "no shit sherlock" information, but it's easy to miss.
im about to order a Vorsprung Telum for my transition spire. Why or why shouldn't I?
DO IT!
That said, I am super happy with the SV8 on the Bronson. Head and shoulders above the Avalanche Bomber.
I'm testing a Telum right now for Vital, and I will say I'm super impressed and would recommend to anyone who's not afraid to turn knobs. The base settings are good, although the recommended spring rate was maybe 30 pounds higher than what I settled on (YMMV). The ability to fine tune the shimstacks on HSC and HSR without taking the shock apart is amazing to me, saves $250 on a retune every time I want to play with the Rapid Revalve settings. Super cool shock. Only gripes so far are price (duh), weight (don't care), and I've gone through more spherical bushings than I'd like in the test period. Luckily the spherical bushings are super easy to replace, so buy a few extra. And FYI you'll need a torque wrench that can do 14nm to do the Rapid Revalve.
Is that in the megatower? Keep in touch with Vorsprung on that one if you're not already, the Santa Cruz bikes often have shock hardware problems for anything thats not a ball bearing design. While sphericals are generally the best option they might need a different solution
Otherwise they're great shocks, I don't see much reason not to get one - if you're especially a fan of tweaking and customisation then its one of your best options. If you want something thats bolt in then set and forget, its still better than most with only the Elevensix topping it IMO.
I don't think you would see as much of the bearing wear issues in a Spire as you would in a Santa Cruz or Forbidden either
No reason not to, other than the price. The Telum is simple to re-tune and move from bike to bike and the Vorsprung Tuning Hub is a great resource.
Currently running it on a Spire + Cascade Link with the recommended tune, it works very well.
I've been on a Telum since they first shipped them and can honestly say that it was worth every cent I've spent on it. The base tune and the tuning hub are pretty amazing and give you a really really ridable shock right out the gate. I did do the rapid re-valve once just to try it out, but outside of maybe a click here or there I've left the shock pretty much as is. It's really only now as my entire riding style has changed that I'm even thinking about changing anything on my shock.
Couple that with just the insane reliability, and you have a winner. I beat the ever-loving piss out of the thing this year and put through as much hell as I could muster and it only started to lose performance after 150-175k vertical feet of descending, which was fairly outside the service interval Vorsprung recommended. Relatively quick and cheep service later and its back to being fantastic!
I'm really looking forward to unlocking more out of the shock when I'm actually able to get some telemetry data out of my bike, still bitter about Motion Instruments v2 going under and I still can't figure out how to get any other system working with the tolerances on my Dreadnought.
I was wondering how the spherical bearings would hold up to the Megatower.
Fwiw, my nomad 6 will eat a push 11.6 spherical bearing in like 6 weeks. Since switching to the push cartridge bearing eyelet on that same shock, it has been problem free since.
don't, they hate free trade and rather their customers to pay more because they live in the wrong country
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