- This is the GMBN Tech essential series.
Our one stop guide for looking after and maintaining
your bike yourself at home.
With a few basic tools and some basic instruction
it's really easy to take care of your bike
and of course this means you're gonna be able to spot
all those things that might be costly repairs down the line.
Today's video we're gonna look at setting up
a suspension fork, which is very easy and just requires
you to follow a few basic rules.
Here's how you do it.
So first things first, you need to know a little bit about
a suspension fork on your bike.
Now, externally they visibly look very similar.
They're based of a few different components.
There's a lower leg, the upper leg
and then of course what's inside.
Every fork has a spring of some kind.
It will either be air or it will be a coil spring.
A coil spring literally is a wound steel spring
which will be housed inside one of the legs of the fork.
If yours is an air spring, which is more than likely,
'cause most forks are these days.
There's are a variety of different ways you can adjust this.
On every suspension fork there will be
some form of compression damping and rebound damping.
Rebound damping, as you might figure out,
it basically controls the rate
at which the fork extends after you've had an impact
and the fork has compressed.
Compression damping, obviously,
helps control that compression.
So basically helps to absorb the shock.
Compression dampers do tend to have an adjustment
to help lock the fork out, which resists the fork
working to your body weight.
This could be really helpful on sections of road,
or perhaps if you're climbing.
But the most important thing on any suspension fork
is getting your sag set up correctly.
Now the sag is making sure the fork is sprung correctly
for your body weight.
And, not only is that important,
so the fork can actually work against your body weight,
but also so the fork can extend into holes in the ground.
So the fork both has to support you
and obviously it has to work in two directions there.
It's really important to get your forks
set up with correct sag from the beginning
and this will make your fork perform
as best as it can in all situations.
Now this particular fork is a Rockshox fork
so on the left hand leg, which is this one here,
that is where the air spring is housed.
There's a cap on the top and underneath is a valve.
To operate this, you need to have a shock pump.
On the right hand leg, you have your damping.
Always on the bottom is the rebound,
which has a red dial.
It's the same across many brands.
On the top is your compression adjustment,
this has a blue dial.
Again, that is the same, it's pretty universal thing
on most bike brands.
Blue for compression, red for rebound.
So, in order to get your suspension forks set up
you're gonna need a few things.
So, first things first, you're gonna need a shock pump.
Next up you're gonna need to be in your riding kit.
And of course the last thing you're gonna need
is your riding bag and of course
all the heavy stuff that you're likely
to take when you go riding.
What I mean by that is things like a water bottle,
a hydration bladder, if you're carrying it in a bag,
any tools, anything that really will effect
your body weight on the bike.
Now you might find it helpful as well
to do this near a tree or a wall
or something you can lean up on
because this is the sort of job
that you're gonna need to sit your elbow out
and get an indication of your body weight
on the fork itself.
Now, first things first, before you actually set that sag
you need to make sure that the damping
is not gonna interfere with that.
So in particular, that means making sure
the compression damping is not closed or turned on.
So fully unwind it, which means turning it off.
The same applies to rebound, you want to make sure
you unwind this all the ways so there's no damping
affecting your sag setup.
So now that we have no damping applied
to the fork itself,
it's time to get some air into the fork
to suspend it to your body weight.
Now, in this particular case,
there's a chart on the back here and just looking at it,
my body weight is between 180 and 200 pounds,
so they recommend between 95 and 105 psi.
So, I'm gonna start at 95 and work it out from there.
What we are looking to achieve is between 20 and 30% sag.
There is no right and wrong with this,
this is really down to what you want the fork to feel like.
30% sag, the fork will feel more supple
and it'll feel more controlled for you.
20% sag, it will feel slightly firmer and maybe less so,
but some people like that.
But don't fear, if you haven't a fork like this one
with a chart on the back,
there's gonna be a couple links in the description
below this video linking you through
to the Rockshox website and the Fox website
which are two of the most common options
and I have those charts online.
So now it's time to take your shock pump
and connect it to the valve on the top of your fork.
Now do take care with this because the threads
can be quite easy to strip, so just make sure.
Just get it on nice and straight,
should go on very easily, and screw it all the way in.
And you should see some sort of reading on the shock pump.
As you see on mine here,
it's under 60 pounds there so it's quite soft.
So I'm looking to go to about 95.
(clicking)
So, there we go, just hovering over 90 psi there
so that's a good base setting to start with.
So, now this is a bit where it can be a little bit tricky
when you're doing this on your own.
Hence, why I'm sitting next to a tree.
So the idea is you balance on the tree,
you would bounce up and down to see
how much sag you're getting.
Let it settle, push that O-ring down
until it sits on the fork
and you want to carefully get off the bike
and that gives you an indication.
However, it's much easier if you have a friend.
Hey friend. (chiming)
I have a friend now.
So friend, will helpfully, hold my handlebars
so I don't have to do this.
And then, if you bounce up and down on there for me a bit.
In fact, I can do that bit.
And then, simply put the O-ring down
and then I would step off the bike.
Now as you can see, we've got in fact 25% sag
which I'm actually happy with.
I think that's about right.
But that is exactly what you're looking for.
So, as you can see, I've got just over 25%
which may or may not be the perfect setting for me.
But this is a great place to start.
You're never really gonna know for real
until you get out on trail and see if you like it.
As I said, some people like a fork
to feel slightly firmer so maybe near a 20%.
And others like it a bit softer, near a 30%.
That's entirely up to you, but it's a good place to start.
But before you move onto the next step,
don't forget to put that air cap back on
it just makes sure you're not gonna get
any mud or anything in that valve.
Keeps everything nice and tidy.
So, you've got the air spring dialed in on your forks
so the sag is set up correctly.
Next thing to do is adjust the rebound
and compression damping.
So, on this particular fork, it's a Rockshox fork.
You can go on an app called the Trailhead,
which is part of the Rockshox program.
You can put your body weight in
and it gives you a base setting for an off.
So, in my case it's 95 psi
which is roughly what I put into the fork
and they say minus six clicks of rebound.
So, if they say minus six clicks
that means from fully closed.
So at this point I would fully close the fork.
(clicking)
Give me a second to get through all the clicks.
There we go, so now it's time to do six clicks open.
(clicking) One.
(clicking) Two.
(clicking) Three.
(clicking) Four.
(clicking) Five.
(clicking) Six.
And that is the recommended base setting for my body weight.
Nice and easy to get started.
What you're looking for is a fork that reacts fast enough
that the fork feels supple and will
absorb all of that shock.
But, it also needs to be slow enough
that it's not too bouncy.
Too slow, it will feel sluggish.
Too fast, will feel like a pogo stick.
All about finding that happy medium.
If you get your good base setting,
you get out, you hit the trails,
then you will start finding what works best for you.
Now the final adjustment to make before hitting the trails
and personalizing your base settings
is to get that compression sorted out.
Now on most forks these days the compression on the top
really is to make the fork resist moving to your body weight
when say, out of the saddle and climbing,
so you might want to feel like you want to lock it out.
This is very much an adjustment you can make on the fly.
Simply put, if it feels too harsh you have too much on.
If it's not doing enough you don't have enough on there.
Fairly simple adjustment to make.
Of course, there are more complicated versions
or more expensive forks that have two adjustments.
But, that's something we're gonna be dealing with
in our suspension 101.
So make sure you look out for that on GMBN Tech soon.
Now you might have noticed I didn't mention
setting up a coil sprung fork.
Now these days it's not so common to find coil sprung forks,
and that's just more of a high end fork.
But if you do have a more of a budget conscious fork
that is coil sprung, there's really only a couple of things
you can do to set them up to your body weight.
There will be a pre-load dial on there
and it can slightly adjust the firmness or the softness
of the fork, but only within a very small amount.
Simply put, if it's too soft
you're gonna need a firmer spring.
Or if it's too hard, you're gonna need a softer spring.
And, that essentially is how you set up that sag.
Air springs are king, they're here to stay.
So there you go, that is the basics
of setting up your suspension fork.
Don't forget, this is just your base settings.
You will find in time as a rider
you're gonna start learning what feels best for you.
You might want a harder fork, a softer fork,
a slower fork, faster fork.
That's all for you to go and find out, out on the trail.
That's the fun bit.
For a couple more videos click down here
if you wanna know how to install
a suspension fork to your bike.
Again, it's a fairly simple process,
just requires a few tools.
And for the rest of our essentials series, click up here.
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