- The air shock is the most common form
of shock seen on the average mountain bike these days.
The reason for that is it's lightweight,
and it's easily adjustable
for a whole wide range of riders.
In addition to that, you tend
to have two damping adjustments.
Rebound and compression.
Rebound tends to be a red dial,
and compression a blue dial,
or sometimes a lever, so you can
add on a bit of compression.
Make your bike easier to climb, for example.
In addition to these adjustments,
you can also change the air volume inside the shock.
And what that does, is make the initial breakaway force
feel nice and supple, and helps the shock
ramp up through the travel.
So if you're using too much of your travel,
for example, too often,
but your sag is set correctly,
air volume is the way to go to cure that.
So we're gonna demonstrate
with a couple of Fox shocks,
and a Rockshox shock that are quite common these days,
and show you how to adjust your air volume.
What are air volume spacers?
They simply are plastic spacers, or bands,
that you put inside the air chamber of the shock,
and it alters the progression of the shock
by changing the air volume itself.
So, they're a bit different
on different types of shock.
So, on Rockshox for example,
they are called bottomless rings.
And they're simply these red rubber bands.
And they go on the outside of the shock,
under the air sleeve.
On the Fox X2, and some of the more modern shocks,
it's a very similar system,
except they're not rubberized.
These are actually plastic and they clip together,
around the shock.
On more conventional Fox shocks,
like the Float series, you get these spacers
that go inside, much like in the suspension forks
that we showed you in the previous video.
So, with your correct sag setup on the bike,
go out for a ride, move your O-ring up,
and see how much travel you're using,
and also ask yourself a few questions.
Do you use all the travel?
And how about how often do you use it?
Is it too often?
Does the backend feel a bit harsh?
Or does it feel insensitive to the small bumps?
Does your bike feel a bit wallowy in the mid stroke?
Adding volume spacers can change the feel
of the shock quite dramatically.
So, the initial part of the travel
can feel a lot softer and more supple.
So, the bike will feel really good on the small bumps,
and give you a lot more grip on the back wheel.
It also ramps up significantly
towards the end of the stroke,
but there's also something else that happens
that's really good, is the bike can sit up
a little bit more in the mid stroke.
So, if your bike does feel a bit wallowy,
it can help address that.
And also, if you strike your pedals a lot
when you're climbing technical climbs,
it can just help resist that.
It can keep the bike up a tiny bit,
just when you're climbing,
and you're really sort of weighting the rear end.
Okay, first up is the Rockshox Monarch shock.
So it's exactly the same process
for all the Rockshox shocks.
We're talking the Monarch Plus, Debonairs,
all of those.
So, firstly, you're gonna need a shock.
I've taken it off the bike,
just for ease of explanation here,
but you can do this on the bike quite easily.
Although you probably don't want
to do it at the side of the trail,
so you don't get mud and stuff involved.
Secondly, we need a shock pump.
Thirdly, you need a fine pick,
or at worst you can do this with a screwdriver.
You just have to be careful not to scratch the shock.
Of course you're gonna need some bottomless rings.
Get those in packs from your nearest Rockshox dealer.
And a bit of suspension grease.
And one more additional thing
that can make this process easy
for any of the shocks, is one of these little fellows.
Especially a rubber grip.
So, they're commonly used in car mechanics
and stuff to change the oil filters.
And it's just like a third hand,
so, sometimes you need to twist the air sleeve,
and even with rubber gloves on,
they can be a bit oily still, despite cleaning them.
And it's just a way of gripping the can basically,
and just removing it without damaging it.
So, they're quite good, although this one
is quite excessive in its size.
So, first up, remove your air cap.
Attach a shock pump to the shock,
and just note the pressure you've got in there.
You're gonna want to use that pressure
when you build the shock back up again,
so it's just useful for reference to know that.
Okay, so with the air out of the shock,
the first thing you need to do,
is remove this O-ring seal,
that's just on the outside of the can here.
So this is where the pick comes in handy.
These are good because you can get in
without damaging the O-ring itself.
Just pull it behind there,
and just use it to pull it down and out of the way.
And, remove this.
Put it to one side.
And you'll want to give this a clean
before you put it back on afterwards.
Next up, simply take the air can,
and pull it down and off the shock.
And there we go.
As you can see, there's one band on here already.
I'm gonna put two more on,
just to show you the process.
Make sure you don't cover up the air port at the end.
Otherwise, it's not gonna work very well.
So simply take a couple of bands,
stretch them over, and line them up
next to the one that's already in place.
Now depending on your model of shock,
and the size of your shock,
and the amount of travel your bike has,
there's gonna be limitations on how many bands
you can fit into a particular shock.
So just check on the Rockshox website.
They have a recommendation chart there,
just to tell you what the maximum is you can fit.
As explained, I've got three bands on mine.
So it's nearly time to put the can back on.
I'm just gonna wipe it with,
the inside of it, just with a bit
of suspension grease, just to make sure
that, I'm just gonna wipe the outside here,
just to help the sleeve slide over,
and make sure there's a good seal.
And you simply get the sleeve.
Slide it back on carefully,
until it clicks into place like that.
And it's time to get that O-ring back on,
and slide it back into place.
It really is that simple.
Then, all you need to do with the Rockshox unit
is reinflate the shock to your preferred pressure.
If you've taken it off the bike,
reinstall it on your bike,
and go and hit the trails.
Something to bear in mind,
with any of these shocks you're doing,
is you're not gonna get this right first time.
So, try a couple of bands.
Go out and try it.
Use your O-ring on the shock shaft,
just to monitor how much travel you're using.
If you feel it's about right,
and you're only using the end of the stroke
on the bigger sort of impacts,
so flat landings, then you're pretty much
in the right ballpark.
Okay, so next up I'm gonna use a Fox Float X.
So, this is not the Evolve sleeve,
so it's not the newest one,
but it's quite likely a lot of you
still got this shock on your bikes.
So first up you wanna remove your air dustcap.
Put that somewhere safe.
Then you wanna attach the shock pump to the valve.
And then just note what air pressure is inside there.
You'll want that later on.
Just gets you back on the trails a bit quicker.
Okay, remove your shock pump.
Now, unlike the Rockshox version,
where you simply slid the sleeve off,
on this one, on the Fox shock,
you actually need to unscrew the main sleeve.
So it can be quite tricky,
if it's greasy or if it's been done up tight
in the first place.
So, that is where tools like this,
that are a non-destructive tool
is actually okay to use on this,
would come in handy.
I'm just gonna see if i can do this by hand, and I can.
I can feel it undoing.
And simply unscrew this all the way.
And you'll feel resistance will change
when the thread is fully undone.
And you just wanna slide it down,
so just be careful as you slide it off.
So it will be a slight bit of air pressure
just keeping it on.
And then slide it all the way off.
There we go.
So that is off your shock there.
It's also worth cleaning the outer sleeve as well.
Just make sure the threads are all good and in tact there.
Run a rag through the inside of there.
And just give the seal a nice clean.
If your seal happens to be damaged on these,
get some advice from your local
Fox suspension service centre.
Or, if you can do it yourself, replace the seal.
Unlike the fork system, or the other shock system
with the bands, you can only fit one of these at a time.
So you have to make your choice
between a slightly smaller one,
a tiny one, or the bigger ones.
So in this case, it's actually got a bigger one inside.
I'm just gonna remove this,
to show you how to do that,
and then just reinstall it.
Now, using the pick, I'm just gonna
move this O-ring up that's on the shaft here.
Be careful not to damage the shaft.
And then there's a flat washer plate just sat inside.
So you wanna slide that up as well.
And that exposes the access
to the volume spacer itself.
A little bit fiddly when they're covered in oil
like this one is.
And there we go.
You slide that off the shaft.
So now I've selected the bigger volume spacer there.
Just gonna click this over the main shaft,
with the bigger end facing the outside of the shock.
And then you just have to clip it over the bottom here,
and put it into place.
There we go.
And it's a case of pushing the washer back in place.
Get an O-ring that holds it all together.
Just push that back down the shaft there,
and hold that in place there.
Now it's a good idea, while you've got the shock open,
because this is actually the inside of the shock,
give this a good wipe down
with some isopropyl alcohol.
Give it a clean.
And then just put a few drops
of the Fox Float fluid on the O-ring here,
and just on the shaft on the inside.
Don't put too much in there,
because it interferes with the shock.
I'm also gonna put some fluid
just on the thread of the air sleeve as well,
just to make sure that a.) it screws back together well,
and b.) it helps form a bit of a seal there.
So it's a case of just locating the sleeve over the shock.
Be careful as you push it on,
you don't want to damage the wiper seal at the end there.
And then just push it back up the shaft.
There will be some natural resistance to this.
And then you wanna just locate the threads.
And simply thread it up tight.
Again, my hands are quite oily here,
so those rubber straps are quite good
for this sort of thing,
but you don't need to overtighten it.
Give it a good wipe.
Take note of the air pressure from before,
and reinflate your shock.
Okay, so now we're gonna take a loot at the Fox X2.
So originally this was introduced
as a downhill sort of like a freeride,
long travel-based shock.
But you're actually seeing this creep in
on quite a lot of bikes with less travel now.
This is such a good shock
with a lot of control damping.
The thing that's really smart
about the Fox system,
is you've got these little orange bands,
and they just locate, and they can snap together.
And the reason they've done that,
is it means you can do this
with a shock on the bike,
and you don't have to undo
the shock mount box to slide anything over.
You just clip them either side.
So you've released the air from the shock,
and next stage is to take off the outer air sleeve
from the shock.
Now, if you've got an older version of an X2,
this is the point where you can pretty much
just unlock it and slide it off.
But if it's one of the vaguely newer ones,
there's a tiny little 1.5 mil Allen key bolt there.
And, the bolt there is literally just
to stop it accidentally coming undone.
So, make sure you use a good quality Allen key for that,
because it's a very easy bolt to damage.
So I've just taken the sleeve off, laying that down.
So you can see here that there's
one air volume band already on.
And you'll also notice there's a red band
held on by two O-rings.
Do not remove this.
This is to stop you putting on too many bands,
which can damage the shock.
Okay, so just make sure that you keep that in mind.
So, all you wanna do is just instal
the amount of volume bands on here that you want.
I'm just gonna put two on for arguments sake here.
Clip these in place.
And I'm basically ready to slide back on.
Just like with the other Fox shock,
just gonna put a few dabs of the oil all the way around.
This is a box fresh shock, so I don't need to clean this.
But, if it was your shock at home,
I would recommend just making sure it's all clean,
and visually inspecting the O-rings,
and anything that could be damaged.
You wanna slide the outer sleeve back on again then,
until it sort of locates into position.
So now it's a case of
you just gotta slide it back into place.
You'll feel where there's a natural sort of place
where it just clicks in.
So, just give that a push,
and you'll find it clicks into place there.
Then, you just want to twist the sleeve,
so the 1.5 mil Allen key,
sort of retaining bolt there
can just be put into place to keep the sleeve in there.
Once that's done, it's a case
of returning the air back to the main air can,
putting it back on your bike,
and going to hit the trails.
Hopefully this video on air volume adjustment
for shocks has been helpful for you.
If you wanna find out how to do the exact same thing
with forks, click right down here.
And if you wanna find out how
to do a fork lower leg service, click over here.
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