Your mountain bike setup is nearly perfect.  With the mtb setup tips adjustments you made in Part 1 and Part 2, you are now ready to adjust the final piece…your suspension system.

A finely tuned mountain bike suspension system can save you a crash, bring you closer in times to the pros, and make your rides more comfortable and rewarding.  A perfectly adjusted MTB suspension system isolates your bike and body from the rigorous terrain, and keeps your tires connected to the trail.

Mountain bike manufactures continue to produce more advanced and tunable suspensions systems.  If you’re riding on the latest shocks from Progressive, Answer, Fox, Avalanche, or others, consider consulting your owner’s manual for advance tweaks to your model type.

As most suspensions systems are based on the same basic principles with one adjustment each for rebound and compression damping for both shocks and forks, we’ll focus on the basics here.Spring Rate and Preload – Your suspension spring controls the amount of force it takes to bottom out, or compress your suspension.  The lower the spring rate adjustment, the softer the spring and ride.  The higher the spring adjustment, the harder and stiffer your ride will be. 

You adjust air shocks by adding or removing air.  You adjust coil spring shocks by turning the preload collar.  All other things being equal, if you weigh 200lbs, your spring rate adjustment will be higher than a mountain bike rider who weighs 175lbs…on the same mountain bike given the same riding conditions and ride styles. 

Ideally, you want your spring stiff enough to support your weight, but soft enough to sag your suspension 25% of its travel if you own a XC MTB.  For downhillers, this sag could be 33%, and a few MTB designs require up to 40% sag.  As the geometries of each MTB design are unique, always check your owner’s manual for the exact sag requirements.

Adequate suspension sag keeps your wheels on the ground while you rollover dips and bumps.  The stiffer your suspension the bigger the dips and jumps your MTB can handle before the suspension bottoms out.  The softer your suspension system the closer to the ground you’ll feel, but tough terrain will more likely bottom out your suspension.

You want your suspension system to be soft enough… but without bottoming out too often.  If you are looking for the perfect mountain bike suspension adjustment, then you would have a different suspension adjustment, or tweak, if you were riding a tough course with a hairy downhill terrain verses an average trail ride.  Testing and picking the best MTB suspension adjustment for your average rides is probably best for most mountain bike riders.

To measure sag, simply measure your travel with the mountain bike stationary, than use a zip tie on your fork and an O-ring on the rear shaft and measure the amount of travel with your weight distributed on it as though you were riding. 

For coil shocks, measure the distance from the shock mounting bolt.  To find the exact measurement of your stroke, again consult your user manual.  To adjust, tighten or loosen the knurled metal collar at the end of the spring, which changes the preload. 

If two turns doesn’t provide enough preload for your coil shocks, than you need a stiffer spring.  With too much preload, your wheel will chatter on small bumps which can damage your shock.  If you loosen your collar so much that the spring is rattling around the shock, you need a softer suspension spring.  For air shocks, decrease or increase air pressure to get the exact sag.

Rebound Damping – Now that you’ve got the down cycle tuned correctly with the spring rate, you want to adjust the rebound damping on your shocks to slow the rebound effect after you hit a rock or bump.  Without rebound damping, your spring would rebound after a bump in the road and throw you off like an uncontrollable horse.

With too much rebound damping, your shock will not have enough time to recover to its full travel before hitting the next rock or dip in the road.  This will result in your travel eating away, or not extending properly and your ride turning bumpy and out of control on fast, rough sections of the trail.

With faster, rougher trails, your rebound damping should be less, providing you a faster suspension cycle.  For easier rides, your rebound damping can be more. 

Test and set your rebound damping as fast as possible (lowest rebound damping) without the MTB feeling bouncy or hard to control.  To achieve a uniform suspension system and perfect mesh between you and your mountain bike, your front and rear shocks should rebound at the same speed.

Compression Damping – If you have high-end forks and shocks, you can adjust your compression damping.  In most cases, the factory settings are ideal for most mountain bike riders so think twice about adjusting here as the wrong settings can negatively affect your ride.

Your spring rate adjustment determines the force necessary to compress your suspension.  Your compression damping determines how fast your suspension gives, or compresses. 

High compression damping reduces pedal bob and increases your pedal stroke efficiency and force to the tires, resulting in a faster ride.  Too much compression damping can lead to a MTB ride that feels harsh.  With too low of compression damping, your mountain bike may feel too soft with the suspension system bottoming out too much.

If you are looking for a faster ride or racing your MTB, increase your compression damping to reduce pedal bob and increase your pedal efficiency to reduce your mountain bike times.  For softer rides, run as little compression damping as possible without bottoming out too often. 

Be sure to test and tweak your suspension adjustments before you take on your next mountain bike race. 

Remember the rule…nothing new on race day.

To simplify any troubleshooting, review the following:

1.       If your bike bounces around after hitting rocks, bumps or dips – increase your rebound damping.

2.       Your mountain bike feels good over the first bump, then feels harsher over the next and following ones – decrease your rebound damping.

3.       Too much bouncing while pedaling  – increase compression damping

4.       Bike feels harsh on large bumps, chatters on small bumps, has poor traction in the corners, and is not using the full suspension travel – decrease compression damping.

With these mountain bike setup adjustments, your mountain bike is ready to take on the trails with greater efficiency, faster times, and a more comfortable ride.  And that means a more rewarding mountain bike riding experience.

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