Hey all, do we have any suspension nerds here?
I have some annoying troubles with the rear suspension on my 2017 Focus Vice trail bike. The shock is Rockshox deluxe select R with max tokens inside and 250psi air pressure (~20% sag)
Long story short, I keep bottoming out the rear suspension regularly on jumps and drops way easier than I’m comfortable with, but with the amount of pressure in the shock the ride starts feeling pretty harsh as well
So what I’ve thought as options, but might need some more validation:
- bigger bike and/or bike with more progressive suspension curve
Eh, don’t really want to replace bike I otherwise love
- different shock?
Not sure what I would look there tbh, also gets pricy but not as bad as a whole new bike
- messing with the shock tune
The shock doesn’t have externally adjustable high/low speed compression, but perhaps could adjust the shim stack? This is completely alien stuff for me so some ideas/advice would be appreciated
- there’s a megneg air can upgrade kit available for the shock
This increases the negative volume giving more mid-strike support, plushier initial feeling and more bottom out force using less tokens as claimed by rockshox. This upgrade kit is not terribly expensive, but is it worth if I’d better be going with a new shock anyways?
Technique, body weight, and the suspension adjustment are your options. Otherwise like you indicated you may need a shock with greater travel or aggressive compression curve options to send the features you’re bottoming out on. If you have people sending the same features and not bottoming out you can compare your differences in setup.
Might just be landing a bit rear heavy, though if you’ve got 130mm up front you’ll need to find a good balance.