Super Deluxe setup - am I chasing a mirage?

[megabobra]

I'm having trouble getting my Super Deluxe to a balanced point that suits the riding I do on my Voima (190mm). It's a RS-SDLX-ULT-B2, so it's only got LSC and Rebound adjustments.

• @30% sag, impacts feel quite harsh despite not using all travel. Seems like its blowing through mid stroke and coming to a harder stop towards the top end of the spring curve
• Small drops easily use all travel. Never a harsh bottom out at all, but I can get the red travel band off the end of the shaft
• Less sag loses the small bump sensitivity, causing the rear ends up skipping over the smaller impacts
• Adding LSC seems to help with the mid stroke support, but again at the expense of sensitivity
• Faster rebound improves compliance and helps down serious rock gardens, but bucks me forward on any small jump/drop, also bounces me around when climbing up tech
• Slowing rebound to prevent the bucking/bouncing leads to rougher ride overall, presumably where the shock is packing down between impacts

Riding weight ~73kg. The shock is 250x75. I'm running 147psi for 30% sag, two volume spacers installed. I've tried a range of LSC and Rebound settings, but usually end up back at 1 click from fastest on both LSC and Rebound.

Thoughts? What else can I try here? I feel like I need more LSC and LSR without increasing the HSC or HSR, but not sure about increasing the mid support? Regardless, I have no high-speed knobs to adjust!

 

[Weeksy]

We're running the same shock and set up by telemetry and at 61kg the pressure is 155psi. That's giving 26% sag... I think you need more pressure personally. I'd be up in the 170-180 bracket.

 

[megabobra]

We're running the same shock and set up by telemetry and at 61kg the pressure is 155psi. That's giving 26% sag... I think you need more pressure personally. I'd be up in the 170-180 bracket.

It's a good thought, and higher pressure definitely helps with the mid support, but it puts me way below desired sag, to the point where smaller impacts barely trigger a response.

Trailhead suggests 149psi, though this does push up to 165 with 'E-Bike' checked:

 

[Weeksy]

How about upping the pressure and dropping the volume spacers.... I'd be curious to see the results for that.

A lot is going to depend on how you're riding and what you're hitting. It'll be hard if you're hitting something that needs 190mm of travel to get it to work well at both ends of the range in suspension. It's often a compromise and you may need to compromise on the small bump compliance if you want to get the full use out of a 190 hard hit.

 

[megabobra]

How about upping the pressure and dropping the volume spacers.... I'd be curious to see the results for that.

A lot is going to depend on how you're riding and what you're hitting. It'll be hard if you're hitting something that needs 190mm of travel to get it to work well at both ends of the range in suspension. It's often a compromise and you may need to compromise on the small bump compliance if you want to get the full use out of a 190 hard hit.

Yes I'll try removing those spacers and compensating with pressure to see how it goes.

I think you're right on the 190mm. I do ask a lot in the range of riding on voima, with silly technical climbing, fire trails, and natural downhill. My other bike with a Fox X2 doesn't seem to suffer in the same way. I can't help but wonder if it's the ability to tune the high speed circuits independently of low...

 

[RustyMTB]

I'm running the same shock at 85kg with a Gnar dog & 300 psi(!) and find it easily bottoms out on average trail riding. This leaves me with nowhere useful to go on sag & I've been wondering if it's simply the factory tune aiming at the average rider.