Volume spacers for suspension?

[Crash]

I weigh 220 pounds and will want to add volume spacers to suspension. Advice?

 

[mclydeg]

My understanding is that if you remove them all it creates the largest air volume but you have to be concerned about bottoming the fork out. If you add the tokens it will reduce bottoming out. I’m 220 pounds and I took them all out on the 160 lyrik, it’s awesome great small bump compliance but I’m not a super aggressive downhill rider so I don’t worry about bottom out that much plus I have high-speed compression adjustment.

 

[steve_sordy]

I weigh 220 pounds and will want to add volume spacers to suspension. Advice?

Ride the bike and then see if you still need to add or remove any spacers. With every bike I've had since spacers were a "thing" I have been unable to predict in advance whether I needed to add or remove spacers to the fork, shock, both, or neither!

What I did was to get the best set up I could with what the bike came with. The following is a very good guide to doing that.
https://bikerumor.com/2014/10/30/bikerumor-suspension-setup-series-full-series-pdf-free-download/

Only then would I look at the fork and shock performance to see whether I need to add or remove any spacers. Tuning the air volume can make a noticeable difference, but I wouldn't do it without first giving the bike a chance on your usual trails.

Good luck!

 

[Crash]

Ride the bike and then see if you still need to add or remove any spacers. With every bike I've had since spacers were a "thing" I have been unable to predict in advance whether I needed to add or remove spacers to the fork, shock, both, or neither!

What I did was to get the best set up I could with what the bike came with. The following is a very good guide to doing that.
https://bikerumor.com/2014/10/30/bikerumor-suspension-setup-series-full-series-pdf-free-download/

Only then would I look at the fork and shock performance to see whether I need to add or remove any spacers. Tuning the air volume can make a noticeable difference, but I wouldn't do it without first giving the bike a chance on your usual trails.

Good luck!

Always sound advice to get a feel for a baseline before making adjustments. I took a lot of tinkering before dialing in suspension on my current bike, Yeti sb5.5 X01 build. It also has Fox Factory suspension 140mm rear travel // 160mm front travel, but obviously is a considerably lighter frame. I eventually landed on 2 tokens in the fork at 110 psi and 3 tokens in the shock at 250psi for my 220 pound, 6'5" body and riding style.

I may start there as a baseline and most likely add from there. Thanks

 

[TransAmMan]

I have always run at least 2 tokens in every air fork I have ridden. On my old DH bike (Boxxer WC) I used to run 3 (190lbs)

Generally most run spacers to improve the ramp up in the last 20% of travel (if you are bottoming) By adding spacers, you can often lower the air pressure "slightly" to provide better small bump compliance. This does NOT address internal valving however.

However at your weight, I am not sure that spacers would address your problem. Personally I would look at having your suspension re-valved accordingly for your weight. My wife has the opposite problem from you in that she is too light and cannot get more than 50% travel from her suspension. Every bike she has owned had to get revalved.

Most suspension is set up stock for people around 180 lbs. Your on the higher end, so a revalve would do wonders.

I would look for a suspension tuner to revalve your fork and shock to your weight. Its more economical to do if your planning on having your fork and shock serviced anyway.

 

[Mikerb]

…..more like 190 to 200 lbs throughout the US and UK! Plus add to that the extra weight and force exerted by an E bike and it is no surprise that for much lighter riders stock suspension is invariably too stiff. My Revelation fork with 30% sag ( 75 psi) was still too hard and even on jumps and drops I never used the last 50mm of travel. I weigh 168 lbs. I found the fork had 2 tokens. I reduced that to 1 token.....30% sag now is 100 psi.....better but still not using all of the travel! So I will remove the final token.

 

[steve_sordy]

I'm 92kg in my riding weight (14.5 stone or 203lbs). My 150mm travel RockShox Revelation RC with Debonair spring required 115psi to get 28% sag and it never really used as much of the travel as I was comfortable with. It always felt a bit hard, even with the compression damping at the fully open position. I removed the top of the air leg and removed the single token that was in there. What an improvement! 110psi gets me the same % sag, the fork uses about a quarter more travel, and I have set the compression damping two clicks back from fully open.

Oh and by the way, I also went to the Rockshock website and then set up the fork from scratch using their instructions. At first I didn't think it had made much difference, but once I had tuned the bike whilst riding, it was brilliant. I suspect that the LBS hadn't compressed the shock deeply or often enough as advised by Rockshox.

The fork now feels smooth and just lovely!

 

[d3ftone]

I'd recommend these...

Neopos – Formula

 

[Sapientiea]

I'm 92kg in my riding weight (14.5 stone or 203lbs). My 150mm travel RockShox Revelation RC with Debonair spring required 115psi to get 28% sag and it never really used as much of the travel as I was comfortable with. It always felt a bit hard, even with the compression damping at the fully open position. I removed the top of the air leg and removed the single token that was in there. What an improvement! 110psi gets me the same % sag, the fork uses about a quarter more travel, and I have set the compression damping two clicks back from fully open.

Oh and by the way, I also went to the Rockshock website and then set up the fork from scratch using their instructions. At first I didn't think it had made much difference, but once I had tuned the bike whilst riding, it was brilliant. I suspect that the LBS hadn't compressed the shock deeply or often enough as advised by Rockshox.

The fork now feels smooth and just lovely!

Hmm that you need less pressure with less tokens is not normal. If you remove a Rockshox token normally you need a little bit (+/- 5 psi) extra due to lower static pressure. Measuring sag on front fork is biased heavily. I go by feel, if it is to wallowy I increase pressure and vice versa. So if it is riding perfectly for you then it is good! Have fun.

 

[steve_sordy]

Hmm that you need less pressure with less tokens is not normal. If you remove a Rockshox token normally you need a little bit (+/- 5 psi) extra due to lower static pressure. Measuring sag on front fork is biased heavily. I go by feel, if it is to wallowy I increase pressure and vice versa. So if it is riding perfectly for you then it is good! Have fun.

Going from 115 psi to 110psi is not that much. I just altered the pressure until the "O" ring indicated 28% sag (my estimate, I didn't measure it). I guess that on another day I may have put more or less air in. But seeing as it feels OK, I left it.

 

[Mikerb]

Going from 115 psi to 110psi is not that much. I just altered the pressure until the "O" ring indicated 28% sag (my estimate, I didn't measure it). I guess that on another day I may have put more or less air in. But seeing as it feels OK, I left it.

I think the problem here is that the recommended way of setting front suspension sag is so imprecise. Just moving your weight a fraction forward or back or leaning more with your chest, can give very different settings. Its OK as a guide to get an initial pressure setting but if the air pressure ramp is made non linear by using tokens I feel it invariably leads to setting the fork up too stiff. With or without tokens I think a far better guide is to find a pressure setting that enables full fork travel on a typical ride/trail. You can always then increase that pressure if you know you are going to be riding something with bigger drops/jumps.