The Air Can on my Five29 is leaking, i can start a ride off nice and firm, and then by the end its slopping around in the bottom of its travel. Well annoying. TF have had it twice, i think its just spent.
Found a Cane creek Inline on ebay im toying with. Its 45mm stoke, where as my Air can is 50mm, which will just reduce the travel a shade, im not too bothered by that tbh.
I wanted to check whether im likely to need a new spring though, so ive been on the TF coil calculator.
a rider weight of 95kg
shock stroke of 45mm
rear wheel travel fo 140mm
firm feel (28% sag)
im getting a 801lb spring! that doesnt exist does it? im not THAT fat, the wheel travel is average, is shock stroke is... well its a coil shock off the shelf, so its not abnormal.
the Float thats on it is at 220psi, which is pretty normal. Is it just that some air frames will not take coil shocks due to leverage ratios?
what am i not understanding here please?
Not checked the calculation, but short stroke shocks need springs that are harder to compress. So, the shorter the stroke, the higher the spring rate required.
Can't help you with the spring calculator but how much is a brand new Bomber Coil from J-Tech with custom tuning? £400-450 maybe, plus the spring?
Brand new, warrantied and tuned for you and your bike with the correct spring on it.
Buying used suspension is a minefield and can cost a lot more money in the long run.
If you put in 50mm stroke, it says 650lbs - which sounds more like it.
Can you see if the shock uses a stroke reducer clipped in behind the spring? I reckon it probably does, and you could just remove that to get your full travel.
You could calculate the spring rate of the air shock and compare - that would give you a feel for the coil spring value.
Do you know the diameter of the air can?
Is there a rod through the middle of the can? what diameter is it?
220psi sounds like a lot of air pressure - but I've never owned an air shock so I have no clue :o)
That 140mm travel you're using. Is that the existing travel or have you reduced it pro rata from the existing 50mm stroke shock?
you could always put a sprindex spring in and give you some options!
Have you accounted for the fact the travel has reduced with the shorter shock?
Assuming it's got some progression (i.e. it's not an Orange?) then 2:1 is probably about right for the end stroke so your 140mm bike will become a 130mm travel one.
What does it say if you enter 130mm / 45mm
That's still quite a high leverage ratio (1:2.8), and you are 'above average', and you're aiming for lower than average sag, so yes I'd expect it to be giving some pretty stiff numbers. Maybe try it at 33% sag, that way shortening the shock stroke won't raise the BB?
I just checked and 650-700lb springs do exist on the TF website, but seem to be only in the 'normal' configuration not the lightweight VALT springs
Have you tried the J-Tech calculator - you get to put a few more parameters in, including the leverage rate on the right hand one?
Have you tried emailing Orange, TFTuned or a few other tuning centres? I bet TF have done loads of Fives over the years and will know what people are riding.
when I was 100kg and riding an Alpine 160 (CCDB), I wasn’t running anywhere near that spring, around 500 I think
Buying used suspension is a minefield and can cost a lot more money in the long run.
I've bought a lot of used suspension.
Apart from one shock that lost all its damping it's all been fine. I've got lucky 😄
I have broken a couple of new to me shocks in that time as well.
( However that one shock loosing its damping did result in a trip off the mountain on a spinal board, X-ray, MRI and ££££ bill. None of which I remember other than being presented with the bill at the end)
