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Hi,
I've fairly new to mountain biking and have just switched from a 100mm travel Giant XTC to a Orange Clockwork Evo 29er that I've built with an older pair of 140mm Pike's.
I picked the Pike's up second hand and they have the charger 2 damper and vorsprung Luftkappe upgrades.
I've never been very precise in setting up my forks, I normally count the clicks for compression and rebound and set both half way, and put in the air pressure suggested by the manufacturer.
I've done this with the Pikes and after my first couple of rides have maxed out at about 120mm of the 140mm travel.
What is your set up procedure or advice?
So many guides for this available online from credible sources and even the manufacturer.
Essentially your starting point is OK, except maybe determine the air pressure by your required sag.
(unfortunately there will be many opinions of this, so you will have to decide!)
Rebound as per commonly available information - start with the old push down and see how it comes back.
Compression start at none and only add some when you find a shortcoming that needs it.
See how it all goes, decide if there is a concern and if so make an adjustment to change. Like currently the suggestion may be the your air pressure is a bit high so check the sag.
In between the knives and the spoons, as per the other thread.
I set air pressure to get 30% sag in a standing ready position.
Then rebound so it is as fast as possible without the wheel bouncing off the ground when I push down and let go.
Then starting with no low speed compression, ride and see if I need more support, then add some. Or use an online guide for a starting point and add or take away from there. But I try and run as little as possible, but I am light though.
Then do a ride with some decent (by your standards) drops, jumps, g-outs etc and then see how much travel you are using. If near max, then ok. If nowhere near then increase the air spring size and keep the same pressure (remove tokens). If it is using all the travel too easily then reduce the air spring size by adding tokens.
I haven't used a vorsprung Luftkappe though.
Once everything else is set up how you like have a read about bottomless tokens too. If the fork bottoms out too much or not at all, add or removing a token can make a big difference. Very easy to do too.
Air pressure: use recommended as a starter, then adjusting accordingly on first few rides.
Rebound: the basic push-down test as that they return as quick as possible without being ridiculous.
Compression: start off with zero and apply more if I feel it's diving too much.
Tokens: start with recommended for travel etc and go from there - I know what I like in terms of ramping up / progression.
And generally, only adjusting one thing at a time and riding it to see the effect before faffing around with another adjustment. Keeping notes on settings too so I remember what I've done.
New one I heard recently - instead of starting with default tokens and adding if you're bottoming out, start with all of them in and remove if you're not reaching full travel. Guy from Full Factory Suspension on GMBN Tech here
FWIW i found the recommended air pressure for my pikes was way too high. As others have said, set it at 25-30% whilst you are stood up over the forks (but not pushing down on them).
Thanks for the replies.
I have just checked my sag and its about 25-30% so that seems about right. I'm running about 8 or 9psi under recommended to get there (I'm 75kgs + kit).
I've got two tokens which is the default for 140mm forks.
I cant get the front wheel to bounce off the ground with full rebound, so I've moved it from half way to a quarter of the way back from full.
Moved the compression to off.
I'll see how it goes!