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A slightly dim set of questions, but hoping the hive mind can help by telling me I'm wrongle (or rightle - you never know).
I bought a Kona Process 111 frame a couple of months ago and have been fixing it up - new bearings, new bolts and so on. A little bit of TLC and it's riding really rather nicely. However, the shock is a bit of a mystery.
As far as I can tell, it's from a different bike or is aftermarket; I'm struggling to set it up right. With the remote pedal lockout in the extended position (firmer than with the plunger in) it feels good - pedals nicely, good platform on descents and so on. This is with the pressure set to around 190lbs for a 79 kg rider.
But I'm using barely two thirds of the travel. I've popped the Deobonair sleeve off to check, and it has five bands on it, which I'm assuming makes the compression rather progressive - and I'm guessing using that little pressure it needs to be more linear to use more travel.
However (and this is a big however) popping the remote button in, which I'm assuming changes from near-lockout to open, doesn't really change the amount of travel I use, but does send the back into a bit of a wallowy mess. As a side note, I used to own a Commencal Meta 4 with a linkage actuated single pivot, and it was pretty dreadful with too low a pressure and damn amazing with. My natural impulse would be to whack in more air to do the same on this bike with the remote in the open position, but then I'll have even less sag and access less rear travel.
I'm going to try taking one band out per ride to see if that allows me to use more travel, but is there anything else I should look for? The Debonair can has no note on it to show the shock tune, as I've had with previous Deb Monarchs. Short of stripping it down to look at the shim stack or paying TF Tuned to sort it (which I probably should do anyway), is there anything I can do to find out the tune? All advice gratefully received; I think if I didn't have the funny remote I'd probably be a bit less lost, to be honest...
Should that frame use the Debonair can instead of the HV can??
Good question, and I've no idea. All the internet experts reckon the linkage produces a linear rate. Looking at the can, it certainly look like a Deb can upgrade - it bulges our rather than being thinnerer in the middle, if that makes sense.
I had a Monarch debonair on my 5 which I couldn't get on with, blowing through travel to barely moving with a small change in PSI. Took the can off to find it was completely full of tuning bands (7!), so I took them all out and started from scratch. Settled on 2 and more air in the end as a compromise, but felt it didn't really suit the bike. I stuck a small can Manitou McCleod shock on it and the ride is totally different. Nice support but all the travel when I need it without blasting through it. Nice and simple, minimal adjustments but they all do something. Just stick some air in, check sag, ride 🙂
Try putting some bands in the lower section of the debonair can. I believe that is the negative side. My bike (banshee Rune) is better suited to a non-debonair can, so I filled the negative side with spacers and it made a difference.
Fab - thanks all! I'll yank a bunch of bands out and start from scratch. Moving one band from the pos chamber to neg seemed to improve things a little, so I'll try shifting more. I'm at Flyup417 with an udderlet for an uplift day tomorrow so will play about a bit with spacers then.
I'm still a bit lost on the compression damping tune - but maybe the secret's in the spacer bands. Looking around, the RCT3 / Deb upgrade seemed to be the one to go for in the past on the Process; I've owned a Sub 5 and a 5 in the past, and as a single pivot with no linkage to alter the curve, they've been a bit of a different proposition for tuning - a completely different curve. The 5 had an early monarch with a custom shim stack (not my work - the bike shop owner who owned it before me tinkered) and it worked nicely.
check the tuning code on your air can against what it should be for the bike, though bear in mind a shop might have modified the tune and not changed the sticker...
Ta BigJim. Unfortunately the can is completely stripped of stickers. I've got the serial number, but the Rockshox site isn't showing anything for it; I know it's a '14 MY shock, not sure what happened after that.