You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
After years of VPP, I've managed to confuse myself.
With a progressive setup then, one would expect it very hard to reach full travel - right? - because the shock is getting firmer as it compresses.
With my 100mm Spark (2018 RC) in "open" mode I'm struggling to get any more than 3/4 travel at 25% (recommended) yet when I go to 30% I get the "trapdoor" effect when riding slowly over depressions which I don't enjoy.
At speed, or in racing with it set in the 70mm mode it feels perfect - stiff, compliant at the beginning of the stroke.
What am I doing wrong, if anything?
You could try changing to a larger air-can volume spacer - the fact that it feels good in mid-setting reinforces this (on the Nude shock, for mid-setting the air-can volume is decreased by shutting off the secondary chamber. I'm getting the same recommendations to add a larger volume spacer on my Spark, via a ShockWiz.
Interesting thanks. None of the reviews point toward this issue, perhaps tested by people riding bigger travel bikes and getting a lost of movement.
I'm off for a ride tonight so am going to try a couple of the same loop at the reduced pressure (150psi for 76kg) in Open then in Firm to get a travel indication.
"Riding slowly in open mode" - does not compute 😉
The spark feels bottomless when fully open and descending hard.
I'm not sure what back to back loops in the two active modes would achieve as that's not the purpose. It's not intended to go "today I want a 100mm bike, I'll run it fully open" you select the mode for the terrain under your wheels at that moment in time. For me, open is into steep or tech 'gnar' where I'm unlikely to be putting any pedal strokes in, traction mode is everything else aside from relatively smooth climbs or tarmac where I'm locked out. Fast flow descending and I'm still in traction, all my nude bikes have been better in traction mode on all but the steepest stuff..
Bearback - and my riding experience would reflect that also. I've ridden uphill or slow flat in open and as I've fallen into a depressions its wallowed a bit. In traction mode my experience reflects yours.
Obviously I'm used to VPP and an not riding it right. 1/2 of tonights circular loop its a downhill with a couple of logs rolls/jumps, then flat single track to a bridleway climb so I'll give Open/Traction a go respectively.
I must say its not affected handling of the bike when ridden properly, just when I'm sitting on the saddle ploddng. I rode my last race entirely in Traction mode and it was superb.
I must say its not affected handling of the bike when ridden properly, just when I’m sitting on the saddle ploddng.
Exactly, sitting on your saddle would by default mean you should be in at least traction mode 🙂
Its honestly like the clutch pedal in a car when you figure it out.. you just use it without thinking about it.
Meh, that was shit. At 30% sag it felt like the front end didn't know what the back end was doing. I forgot to take a shock pump so rode the rest in traction mode, which felt like the previous open mode.
However, this was bizarre. I didn't get all the travel - 34mm measured of 40mm stroke, so 15% left over, translates to 85mm travel at the wheel. Considering I'd dropped maximum 18 inches of the top of a log thats probably not a surprise. BUT to work that out I deflated the shock - but couldn't. The air wouldn't come out without pump the shock, it was pump, purge, pump, surge until empty. I wonder if all the air had gone to pos/neg?
Anyway, Its set back to 25% (167psi) and I got 40% travel riding in the garden. I might have to accept the "progressive" nature of this shock means I won't see 100% travel. I'm riding exactly the same loops on Saturday, so I'll have another go with 25% sag.
Did you equalize pos and neg when adding air?
Yes I've been bouncing up and down until the psi stays where I need it.
Sounds way too complicated for you. Get a hard tail.
Cable tension set correctly? i.e. no tension in open/decend mode?
If you've a grip dampered fork then its entirely possible the shop went wacky turning barrels willy nilly as grip is more fiddly than FIT4 to set.
Yes I know its teh shock thats the issue, but its not hard to add turns to the wrong barrel adjuster on the twin lock
I swapped from a spark to a niner jet, it’s very different feeling beast. The spark was efficient, it was never plush.
Bear back - fork is perfect, yes it's the grip damper .
As above, I think for me the shock will be "efficient" but not plush. That's not to say it's not comfortable at pace - it is, I love the bike . I'm not exactly a big jumper of bikes so I guess that last 15mm will remain in reserve.
In recent marathons and trail rides I'm very happy with the "feel" of the bike, so need to ignore how much of the travel it's using and set the sag correctly.
Well, I went to 165psi or 27% sag to 170mm 25% sag. The latter as recommended felt efficient with surprising comfort in Trail mode, and comfortable with surprising efficiency in Open - it feels good to me that for sure, much more stable and fast feeling, I liked it that way.
Both ends showed 60% travel used on my woodsy singletrack / log rolls. I'll be racing with it tomorrow so will see if I get more travel then. Otherwise I'll accept it as it and see if I get more out of it on bigger hits somewhere else.
How are you finding the spark so far, thinking about one when the 2019 are out
Flipping awesome. Raced it today, and so far have done 3 races and a Marathon on it. Its seriously good handling, comfortable yet spritely and fast at the same time.
With ref to the above, now that I've found out I should be riding it in traction mode (double checked against he Scott website too) its just got better. Climbs very well, and is very stable on the downs. I'm not tempted to change it in the slightest. I'm guessing you'll be looking the RC like mine, which despite the low looking front end handles more than you can give it credit for.