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Suspension Setup help Fox 38 and X2 Shock
Hello I recently upgraded my bike and got one which came with 38 factory and X2 factory. My previous suspension was a rockshox yari and delux shock which didn't have as many settings.
I currently weigh around 85kg what settings do you currently run if you are a similar weight as I just can't seem to get it right as there are so many different settings that I have never had any tips would be greatly appreciated to help me get the best performance out of my forks and shock.
What bike is it on? Leverage ratio, angles etc all affect the settings. As does riding style and personal preference.
Santa Cruz, Yeti and Transition all have base line settings for their bikes listed in their tech support pages.
The real what though is to understand it all and play about.
Set sag, open the compression wide open and set rebound to suit, then add a bit of low spec compression to stop wallowing and take it from there.
Specialized have base settings too, I started from there which was a pretty good place and ended up with a little less high and low speed compression.
Ibis do the same - their numbers are nothing like the standard fox settings. Eg for my 100kg my X2 is set at 277psi
Hey there it's on a nukeproof mega 290 carbon
What doesn't feel right? Too hard? To soft? Big hits? Small bumps?
As others have said it very much depends on the bike. I’ve an x2 in my e180 as another on my alpine6. Both are set up quite differently, with the Whyte being particularly finicky regarding pressure as it likes to either blast through its travel or just not move depending on how slightly wrong it’s set up.
38s can be a right pain to get small bump sensitivity dialled.
Have you thought about hiring a ShockWiz?
Same bike, similar weight. Run about 210psi in the X2 and about 100psi in the foks. Have the clickers pretty open (i.e not a lot of compression or rebound) but that's very much personal preference. HTH
Might be worth hiring a shock wiz to to help get setting in the right place. You do need to ride the trails in the way you want to be set up for as it recommends setting that maximise the suspension for what you have been doing.
It should also be usefull for getting an understanding of what different setting really do to the way the suspension is working.
Re small bump on the 38s, they were infamous for shipping with loads of grease, packing out the negative air chamber. A strip, cleans and rebuild of the air spring (and lowers) made a big difference on mine
There are also common assembly issues that can make it tricky to get the best out of a fork. Too little oil in the lowers, too much grease in the air spring or overly tight bushings.
I used the base settings in the Fox manual - they're a bit stiff but I worked back from that.
My Mega 290 had 2 tokens in the fork and I took 1 out which helped too.
I have a mega 297 with a 38, spent quite a while trying to get the settings right as small changes in PSI makes quite a difference to how the fork feels.
Have a read through the below thread, lots of people running slow HSR and speeding up the LSR. I've also done the same and it feels good.
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/fox-38-whats-your-setup.1151629/#replies
Video below explains why this works.
My setting from fully closed:
90psi, 0 tokens
8 clicks LSR
3 clicks HSR
6 clicks HSC
12 clicks LSC
I'm running an x2 and 38 performance on my levo. And it just feels dead. had a mess about and it still doesn't feel good, compared to the ohlins coil I had on before. I got an shockwiz to help set up, but setting that up has been a massive pain. Gave up on it in the end. Dose anybody know what the compression ratio is on a 160mm fox 38, with no tokens in, and a 55mm stroke x2 with no tokens in? I haven't been able to find this on the web.