Suspension setup is a hot topic and quite often riders can get a bit too bogged down with all the minutia of it. From a coaches point of view, what we would say is, it’s important to have the right base tune in the first place. It’s important not only for performance but to have a well balanced bike that will allow you to use (and hopefully develop) your skills properly.
With modern suspensions, loaded with controls, the tuning process can be a bit daunting and is certainly time consuming (we recommend this cool video by Fox Suspension). Not everyone has the time or patience to do bracketing properly so we found a way to speed things up a little...
There are a couple of devices on the market that allow you to measure your suspension’s movements and recommend some adjustments accordingly, directly on your smartphone. We chose the SMB Flow for its ability to work with air and coil suspensions.
Once installed (the only "issue" we found is the device doesn’t always fit with every frame design, for example it doesn’t work with a coil shock on my Nomad), it’s really easy to setup your SAG very precisely, it will then only take about 1 or 2 runs to get enough data to suggest some adjustments. They won’t necessarily be perfect but will give you a solid base to start fine tuning from if you wish and if you can’t be bothered you can ride knowing that there isn’t anything badly wrong with your suspensions!
We now offer our clients the option to rent the device during their session with us, you’ll go away with better skills and a bike setup on actual data not just feelings. What’s not to like?!
