Sus air pressure

in message <[email hidden]>, Jo

(') said:

The new 'bent has Rock Shox Bar rear suspension. I have never had a
bike with any suspension before, so I haven't got a clue what I am
doing. What sort of air pressure can it take? The Rock Shox web site
isn't much help. At the moment it's fine with my (heavy) weight, but
too soft when loaded with additional weight. The pressure also seems to
go down quite quickly.

The pressure should not go down quickly. If it does, the shock needs
servicing, and if you don't get it serviced quickly you may do permanent
damage (although this probably isn't as urgent on a 'bent, used on
relatively clean roads, as it would be on an MTB). FWIW the Fox Floats
on both my mountain bikes can retain their set pressure for months. As
to pressure, this varies from model to model but can be surprisingly
high - up to 350psi in some cases. You need a special 'shock pump', both
because of the high pressure and because, as the size of the air chamber
is small, so the amounts of air you need to pump in to adjust the
pressure are also small.

A general rule for setting the pressure is that without the rider on the
bike the unit should be more or less fully extended, and when the rider
just sits on the stationary bike (leaning against a wall for balance)
the unit should compress by about 20-25% of its travel.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

... a mild, inoffensive sadist...

Jo said:

The new 'bent has Rock Shox Bar rear suspension. I have never had a bike
with any suspension before, so I haven't got a clue what I am doing.
What sort of air pressure can it take? The Rock Shox web site isn't much
help. At the moment it's fine with my (heavy) weight, but too soft when
loaded with additional weight. The pressure also seems to go down quite
quickly.

The Rock Shox web site has manuals for most of their shocks, though they
aren't always easy to find.

http://www.sram.com/en/service/rockshox/view.php?catID=2&subcatID=2

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune