DH Suspension Setup (help?)

[Burrito_Boy]

I just got a new bike with a Fox DHX 3 and marzocchi 170mm triple Dropoffs, as i have not had a dual suspension bike before i was just wondering how to setup this suspension. I would like it a race setup. I know there have been a few posts about this but i havent found any relevent to this suspension, i was wondering if anyone could help me out, much the same way juls did in this thread..

http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=34305&page=2&pp=10&highlight=suspension+setup

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(i weigh 65kg and am 175cm tall)

[mattvincent]

this is going to be no help if you want to run other peoples settings. But every one has there suspension set differently, hard, soft, slow and fast.
It all depends on how you like it. The best way to do that is go for a ride and decide wether you want it faster or slower and change it a little bit and go for another ride. make sure you only change one thing each time, if you change 2 settings and it feels crap its harder to reverse.

I run my bike slow and a little harder on the back to the front.
But i have totaly different shocks to you and my frame geo would be different unless we ride the same bike.

[Burrito_Boy]

Oh yeah my bad2, the bike is a '04 norco atomik. And I'd just like a general idea of how to go about things cause i havené before

[S.]

Read what Juls said in that thread about the rebound and preload/sag setup, pretty much all you need to know right there.

[floody]

I normally wind everything out to the minimum, then increase settings gradually to get a feel for how its working. I feel the biggest setup features are that sag is ~20-30% (I normally run more compression damping AND more sag in the back, less damping less sag in the front), and rebound setup so that the bike tracks the ground but doesn't "pack down" (too slow) or pack out (too fast). I generally run rear rebound a tad slower than forks in order to make takeoffs more predictable, and also make the rear end a little more predictable when the weight is forward.

But thats how I set up a bike, and I'm a 105kg bloke on a 8" bike (well, was before I sold it) who rides low on the bike, uses the terrain a lot and has a lot of weight forward in a very "attacking" position. That will be a whole different story to someone whose corner entry and weight positioning are less aggressive, or someone who ploughs stuff instead of using terrain for speed, or weighs substantially less...everyone is different.

So like I said, start with everything fully out and wind it in. Do each change in sequence, not all together, and work out all the combinations.

[hardinge915]

make sure you got the right air pressure in the shock for you weight group aswell... dont want it to stiff or not stiff enough

[hardtail free rider]

one thing i will ad is though people may say run .....this amount of that etc. it also comes down to how you ride. with my shock set up with about 20mm of sag. i could bottom it out of a 4' drop to tranny. that put the resosvor(sp) into the frame.....

talk to your local professional kids.

[paton]

Dude you should look at your manual sometimes they are pure gold and sometimes they arent even worth having. But as some of the other boys have said its all down to what feels good to you. so just go out and play with the settings till it feels good.

[Juls]

I did this exact thing quite some time ago,
surprised you didn't find it.

a stinky has the same shock and fork as you do (be surprised if it's not a stinky your talking about)

http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=26945

in that thread I go through totally adjusting the fork, and the shock.

only thing i've got wrong, is for DH make sure the rear shock rebounds slowly ish.. it should feel slow, but not to the point it's not returning fast enough for a few repeat hits.

Hope that helps
regards
Juls