Suspension Settings

So, the Remedy is suddenly riding terrible. It went from being response and wonderful to almost unridable. The back is soft and squshy. The front bounces off every root...

Advice from Fox

Fork
The Fox website has great instruction for the front fork:
http://www.ridefox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/010/eng/index.html

Here's a summary for my weight:Air Pressure: is in the 90 - 100 psi range. Adjust in 5 psi steps.

Rebound: Has 18 clicks of adjustment. Clockwise is slower.  Start by turning in clockwise all the way (fully in) then back out 12 clicks.I like 10.
.
Lockout: locked out is clockwise. 

Lockout Force: There are 10 clicks of adjustment. All the way clockwise is maximum force. Start all the way clockwise and back off 1 click.

Low Speed Compression: The factory setting is 8 clicks out counterclockwise, from fully in clockwise. I like 4 clicks out from fully clockwise.

Shock
Rear Shock is Fox RP2. It's hard to find info on the RP2. I mean, it says "RP2" on the shock. So why isn't it on the Fox website?

Advice from Trek

Anyway, I found the Trek advice for tuning the Remedy: 


http://www.trekbikes.com/pdf/2010/suspension/remedy.pdf


To summarize that advice:
Trek says: set the front shock to 1/2 weight. Rebound is 10 click out, low speed compression is 4.
Rear shock is bodyweight + 10 lbs, rebound 4 or 5 clicks

When I do this, the front is rock hard and the back is too soft, once I blow through the brain. When I brake, the front completely collapses.

From my LBS

I went out to Outdoor Adventures, because Kevin told me that Brian, the owner, set up his suspension perfectly. I have talked to other local shops about my suspension, but they've never helped me.

I worked with Mark, who took a ton of time with me. I went out in the afternoon on a weekday, when they weren't busy.

We started with sag, not surprisingly. The I had 210lbs in the rear shock and it was close to 50% sag. He bumped that up to 230lbs. Don't forget to set the sag with the pro-pedal all teh way off. Then we did the front. I'm not sure why, but we only allowed a little sag there. But he dropped the front to 70lbs.

We went over rebound again and again in words until I have my own mnemonic: Rebound is in slow. To set it, we dial it all the way in then back off a certain number of clicks. Mark set mine up so it's pretty fast. Maybe faster than I like it. 13 clicks in the front, 4 in the back.

Low speed compression. The point of low speed compression is to let you run the front softer, but not have the brake dive. Mnemonic is in hard. Put it all the way in, the back off 4 clicks.

Front Shock:
Pressure: 70 lbs
Rebound: 13 clicks
Low speed compression: 4

Rear Shock:
Pressure: 230 psi
Rebound: 4 clicks

Summary, Week of November 19

Run, 3:50. 18.5 miles, over 500 feet of elevation gain.
Mountain Bike 2:30, 21 miles, almost 600 ft of elevation gain
Trainer: 1:10, 14.5 miles
BMX Park: a couple hours

This week we're back on after a recovery week.

Hunter Creek

Today was supposed to be an easy bike. But for a variety of reasons, I was in Buffalo with no bike. But I was close to Hunter Creek, which I really like.

The trails are up and down and twisty turny. It's really good mountain biking. It's not about how quickly you can get somewhere, it's about how fun we can make the trip.



It was muddy today, but there was occasional sun and in some spots the trees made a tunnel. I started out on Sgt York, then moved on to the red trail.

Somehow that got me back to Sgt York and I headed off on the purple trail to go deeper into the park. I followed that farther and farther into the park, until I was pretty lost. Fortunately, I came across a heavyset walker and asked for directions. Turns out I wasn't deep into the park at all. I was almost back to the car.

I'm surprised there aren't interesting jumps and features here. It's just single track. Up and down.

I did the run early, with no breakfast, I was feeling like I could pretty much keep running forever, although I was hungry. Except when I was lost. I didn't feel any hunger then, Just a desire to keep running. When I check my stats, I was barely moving this whole time. I'm not sure how to think about that.

Summary, Week of Nov 5

Total time: 9:13

Bike: 4:11
Run: 4:31

Bike Distance: 26.8 miles
Run Distance: 19.7 miles

Bike Elevation Gain: 1972
Run Elevation Gain: 1305

Long Run

Today's run was planned as just accumulating time at MAF. It took me a long time to get my courage up to go out in the nasty cold. It was in the high 30's, raining, with a bitter wind. But once I got going it was fine. Except for one thing.

Anyway, I found this piece of trail art. I don't know what the symbols mean. But I do like trail art.

The trails are pretty much covered with leaves, the trees are all bare, except these. They still have green leaves, which is a mistake.

I think it's kind of fun that the trail goes under the interstate.

Sunday ride in the rain

Apparently it's getting to be the end of the riding season. I can tell because this is my first mountain bike ride of the week! Last ride was last Saturday. So today, I could have ridden indoors, but I was looking at more than 2 hours, so it didn't sound good to be started doing long trainer rides before winter has even started!

From home, it's a ride through a suburban neighborhood, then past our version of a few McMansions, then into an abandoned quarry. As I turned into the quarry, I saw this lovely trail ornament. It's an abandoned car tire. Once side is still mounted to the rim. But the tire's been turned inside out and trimmed to a very attractive pattern.

I rode the new trails, around and around, trying to get my bearings. On the less-used trails, it was hard at times to pick out the trail from under the leaves. Fortunately, I found my way just fine.

In other places, where the trail is more heavily traveled, it's easy to see the trail, despite all the leaves.

The weather was sort of 50deg and raining. That meant that the rocks were wet rocks. Even when the tires weren't muddy, it could be challenging to maintain good traction. Fortunately, this was a MAF-intensity ride, so I was generally moving pretty slowly.

Of course, when the trail is wet leaves on wet rocks, it doesn't matter how great your tires are - you just don't have any traction. And you can't see most of the rocks.

After a bit, I headed home to finish up on the trainer. By the time I got home, I could still feel my thumbs.But just barely. I did 30 minutes, watching studio 60 on the laptop.

I liked this ride, coming after a long run yesterday in terms of my fitness.  But in terms of skill, I didn't have my mojo working at all. I didn't feel smooth and balanced. Only occasionally, when I was in the pine woods did I feel feel relaxed and smooth.

I also noticed that, in many places, I was slower on the bike than I was running these same trails yesterday. I also noticed that I didn't remember lots of the trail from yesterday's run. It funny how different what you notice is. When running, I can easily step over an obstacle that I can't ride over. But when riding, I can easily roll over things that would trip me up.

Movie Review

Illusionary Lines - I've seen this before. It's almost all downhill race footage.
Plenty of good riders, Steve Peat, Greg Minnar (sic), Sam Hill...
There's no real story. Just races around the world. Brazil. South Africa, Canada, Germany, Scotlan, Austria...
It's worth watching every year.