How to set fork and shock sag for a mountain bike
Below is a video I made with Ryan, Owner of Fluid Focus mountain bike suspension shop. Ryan in incredibly knowledgeable with all thing’s suspension. He started working in mountain bike shops as a kid. Progressing to suspension tech for Factory Husqvarna Racing supercross team. Returning to the bike scene, Ryan opened his own mountain bike suspension shop in 2016 and has been full throttle ever since.
Tuning Mountain Bike suspension
Ryan at Fluid Focus has been helping me with my suspension for the past several years. More recently using the Motion Instruments data acquisition software on my bike. Ultimately, I ended up with a push coil system in my fork and a custom tune on my rear shock. Setting up suspension has made the most significant improvement in my riding. Things that I have noticed since tuning my mountain bike suspension:
- My “85%” pace is much faster and when I am trying to lay down a fast lap my pace has noticeably increased.
- The bike underneath me is much more predictable in all terrain and especially cornering.
Setting Sag on a MTB
As stated in the video this is step one in custom tuning mountain bike suspension for your body weight. This is also the first step in understanding what different things will do to handling of your mountain bike. Modern mountain bike suspension can be very complex and can work incredibly well. It will only work as good as your effort in achieving optimal results though. If you speed $8,000 (conservatively) on a mountain bike, why wouldn’t you want it to perform to its greatest ability. Then it’s all up to you to point it straight and hold on..