“French suspension” (a soft spring, progressive spring rate with fast rebound and more compression damping than usual) according to PB - anyone using them, cons and pros?
"French suspension"
mtbfree
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Most suspensions are not the same as those that pro racers using.
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I dont know, this may work on bikes with a high bottom bracket and when not pedalling uphill. With that lot more sag, one will have issues with the cranks hitting roots and rocks, and a drastic rearward pitch uphill.
For the suspension itself it might work with a lot of spacers.
For the suspension itself it might work with a lot of spacers.
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True!
But it is not because of more "sag"!
(not mine - just had that photo ready)
For this to work, all wheels are also connected and every movement of one wheel also influences the other wheels.
The damping is quite soft. I did experimenting with even less LSC by drilling up the bypass in the front spheres, but that made for extreme wallowing.
BTW lowriding is no option, because the spheres are not changed in how much oil they contain and what pressure they have, so the suspension relies on the rubber bumpers.
Difficult to get the correct spheres today, with the original shim setup (those are integrated into the spheres and can't be changed).
Aftermarket spheres are really bad, and NOS you wont find. DS and SM have different spheres that can be rebuilt.
A similar concept but as an air ride with electronic adjustment is in the new Defender with v8.
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I think this is what it's referring to.
Personally, I don't like the feel of running a soft spring and lots of LSC. This feels unpredictable to me when pumping corners and jumps. I tend to run a stiffer spring and a decent amount of HSC.
Personally, I don't like the feel of running a soft spring and lots of LSC. This feels unpredictable to me when pumping corners and jumps. I tend to run a stiffer spring and a decent amount of HSC.
I think French Suspension is the direction I naturally lean and was definitely how I had my stock Mezzer set up.
Also, I really like many things about my Avy suspension, but for my tastes/ speed it's over sprung. The shock was an easy fix, dropped 2 spring weights (I also lost about 5-8#s in there) but the Hybrid fork I've just got the air pressure super low, and it feels over reliant on the coil spring.
Also, I really like many things about my Avy suspension, but for my tastes/ speed it's over sprung. The shock was an easy fix, dropped 2 spring weights (I also lost about 5-8#s in there) but the Hybrid fork I've just got the air pressure super low, and it feels over reliant on the coil spring.
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No, the idea is that you're spring rate would be lower (more sag). However, there's no reference for any of this ... What's soft, what's a lot of LSC, how fast is the LSR?
I still think your best bet is to follow basic setup methods. First set spring rate based on mfg recs, then adjust through bracketing, bracket rebound, then compression, etc. You can also lower your spring rate some then add some LSC to compensate and see how that feels. I don't believe in magic setups. Just put in the effort to do the bracketing and you'll figure it out. I don't think there's hidden magic combos like where if you take your current setup and open the rebound all the way then multiply your current air pressure by .83 then take your birth month number and make that your number of LSC clicks that you'll unlock super mode or anything.
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Yeah that way you have some sort of baseline reference. Find a good baseline setup through the traditional bracketing method then you can play around with ideas like "what if I soften the spring and compensate with more LSC?". I really doubt you'll discover that running 10% more sag and way more LSC is better. You'll probably end up pretty close to the baseline. That's what I mean by no magic setting.
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