[le_buzz]

I've had this bike (XCL) about a year. I've overall enjoyed it a lot, with one exception.
It seems that on tough greuling climbs it has a fair amount of bob.
For ex, Ive been doing a ride lately that tops out about 800 - 1000 feet higher elevation than at the start. Even though the base elevation of the ride is about half a mile higher than the valley where I live, I was still feeling that the ride was inefficient,
and that I was having to rest more than I should.
So on my last ride I decided to check how much the shock was moving using the
o-ring. I did this on two steep granny ring sections that were relatively flat with only
very small bumps. The o-ring told me the DHX was going halfway through its travel
just from seated pedaling ! :madmax:

How normal is this ? Anyone else running a DHX Air I would like to know if you're getting the same amount of bob, or is there something wrong with my shock ?
I had the main chamber at 175 psi for a ling time, a few months ago I upped it to 200. I weigh about 205 including gear. I haven't messed with the boost chamber since my initial setup when I had it at 150.

One other thing. The shock does make a squishy sound when I first start pedaling
after it's been sitting for awhile, but it pretty much goes away after several pedaling revolutions, so I haven't deemed this anything to be concerned about

 

[summud]

what is your propedal, set at. i really dont experience much bob at all on my xcl. really to the point where i turn the propedal completely off to make it more small bump compliant. If you have it set in hte high range, i cant imagine that you would get much bob at all...

 

[GhisalloWheels]

I've been dealing with the same issue. One thing that I have noticed is if I slow down the rebound a bit, the bobbing drastically reduces. I would try that. I have also been trying to clean up my pedaling, its amazing how much faster I go up with a better stroke.

Another thought, admittedly unscientific and a stretch: since so many people have indicated the lack of bob, I wonder if the size of the frame has anything to do with its efficiency. I am riding a small. Is the medium or the large totally dialed in on its linkage and geometries, but other sizes not? Just a thought.

 

[theOtherMrT]

Increase your boost. What you are experiencing is when you blow past your propedal and wallow into travel. For your weight increasing boost pressure will probably solve this.

 

[happy_ending]

Increase your boost. What you are experiencing is when you blow past your propedal and wallow into travel. For your weight increasing boost pressure will probably solve this.

what he said... i did the same thing with the boost chamber (up to 175, ims) and it worked out well enough that i never used the propedal until recently. i weigh ~225-230 w/ gear, btw.

the only reason i started using it recently is... well... just because it is easy to turn while im riding and i figured i could put forth the effort to reach down and turn the damn thing 4-5 clicks. i dont notice a huge difference but it is discernible.

 

[le_buzz]

I forgot to mention above that I had set the propedal all the way to the max when
I was riding and checking how much bob I was getting via the o-ring.
That's what amazed me was that even with the propedal all the way on I was still
getting 2 -3 inches of bob on a 5" travel bike. Not exactly fun to do serious
climbing on, as I've been discovering.

As far as turning up the boost valve to 175, don't I risk making the ride less
small bump compliant if I do that ? THankx

 

[theOtherMrT]

The propedal blowoff pt is more noticable when propedal is maxed out. For you, increasing boost will probably increase traction for you because if you can bob that much there isn't enough compression damping. Increase the boost and you will probably have a more control both descending and climbing.

 

[chad1433]

This has been the same complaint of the DHX Air since its inception. Clearly it's not that great of a product OR trail riding is not its forte (or both). The RPs are better for that. They have good middle travel support and don't wallow.

 

[chad1433]

what is your propedal, set at. i really dont experience much bob at all on my xcl. really to the point where i turn the propedal completely off to make it more small bump compliant. If you have it set in hte high range, i cant imagine that you would get much bob at all...

Did you get rid of the Moment? The more I ride around here, the more I think its overkill. Though, for Moab and the like, it's perfect. I'm thinking XCL or El Ciclon; may 29er, but I'm undecided as yet.

 

[summud]

Did you get rid of the Moment? The more I ride around here, the more I think its overkill. Though, for Moab and the like, it's perfect. I'm thinking XCL or El Ciclon; may 29er, but I'm undecided as yet.

Nope still have the Moment, but my wife bought a small XCL and my riding buddy bought a med XCL, so i've been riding both of them alot. I would say though the small with the rp23 feels a little more plush and compliant than the med with the dhx air. but its getting better as we tweak and ride, tweak and ride....

if your thinking of getting an XCl, we should hook up and you can give them a ride...

 

[le_buzz]

Update on the bob situation.I played with te fronot and rear shocks and set them
up a little different than I had them before. ON the DHX air, I left the main chamber the same, but discovered that I had way too little pressure in the boost chamber,
like between 90 - 100 psi. I bumped that up to about 150.
Then in the front, I also had too much air in the + chamber, so I set the
pos/neg in the Pike to 150/130, which is more normal for my weight.
So the excessive bob was mostly caused by air leaking out of the boost chamber over time, and having the front fork oversprung.
I did a ride this afternoon that involved a few miles of road riding (mostly granny ring) , to get to get to the trailhead. This time I was getting close to a half inch of shaft travel - at the most - when I was pedaling slowly and not that efficiently, which translates into about an inch of bob. When pedaling efficiently at decent rpms it's a lot less. I will say that this bike with this shock setup is still not terribly efficient for doing smooth climbing, but it's not really any worse than most others out there at similar weight. And once you get into any technical climbing, this
bike really does stand out for smoothness and traction, and even efficiency, because it's so smooth over bumps that the suspension actually helps your
momentum compared to others I've ridden.
So I'm still really happy with this bike, it's still a blast to ride even if I occasionally suffer a little bit on climbs. I am considering switching to another
rear shock, though. Any ideas ? Anyone tried the Roco on the XCL ? :thumbsup:

 

[Ricky D]

I just swapped my DHX A with a PUSHed Float R. I've only had three rides on it so far so I can't give you a complete review yet. Initially, it feels a little too firm. When I ride tomorrow, I'm going to take a shock pump with me and make some adjustments on the trail. Ironically, after I sent the float to PUSH, I continued to make some adjustments to the DHX and felt like I finally had it dialed in. I only wanted the Float as a simpler solution to all the adjustments on the DHX but I'll throw the DHX back on if need be.

 

[neilster1]

I swapped my DHX-a for a DHX coil.. very plush.

 

[Scottandhisdog]

I swapped my DHX-a for a DHX coil.. very plush.

Got any pics? I keep toying with the idea of a coil shock for my XCl, although I actually like the DHX Air. Coils just give a better ride IMO. A friend put a Rocco spring shock on his BottleRocket and he likes it better than the DHX-Coil.

 

[neilster1]

Here you go...

 

[hjb117]

Hi neilster1 Im thinking of going coil too..is your shock a 2.25 stroke? and does it bob more than the air?..sorry to hijack the thread.

 

[PaMtnBkr]

I also went to a coil over (5th Element w/2" stroke) and REALLY love how the thing feels! I had a RP23 on my XCL but wanted to try the coil over and it really is very plush and a very efficient climber. I don't even feel the extra coil weight!

 

[neilster1]

Hi neilster1 Im thinking of going coil too..is your shock a 2.25 stroke? and does it bob more than the air?..sorry to hijack the thread.

Nope.. 7.875 x 2. Call Matt at Chumba.. he knows what to get. FYI.. the compression ratio on the XCL is 2.5:1 which means the coil you'll have to get is going to seem really heavy. My riding weight is 250# and I'm running a 800# coil. It doesn't bob (discernibly, anyway) with propedal off and is super plush. You can turn around and sell your DHX-A and recoup most of your cost.

Of course, you could spend 7 bills and get a CCDB.. best coil shock on the planet I'm told.

 

[Thor821]

You can turn around and sell your DHX-A and recoup most of your cost.

Thats what I did. I sold my DHX air for $250 on Ebay and bought an new '09 VanR for $212.