[phatfreeheeler]

Ok, what's with this line in the Romic instructions?

"Note: Never use more than 3 full turns of preload to adjust sag. Doing so
will cause damage to both spring and shock absorber!"

On my Elseworth Id, 3 turns of preload gives me almost 50% sag. I'm 150# and it has a 400#x2.25" spring on it. It's 7.875" eye-eye. My LBS adjusted it while I hoped on and off. They even told me that I could crank it down more to raise the back of the bike and stiffen it up for real long & smooth climbs. The bike climbs and rides great by the way.

 

[Davide]

Ok, what's with this line in the Romic instructions?

"Note: Never use more than 3 full turns of preload to adjust sag. Doing so
will cause damage to both spring and shock absorber!"

On my Elseworth Id, 3 turns of preload gives me almost 50% sag. I'm 150# and it has a 400#x2.25" spring on it. It's 7.875" eye-eye. My LBS adjusted it while I hoped on and off. They even told me that I could crank it down more to raise the back of the bike and stiffen it up for real long & smooth climbs. The bike climbs and rides great by the way.

you might need a 450, I am 150 pounds and I tried the 400 but it was too soft and gave me (indeed) about 50% sag with 3 full turns ... I do have a 450 spring for sale since I am using titanium

 

[Bikezilla]

A spring that works on different bike does not mean it will work for you...You need the proper length and weight spring. Call EWB, or check in their forum to confirm the proper spring size and wt for you and your bike.

The preload warning is to prevent using a too soft spring and putting too many preload turns on the pl ring. If you use too many turns, you can actually run out of space to compress the spring during travel. When this happens the coils of the spring slam against each other and stack up. This is called binding. When binding occurs, the shock is instantly transformed into a rigid member and all that force is thrown back into the frame...this is very, very bad.

**Be careful**
Springs from Romics on other bikes may "fit" but may be too short and still bind with little or no preload.

The Id has a different leverage ratio than some other bikes. Just because someone else is using a certiain wt, on bike-X does not mean the same wt spring will be stiff enough for you on on the Id. Even springs from different model EWBs won't work. (ie Truth or Moment) because the bikes use different lengths, strokes AND leverages.

If your LBS said just wind it up to your liking, the may not the place to get advice from on this, you may be able to get away with more than three turns but if you need a bunch more then you simply have a too soft spring, and are screwing up the ride with too much preload in addition, you still run the risk of binding.

 

[Blue Shorts]

Bikezilla's absolutely correct! I'll add my $0.02

There are a few things to worry about when adding preload.

1) Binding - as 'Zilla said
2) Damage to the shock from too much preload. When you're not on the bike, the preload on the spring is acting to pull the shock apart. Since you're using such a light spring rate, you probably don't need to worry about this as long as you don't go more than 6 turns....whick bring you back to the binding issue.

3) Bottoming out. If you need that much preload, you will most likely be bottoming out very often. Again...not good for the frame.

You really need to get a spring that requires less than 3 turns to achieve proper sag.

 

[jrm]

3 or more turns..

Ok, what's with this line in the Romic instructions?

"Note: Never use more than 3 full turns of preload to adjust sag. Doing so
will cause damage to both spring and shock absorber!"

On my Elseworth Id, 3 turns of preload gives me almost 50% sag. I'm 150# and it has a 400#x2.25" spring on it. It's 7.875" eye-eye. My LBS adjusted it while I hoped on and off. They even told me that I could crank it down more to raise the back of the bike and stiffen it up for real long & smooth climbs. The bike climbs and rides great by the way.

probably reduces the travel of the spring to the point where its less then the shock stroke. If the spring travel is less then the shocks stroke you can destroy the shock if bottomed out.

 

[Blue Shorts]

probably reduces the travel of the spring to the point where its less then the shock stroke. If the spring travel is less then the shocks stroke you can destroy the shock if bottomed out.

That's the binding that Bikezilla was referring to. In this case, I believe that the shock stroke is 2". The spring is a 2.25" spring. I believe that 3 turns is approx. 0.12"....so he can get up to 6 turns before binding.....although I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[phatfreeheeler]

Ok, I just got off the phone with EWB - Ryan. He says that the 400# is their medium weight spring for this frame (medium Id) and I fall right into that range. From memory he seemed to think 3 turns should have been enough. He told me he will do some research and get back to me later today.

The feel of the bike is really plush but not undersprung. I have not bottomed out the shock from what I can tell (oil/dust line).

One thing I just noticed is that Romic says this shock has 2.0" of stroke and the spring has 2.25" of stroke. So in theory, as long as I didn't turn it down more than 0.25", then I couldn't bottom out the spring.

I'll update when I hear back from ellsworth.

 

[Bikezilla]

For some reason I thought it was a longer stroke shock. If the spring stroke length exceeds the shock's stroke length you're fine as long as it fits.

"Medium" is not a very specific spring weight. It's either right for your weight or it's not. Maybe try calling Romic if you don't want to wait, and you have free long distance.

I've read elsewhere that even if you don't get binding, if you use a ton of preload to get the proper sag, you can loose some small bump compliance. That may not be a huge deal but still, having the right spring should be better all around. Why impair the performance of a $2k bike for want of a $30 spring?

G'luck!

 

[Warp]

I'm 150# and it has a 400#x2.25" spring on it. It's 7.875" eye-eye. My LBS adjusted it while I hoped on and off. They even told me that I could crank it down more to raise the back of the bike and stiffen it up for real long & smooth climbs. The bike climbs and rides great by the way.

Is that low the leverage on the Id??

On my Giant Warp (according to a spring calculator) I would get only 31% sag with a 400 spring, two turns preload!!