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I just got the SID SL brain installed on my 2021 chisel last week and today I went for a trail ride. Here are my impressions.
The fork on the bike before was a Judy silver. The front end of my bike is super super light as the SID is 2 pounds lughter than the Judy Silver. Steering felt sharp, crisp, direct and very nimble. I’m not sure if that has to do with the weight not being on the front end or the slight difference in the offset. I also noticed that low speed technical climbs the bike wandered less and was easier to keep on a line.
The feel of the fork is very firm. I have it set up as the rockshox app suggests. riding weight is 190 geared up and I gave 127 osi in the fork. Rebound us -7 clicks. I have the brain fade adjustment set to 1 click from the softest setting. When standing and cranking the fork compresses maybe 10 or 15 mm.
The first part of my ride is flat and slight uphill and fairly tame. I wanted to see how much travel the Fork was moving and it wasn’t moving very much at all. Wouks live mire small bump sensitivity. The second part of my ride is steep technical climbing. The light weight was obvious. The steering and control improvement was obvious as well. Losing 2 pounds off the front end makes a big difference. The next part of my ride is fast, rocky, bumpy downhill. I probably reach about 25 to 30 miles an hour in sections. I reset the travel O-ring indicator and took off down the trail. When I got to the bottom of the trail I indeed had used 100 mm of travel. The bike felt planted and I had loads of traction and front end grip. On the negative side it was a bit harsh. More harsh than the Judy which in my opinion was a lot softer. The next part of my ride was a medium speed single track that is flowing in areas and has some twisty areas and others. This is where the SID SL really shined. This was so much fun! I forgot about the fork and just had fun riding. Handling was crisp and traction was perfect. It put a big smile on my face as I was riding. Bonus was when I needed to stand up and crank I didn’t have to think about locking out a fork or anything like that. It was automatic.
So my overall impressions are pretty positive. The fork works better than the Judy silver. Which is obvious. It’s a little bit harsh on high speed bumps and on small bumps it probably doesnt have enough small bump sensitivity.
The question for anyone using the SID is, is there a way to set it up to be a little bit more plush and less harsh? I’m thinking about dropping the air pressure a little bit which should improve the small bump sensitivity but I don’t want it to be so soft that I use up all of the travel. Also the rebound settings were again set per the suggestion of the rockshox app but less rebound less harsh? So maybe play around with that setting as well? Also the brain fade adjustment. I have it set fairly soft maybe I could firm that up just a bit as well as drop the air pressure and see how that works together. Any tuning ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is my first shock that I’ve had to tune more than just setting the air pressure.
The fork on the bike before was a Judy silver. The front end of my bike is super super light as the SID is 2 pounds lughter than the Judy Silver. Steering felt sharp, crisp, direct and very nimble. I’m not sure if that has to do with the weight not being on the front end or the slight difference in the offset. I also noticed that low speed technical climbs the bike wandered less and was easier to keep on a line.
The feel of the fork is very firm. I have it set up as the rockshox app suggests. riding weight is 190 geared up and I gave 127 osi in the fork. Rebound us -7 clicks. I have the brain fade adjustment set to 1 click from the softest setting. When standing and cranking the fork compresses maybe 10 or 15 mm.
The first part of my ride is flat and slight uphill and fairly tame. I wanted to see how much travel the Fork was moving and it wasn’t moving very much at all. Wouks live mire small bump sensitivity. The second part of my ride is steep technical climbing. The light weight was obvious. The steering and control improvement was obvious as well. Losing 2 pounds off the front end makes a big difference. The next part of my ride is fast, rocky, bumpy downhill. I probably reach about 25 to 30 miles an hour in sections. I reset the travel O-ring indicator and took off down the trail. When I got to the bottom of the trail I indeed had used 100 mm of travel. The bike felt planted and I had loads of traction and front end grip. On the negative side it was a bit harsh. More harsh than the Judy which in my opinion was a lot softer. The next part of my ride was a medium speed single track that is flowing in areas and has some twisty areas and others. This is where the SID SL really shined. This was so much fun! I forgot about the fork and just had fun riding. Handling was crisp and traction was perfect. It put a big smile on my face as I was riding. Bonus was when I needed to stand up and crank I didn’t have to think about locking out a fork or anything like that. It was automatic.
So my overall impressions are pretty positive. The fork works better than the Judy silver. Which is obvious. It’s a little bit harsh on high speed bumps and on small bumps it probably doesnt have enough small bump sensitivity.
The question for anyone using the SID is, is there a way to set it up to be a little bit more plush and less harsh? I’m thinking about dropping the air pressure a little bit which should improve the small bump sensitivity but I don’t want it to be so soft that I use up all of the travel. Also the rebound settings were again set per the suggestion of the rockshox app but less rebound less harsh? So maybe play around with that setting as well? Also the brain fade adjustment. I have it set fairly soft maybe I could firm that up just a bit as well as drop the air pressure and see how that works together. Any tuning ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is my first shock that I’ve had to tune more than just setting the air pressure.
