Hey all, do we have any suspension nerds here?

I have some annoying troubles with the rear suspension on my 2017 Focus Vice trail bike. The shock is Rockshox deluxe select R with max tokens inside and 250psi air pressure (~20% sag)

Long story short, I keep bottoming out the rear suspension regularly on jumps and drops way easier than I’m comfortable with, but with the amount of pressure in the shock the ride starts feeling pretty harsh as well

So what I’ve thought as options, but might need some more validation:

  • bigger bike and/or bike with more progressive suspension curve

Eh, don’t really want to replace bike I otherwise love

  • different shock?

Not sure what I would look there tbh, also gets pricy but not as bad as a whole new bike

  • messing with the shock tune

The shock doesn’t have externally adjustable high/low speed compression, but perhaps could adjust the shim stack? This is completely alien stuff for me so some ideas/advice would be appreciated

  • there’s a megneg air can upgrade kit available for the shock

This increases the negative volume giving more mid-strike support, plushier initial feeling and more bottom out force using less tokens as claimed by rockshox. This upgrade kit is not terribly expensive, but is it worth if I’d better be going with a new shock anyways?

  • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    When was the last time the shock was serviced?

    I did 200h service couple months ago, but I’m not sure of the services done before that. Bought the bike last summer

    Has it always bottomed out?

    Eh, yeah I’ve been progressively been hitting bigger jumps past year back on the bike, and gone from 190 -> 250psi on the shock to compensate

    You say the sag is 20% but who set it? Are you confident that is the correct sag settings?

    Set by me with riding gear on. I’ve been messing a bit with the shock testing different sag last year and also with air volume reducers (tokens) and running the maximum tokens at the moment (3.5 if I recall correctly)

    • teft@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Honestly it sounds like the shock is toast. I’d take it to your LBS and see if they have a shock guy who can rectify it. That will be cheaper than buying a new one. If you’re mechanically inclined you could do it too but you’d need a bunch of specialized tools. They might open it up and find something easy to fix is broken, like an o-ring. Or they might tell you it’s toast but at least you’ll know for certain.