Do the inner workings of forks and shocks seem like a dark art to you? If so, read this quick primer. Learning how to adjust the rebound and compression settings on your mountain bike will allow you to better tune your gear to make the most of your time on the trails. If you understand how a coffee French press works, you're already halfway there!
Some suspension basics, explained
In its most basic form, suspension starts with a spring. A spring can be constructed from coiled metal, just like a mattress spring, or from a gas, usually air, inside of a sealed chamber.
A coil spring feels linear, meaning the amount of force required to get it to move is consistent throughout the entire range of travel. Conversely, an air spring becomes progressively firmer as it is compressed. There are various ways in which suspension designers adjust these behaviours to suit their intended purposes, and there are certainly pros and cons to air and coil suspensions, but for now we’ll leave it at this: air and coils are both effective means of creating a spring.
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Related: How to set suspension sag
But suspension is not just a spring. A spring plus damping equals suspension. Without damping, your fork and shock would be little more than a pair of pogo sticks bouncing uncontrollably off every rock and root and flipping you over the handlebar. That’s not what we want.
Damping means controlling the movement of a spring. There are two types of damping: compression and rebound.
Why compression damping is a bit like a coffee filter
How rebound damping works
Knowing how to bounce back from bumps
How to tune RockShox rebound damping
How to tune Fox rebound damping
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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