# Full Suspension bike setting for a really heavy guy



## Lordie (Sep 27, 2005)

need some advice and need to hear some from other experience big riders

i am currently 280lbs and is morbidly obesse (thats the medical term) and currently got a great deal on a 5" full susser with a Float RL. A lot of friends give suggestion of running it with Vanilla or DHX with a 800 spring rate. 

1. the dhx will look out of place on my steel full susser. its way too huge and vanilla spring is rather linear so a bottoming out on huge hits will definately pose a problem the DHX is nice but it will look weird on a trail bike.

2. air has better compression. Fox recomended me to pump it to 300psi. but its still pago a ton when climbing.

qns is what do i go for... stick to Float RL and pump it 300psi or change it to dhx/vanilla with a 800 spring rate. i intend to loose weight also.. so i need to look for something future proof.

ideas?


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## tonyl11 (Aug 31, 2005)

This isn't a direct reply to your post but, unless your 4ft tall you are a lot lighter than some of the guys here. i'm 6'2" and 335lb. and ride 3-4 times a week. Yes, i am M/O but thats a medical term. i don't ride a FS but with my research into getting one. i would go with the 800lb spring. Other people on this forum use a similiar set-up and are heaver than you and it works for them.


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## Guyechka (Jul 19, 2005)

*need to know*

What bike do you have? Different bikes have different leverage ratios, and that affects the spring rate you would need to run. For instance, I use a 500# spring on a 5th element. There are people I know who are a lot lighter than I am who use 600# springs on their 5th elements because they are riding a different bike with a different leverage ratio. Sometimes the shock manufacturer will post suggested spring rates for different bikes. I've looked around the Fox sight, but I didn't find any such info. Maybe someone else can find it.


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## doc gravity (Feb 8, 2005)

Some of your choice will depend upon what you're asking the shock to do. For moderate to easy trail-riding the air might be OK, but for any higher speed or rougher terrain (or for drops) the overall force aplied to the shock as well as the rate of compression might be better handled with a strong coil-over such as the DHX. I go about 255 armored up, and am running a spring about 150# heavier than the manufacturer's recommendations on a DHX 5 with very good results. I'm also running lots of both low and high speed compression and a fairly fast rebound. You're going to pretty well max out an air shock, while you may have a greater range of adjustability left to use in a higher end coil-over. Lots of personal preferences (and biases) in a decision like this. Scott


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## Arkon (Apr 27, 2004)

i've got a manitou 4-way on my trail bike and love it for trailriding. No drops over 2 ft. If i want bigger/faster i have a bike with a 6-way and 750# spring. my 4way holds up fine with my weight (280) but i don't get crazy with it at all. If your aggressive go dhx for sure.


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## thatfatbikerdude (Aug 5, 2005)

> 2. air has better compression. Fox recomended me to pump it to 300psi. but its still pago a ton when climbing.

So your major issue at this point is pogo'ing and not bottoming the shock out ? 
If this is an RL version what happens if you engage the lockout feature does this stop the pogo'ing ? 

Is this out of the saddle climbing ? It's going to pogo more out of the saddle the internal damping is designed to help damp out the small movements

Are you spinning or mashing ? Again mashing is going to overcome the internal valving and result in more pogo'ing 

Are you getting a lot of pogo out of your fork or none at all ? Again ties back to the overall load on the rear shock. If the front fork isn't well behaved something else will have to give.

What Bike it may be more of a bike issue and less of a shock issue due to leverage ?

FWIW I'm 285 running a fox talas RLC fork and shock on a Jamis Dakar and I run the rear shock around 235 without any in the saddle issues with climbing. I have yet to bottom the rear shock but I don't do any major drops (major knee issues make you take a second look at the drops  ). 

Shog


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## IAmCosmo (Apr 11, 2004)

Call Fox at 800-369-7469 ext. 6550.

They will ask you what you weigh, what kind of bike, what kind of shock, how long the shock is, etc. With that information, they can sell you the right spring. For instance, on my I-Drive with a Fox Vanilla (6.5 x 1.5) I ended up needing a 1050# spring. I weigh 240-250.


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## Lordie (Sep 27, 2005)

i'm currently running a Sycip DD and ride quite agressively, i kinda bash thru stuff. being fat and sluggish in my bike handling ( i need to improve), i've always mash on the climbs, and never did lock-out , accept travelling down to the local coffee bar. I am running a Fox Talas R. its on 150psi and it works ok.

1. contacted fox via emaill, and they reply that non of their product is suitable for me and advice me that a air shock is better than the spring ones. and recomended me to pump it to 300psi.

2. on the other hand, bike maker, Jeremy, contacted fox on my behalf and recomend a DHX with a 800 spring rate.

so i am rather confuse right now


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## Call_me_Clyde (Oct 27, 2004)

*Better yet*

Check with the folks at PUSH industries (www.pushindustries.com). See if one of their factory tuned Floats will work. the other option is to check out ebay for a deal on a Vanilla with the 800 lb spring (I found one almost brand new with 700 lb spring for $50). and send it to them for their factory tuning. Best $200 shock out there IMO.

Bob


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## Ciclistagonzo (Dec 10, 2001)

*Everything about the setup is wrong....*



Lordie said:


> i'm currently running a Sycip DD and ride quite agressively, i kinda bash thru stuff. being fat and sluggish in my bike handling ( i need to improve), i've always mash on the climbs, and never did lock-out , accept travelling down to the local coffee bar. I am running a Fox Talas R. its on 150psi and it works ok.so i am rather confuse right now


First and foremost, you have a Sycip DD, it inturn uses a Ventana rear end.

Has anyone explained and or tried to setup proper sag for the suspension? you need to start there before messing with how the shocks are performing.

Ventana rear suspension system uses a 2.0" stroke shock, to achieve the 5" travel. That means you have a 2.5:1 rocker ratio. Ventana recommends roughly 25-30% sag. So to achieve proper sag, you can try Body Weight X rocker ratio to give you a starting point for coil spring rates. In your case your looking at 700lbs not 800.

I have a 2.65:1 coil at 245# and use a 600lb spring. Which is almost t0o stiff so you can see where the 700 would fit better.

But back to your issues about pogoing. It is more than likely that you are pogoing because you are over inflating the Shock and the rebound has not been set to counter all that spring rate pushing the shock back to extension.

I highly recommend you first establish the sag correctly, and from there we can dial in your bike. I AM and I know several people on Ventana Suspension bikes that are or have been as large as you and have not had the issues you have. I believe it's just a matter of proper setup.


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## DrDon (Sep 25, 2004)

*I 2nd PUSH*



Call_me_Clyde said:


> Check with the folks at PUSH industries (www.pushindustries.com). See if one of their factory tuned Floats will work. the other option is to check out ebay for a deal on a Vanilla with the 800 lb spring (I found one almost brand new with 700 lb spring for $50). and send it to them for their factory tuning. Best $200 shock out there IMO.
> 
> Bob


Fox shocks are very reliable and PUSH industries offers a good product. I seem to be in the minority in that I prefer the way my 3-way performs overall, but I have a lot more faith in the Fox/PUSH shock when it comes to reliability. I had a RP3 and a 5th Air on my X5 and a 3-way and PUSHed RP3 on my El Capitan.


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## Lordie (Sep 27, 2005)

Ciclistagonzo said:


> First and foremost, you have a Sycip DD, it inturn uses a Ventana rear end.
> 
> Has anyone explained and or tried to setup proper sag for the suspension? you need to start there before messing with how the shocks are performing.
> 
> ...


great advice. i pump the Float RL to 300 psi and that doesn;t work right getting around 5% sag, and even @ 200 psi i am only getting 15% sag, i slow down the rebound so that the bike dun bounce around after getting a hit.

its puzzling how this works. if the recomended sag is 25-30%, i might want to reduce it futher to 180psi. but problem is i weight 130kg does 180psi works to get 25% sag at my weight.. or i should just ignore what the psi gauge says and just go for 25% sag, irregardless of what the PSI gauge says.

idea?


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