Suspension school · Damping Adjustments

Symptom to Adjustment Reference

Trailside diagnosis, each symptom with the dial and the direction

This is the trailside reference: find the symptom, get the dial and the direction. Two rules before using it. First, confirm sag is right, because half of all apparent damping problems are spring problems, and no click can fix those. Second, change one thing at a time, one or two clicks, and re-ride the same section before judging, as described in the bracketing article.

Directions below use the standard convention: adding damping means turning towards closed (fewer clicks out), reducing damping means opening (more clicks out). On RockShox Charger 3 and 3.1 compression dials, adding damping means counting towards +.

Front End

• Front washes out in flat, open turns. Usually a front end that is not keeping the tyre loaded. If harshness builds through the chatter before the turn, the fork is packing: speed up fork rebound one or two clicks. If it just feels wooden and skatey, open fork LSC a click or two instead.
• Harsh over small, fast chatter. Open fork LSC one or two clicks. If a section starts comfortable and then worsens hit by hit, that is packing: speed up rebound instead.
• Fork dives hard under braking. Add fork LSC one or two clicks. If fork sag is beyond about 20%, sort pressure first.
• Fork rides high, feels harsh and will not use its travel. Too much compression overall: open LSC first, then HSC, a click or two at a time.
• Front skips and judders under braking on rough ground. Present from the very first bump with a springy feel: rebound too fast, add a click. Building through the braking zone: rebound too slow, open a click.

Rear End

• Wallows in berms and G-outs, sinks rather than drives. Add shock LSC one or two clicks. If shock sag is past about 35%, pressure first.
• Bottoms out too easily on fast, hard hits. Add shock HSC one or two clicks. If the bottoming happens on slow, deep compressions instead, that is a volume spacer or pressure job, not damping.
• Bucks on jump lips and sharp compressions. Slow shock rebound one or two clicks towards closed. On a four-way damper, if car park rebound feels right and the kick only appears from deep hits, it is HSR specifically.
• Rear packs down through braking bumps and gets progressively harsher. Speed up shock rebound one or two clicks out.
• Rear wheel spins or skips on technical climbs, the classic eMTB complaint. The wheel is not returning to the ground between ledges. Speed up shock rebound a click, and try opening shock LSC a click so the wheel can mould over roots under power.

Whole Bike

• Bike feels tall, nervous, and pogos everywhere. Rebound too fast at both ends: add a click or two of rebound damping front and rear.
• Bike feels dead and heavy, sits low, and gets harsher the rougher it gets. Rebound too slow at both ends: open both a click or two.
• Bike rocks or see-saws after a kerb drop or landing. Front and rear rebound are mismatched: use the kerb roll to spot which end recovers out of step and match them.
• Hands and feet get hammered but the o-rings show plenty of unused travel. The damping is holding the suspension out of its stroke: open compression front and rear, and check rebound is not packing.

Notice the theme in the front-end entries: harshness has two opposite causes. Compression harshness is there from the first hit. Packing harshness builds hit by hit. Diagnose by when it arrives, not by how it feels, because the fixes point in opposite directions.

The Two-Minute Trailside Routine

• Pick the loudest single symptom from the lists above, not all of them at once.
• Make the indicated change, one or two clicks.
• Re-ride the exact section that produced the complaint, at the same pace.
• Better: keep it and note it. Worse: go back and try the next candidate.
• Never leave the trailhead without writing down where you ended up.

When Clicks Stop Being the Answer

If you find yourself more than four or five clicks from the calculator's recommendation on any single dial, or fixing one symptom keeps creating another, stop clicking. The usual culprit is spring rate: sag that was measured casually, a rider weight that has drifted, or a bike being ridden far outside the terrain its base tune assumed. Go back, set sag carefully, return every dial to the recommendation, and start again from there. Ten minutes of discipline beats a season of chasing your tail.