Suspension school · Tuning by Riding Style

Wet Weather and UK Winter

Grip first: softer, faster and more open for six months of slop

From October to March, most UK riding happens on wet roots, greasy rock and soil with the structure of soup. Speeds fall, grip becomes the limiting factor, and a setup tuned for summer support is leaving traction on the table. Winter tuning is one direction applied everywhere: softer, faster, more open.

The Winter Shift

• Fork: drop 3 to 5psi, letting sag drift toward the 20% end
• Shock: drop pressure by around 5%, sag toward 30%
• Low-speed compression: open one to two clicks, meaning more clicks out from fully closed
• High-speed compression: open a click if you run any
• Rebound: one to two clicks faster at both ends
• Tyres: drop 1 to 2psi front and rear

The logic is simple. You are riding slower, so you need less support, and every bit of suppleness you free up becomes grip. The faster rebound matters most: at winter speeds the hits are smaller and closer together, and a wheel that returns to the ground quickly between wet roots is the difference between tracking and skating. Summer rebound settings pack up and slide.

Climbing Traction in the Wet

This is where the eMTB winter setup pays twice. The motor will still haul you up climbs that are barely rideable in the wet, but only if the rear tyre stays hooked up. The softer, faster rear end keeps the tyre pressed into the roots under torque. Leave the climb switch alone on anything technical, and feed the power in smoothly in a supportive assistance mode rather than stamping on it at full boost.

Tyres Do More Than Any Damper

• Front: fit a proper wet tyre, a Maxxis Shorty, a soft-compound Schwalbe Magic Mary or a Specialized Hillbilly changes winter riding more than any suspension click
• Compounds: go soft, cold rubber grips worse and a hard compound in January feels wooden
• Casings: keep your normal strength, speeds are lower but wet rocks still cut, and the lower pressures need sidewall support
• Pressures: 1 to 2psi below summer, and with an insert you can go a touch further

Clearance and Grit

• Check mud clearance before running a 2.6in tyre, a packed-up rear wheel adds kilograms and grinds the stays
• A front mudguard keeps grit off the fork seals as well as your face
• Wipe stanchions and the shock shaft after every wet ride, winter grit is why service intervals come round faster from November
• Rinse the bike at low pressure only, a jet wash pushes grit past seals, and that includes the motor's

None of this is a marginal-gains exercise. On a greasy January descent, the difference between a summer tune and a winter tune is whether the bike feels like it is on rails or on castors, and switching takes ten minutes with a shock pump.

When the trails dry out in spring, put it all back. This is the strongest argument for saving both tunes in the calculator: the winter changes are exactly the kind you make gradually, forget about, and then spend May wondering why the bike feels vague.