Anyone who's been on any of my bikes, know that I like my frontal rebound fast. It works great on the trails I primarily ride (smooth + flow), and the fast rebound makes the bike more playful.
So this other day we where dicking around a rockgarden on a trail I usually don't ride, when one of my riding buddies questioned my fast rebound, and opted for a slower rebound setting for the rockgarden to keep the tire more glued to the ground. I though, well why not give it a go. We set up my high speed camera, and began testing, this is what we found:
"Normal" rebound setting, rockgarden test. 240 fps:
6 clicks slower rebound setting, rockgarden test. 240 fps:
Conclusion;
Well, from what I observe, the slower rebound doesn't make me any faster on this 15m rockgarden section. It does however look like its stabilizing me a bit more, and that's good. I need to do some more testing, and iron out some of the variants out of the equation. I want to test this as accurate and objective as possible - for the fun of it - perhaps I could use some of this data to setup my Boxxer fork a bit better. Stay tuned.
Do you spot or see something I don't? Got some Yoda knowledge to share? Then drop a comment in the comments section below - it does not require a log-in.
Great footage!
ReplyDeleteI really cant see much of a change between these two settings.
Maybe in the later videos the difference will be more noticeable.
Really looking foward to it!
It IS hard to see, more vids comming soon'ish.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for more testing...
ReplyDeleteGreat comparison! I always wanted to see something like this, if set up right there's a lot to learn...
ReplyDeleteI think I see the front tire squirming a lot more on the lower rebound setting, it really seems to deform a lot more; be wary of snakebites.
Your fork, logically, dives deeper in the travel and stays there too with less rebound, which can either work well, because it stabilizes the action up front (but your arms will have to work more) or can destabilise you because the front end of the bike sits lower and this moves more weight over the front wheel.
But that will be more of a personal feeling I guess.
Nice vids!
Also, towards the end of the rockgarden, your movements seem "choppier" or less fluid with less rebound.
ReplyDeleteThere is definately more research to be done in this department. I found a good long varied rockgarden to test this, but I need proper weather conditions (sunshine, due to highspeed-camera sensitivity), and I need a helper or two to pull this of. Stay tuned.
ReplyDelete