RockShox Reba Team U-turn 90mm-120mm

Plush and stiff, nuff said.

Setup

Before having a dual air RockShox fork, I read in lots of personal reviews in
Internet forums that the 'right' way of setting these kinds of shocks is as follows :

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1. pump +ve chamber with 60% of your weight (I am 145lbs, so that equates to 87-90psi)

2. add 10 to the value you got from #1 then pump that in PSI to the negative chamber

3. appreciate your very plush setting and then go for a ride

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However, when I did the above to my shocks, I was shocked! Read on....

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Sag

I have this impression that shocks are shocks, no matter if they are bike forks, motorcycle forks, rally car shocks, remote control car shocks, etc., they will function the same. There will be a spring, there will be a piston, there will be something to control the rebound, etc. Also, setting them up will also be similar.

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Keeping this in mind, we come to setting up sag. Trail imperfections come in two forms. One that makes your suspension compress (branches, stones, etc.) and one that makes your compression extend (holes, drop-offs, etc.). For those trail features that call for you suspension to extend, without sag, then there will be no extension, your bike will just fall into the hole... you will be in for a jarring ride.

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Now the problem with the 'formula' above for setting up the Reba shocks is that, without any load, the shock is already compressed to around 95mm! Nevermind if I lift the front of the bike and the fork extends. That does not happen. So in effect, that setting above has just limited my 120mm fork to 95mm. All this without the rider yet!

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Think !

What I did was empty the negative chamber. I pumped 90PSI to the positive chamber. This is within the manufacturer's recommended range printed on the fork leg for my weight. I then adjusted the pressure until I got 25mm of sag. I ended up with 80PSI. So now, without any load, the fork is fully extended to 120mm. I then proceeded to pump air into the negative chamber. I stopped when I saw the stanchion being 'sucked' into the fork leg. This pressure is about 60PSI.

I then released some air until the fork is again fully extended to 120mm. I ended up with around 50PSI in the negative chamber.

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This setup is still very plush. I don't have any complaints about it. I also have around 1.5 inches more travel allowance for the bigger drops in Bukit Timah or WC.

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The Reba fork is also very stiff. My old fork had me 'meandering' whenever I go downhill and do some cornering. This fork holds it's lines very well. Now, this got me wondering, if this Reba is as stiff as this, I wonder how a thru-axle feels like ............ Maybe next X'mas :-)