[Gary]

Recently I retired my old 02 SX (with a push tuned Vanilla coil) for a newer short travel SS bike (last year's Rose Jester).
Firstly I way prefer jumping a hardtail or BMX to any full sus so the first time I took the new bike out jumping I upped the pressure (Monarch RC2) by 30psi and it felt pretty good on the up slopes but yesterday I was doing an XC ride with some pretty nice descents so had it set-up softer in the rear. I knew it wasn't going to be ideal for hitting some jumps in the middle of the ride but rather than start fucking about with a shock pump I tried a few runs with pro-pedal on. It made a markable improvement.
makes sense that the bike jumps better with a firmer comp settings. Just wondering if other people do the same and also if the shock's up to jumping with PP on. (I'm a pretty smooth rider for my size/age)
Sorry. I've kinda ignored almost everything to do with air suspension since the mid 90s.

 

[Flo33]

I killed the PP feature on at least two demo bikes when I was hitting serious whobbles with them and PP on. On the other hand my RP2 with Push piston is not very impressed about being ridden with PP on. Don't know if it's cause of the changed internals.

 

[Gary]

Hmm... don't even know if the Monarch "Pedal" setting is comparable to a Fox pro-pedal setting.
Having googled a bit it seems like the "pedal" on the Monarch is meant to be good for actual riding rather than just climbing... so far I've hit a few decent sized jumps and ridden Ft Bill with it in "Pedal" and it's surviving.
The shock tune is L/L4 too which I really like for descending... I've always preferred a faster rebounding older skool less-shims feel. Probably a hang up from all those blown shocks you just had to put up with in the 90s

 

[iRider]

On the dual slalom full susser I run a setup for the "normal" use and stiffen the suspension by using the Absolut (Manitou fork) and PP (Fox shock) for steep DJs. Works fairly well. Only thing I would always make sure is to not switch into the full locked out mode. Too much force on the shock bolts.

 

[marshalolson]

you might read kidwoo's review of the Specialized SX DJ/4X frame on blister gear review. there is like 4-5 pages of discussion about rear shock setup for DJ vs. trail riding.

http://blistergearreview.com/gear-reviews/review-2011-specialized-xs

 

[kidwoo]

^number one rule: never listen to a guy with a fanny pack when it comes to jumping.


I've ridden the unrideable nomad3 with a monarch firmly left in the middle position with no ill effects. I've also used the middle and firm settings in a lot of RP3 shocks on slopestyle bikes.



Only a few of them blew.

 

[Gary]

good to know cheers... especially the rule about guys with fanny packs.

Another newer SX was actually on my short list but I decided against it because the newer ones have stupid press fit BBs and the older ones have the dumb spesh specific shocks. plus they're massively overpriced. so that left either this or a new Ticket-S.
this thing uses a standard common shock size (51x190) so has a far better shock leverage ratio for a heavier guy like me and (I don't think*) a falling rate curve. *hard to get info out of Rose and I found the UK guy pretty useless.

 

[kidwoo]

Those treks are friggin awesome. If I still had a place to ride one (IE: jumps too gnarly for a hardtail) I'd own one.

 

[PepperJester]

I have one of the new style SX's with the stock Fox CTD shock. I typically run it in the trail setting with the trail adjust at the middle or firm setting when at the jumps and open it up a bit to the light trail setting when at the four cross track.

We don't have any super gnarly dirt jump locally so I haven't really had the chance to see how it stands up against really steep lips yet.