SUSPENDED BELIEF
MODERN manufacturing is a pretty amazing thing. Modern consumer products are made up of dozens of parts that have to work all the time, every time, no matter the conditions or the end user… and mountain bike shocks have to have one of the hardest lives of all.
Repeated cycles under exposed conditions and in all types of weather are hard things to engineer for, and so generally speaking a typical mountain bike suspension piece will be slightly overbuilt in terms of manufacturing tolerances in order to have a better change of survival out in the wild.
As well, a shock or fork is designed to work across a wide spectrum of end users. From young kids to old farts, from 55kg XC whippets to 120kg strappers, and from cold climes to searing summers, a piece has to work out of the box no matter what.
And this is the key to making your bike feel better than you can believe. Tune your suspension to suit your riding style and weight, and it’ll work better everywhere, all the time.
But that’s expensive, you say. And what do I know about tuning shocks? How can I tell them what I want? Well, it’s not anywhere near as expensive as you think, and it turns out you don’t have to know all that much, either.
Ever since I rode the Norco Sight in the last issue,
