Bike Fork/Shocks Question

For my birthday I bought a couple of bike mechanic books and realized there is more to forks/shocks than meets the eye. While I've loved my Mamba 29er I knew something was off until reading that you need to create the right measurements for your weight on sag and fine tuning the set up of your fork for riding. I had no idea.

I have a lockout and the other side has where you can change the settings by turning the knob. How do you know what your fork needs to be set at? I checked Rock Shox's site and found nothing except how to install the fork and setups for my fork.

Under the fork is another setting that lets me adjust as well. Since it's adjustable, would you need to change settings depending on where you ride?

You need the manual for your shock, which at least for higher end shocks, is online. Or, ask your lbs to help you.

If its a full squish bike the rear shock, if it is an air shock needs to be set 10 pounds below your body weight, very important for the correct sag.

Make certain that you are taking ALL of your weight in consideration, not just your body weight. By that I mean you, your normal riding clothes, your filled Camelbak (assuming you use one, water bottles if not), tools, etc. It makes a difference, my LBS was very clear about that.

My bike came with the manual for the Rock Shox fork, your LBS may have extras. Also the fork and shock were set by the shop during my fitting. We tested sag and my shop showed me all the settings. Rock Shox have a negative and positive pressure chamber, the negative is what you can adjust on the bottom. Even with a tutorial I still don't know exactly what to do with all the adjustments.

The dial is the amount of rebound or how much it compresses. You may have a little lock icon, that is locked out which will make it feel close to no shock at all. There are various placed in between. I like mine wide open (most rebound), my husband likes his in the middle. Some of the pressure settings are personal preference.

And yes sometimes this changes based on the terrain. My husband will go wide open on a rocky course. There is one race that has a road portion, we'll reach down to lock it out completely on the road.

I did a YouTube search after I first posted and the guy talked about how to set up your fork. I sort of have it right, but haven't found that "sweet" spot yet. LBS didn't seem interested in setting up the front shocks when I asked hence making a post here.

I should have asked the guy yesterday at another bike shop how to set up the fork as I was getting a fitting for my Madone and my Mamba. Didn't even think to ask about the fork.

I think you need to find a new LBS.

I agree, you need a new LBS. The forks are pretty complicated in the number of ways they can be adjusted, it would be so much better to be shown than read it. :( Plus there is not 1 "right" way to set it up. It sounds like you found the ways to adjust it on the internet, now just ride and find how you like it.