I ride a demo 8 and as you can see in my sig I am looking to sell it as I can't get it to feel lively enough that makes a fun bike. I have a CCBD on it now with a 350# spring. I am wondering if maybe a different shock will give it a different feel or a higher spring rate or something? Any tuning advice for the shock or suggestions for a new shock is welcome.
How to get bike more lively?
- Thread starter CountryBoy
- Start date
hmm...you have a (from what i've heard) an excellent and tunable shock on a worldcup proven frame. it sounds like you just need more high-speed compression damping. or perhaps you can stand to lose some rotational weight, ie. lighter wheelset or crankset.
Well, your not helping your sales pitch... and seeing as how much money your are going to loose, it is ridiculous to even put it up for sale for how easy of a fix this is probably.
Increase high/lowspeed compression, stiffer spring rate, speed up rebound a little? Did you try any of these?
Increase high/lowspeed compression, stiffer spring rate, speed up rebound a little? Did you try any of these?
Sticky, heavy tires will make the bike feel sluggish, but also help when you need them. What fork are you running and at what height? If your real head angle gets too steep when you're riding the bike, it can make the bike feel slow and dead until you're going very fast.
Some times, just speeding up your rebound and stiffening up your compression settings can really make a difference. How do you have your fork and shock set up for your weight, right now?
350 Spring? What do you weigh, 140 lbs?
Slack head angle = slower steering.....
i have always thought the CCDB to be a very dead shock, it absorbs a ton but when i had it it made my bike feel and ride like a tank, although it was a first generation and the first to get tried on a demo 9(did not end up working)
Sorry forgot my weight. I am 150lbs. I am running 2 clicks from fully open on low speed rebound, high speed rebound set just slow enough to not buck, low speed compression half way open and high speed compression set so I only bottom off bigger drops.
When I ride my brothers DHR set for about the same weight with a dhx5, it feels so much softer initialy , but is much more lively and I really like it.
When I ride my brothers DHR set for about the same weight with a dhx5, it feels so much softer initialy , but is much more lively and I really like it.
maybe you just solved your own problem, not being sarcastic either
What do you mean?
For what it's worth, I used to ride a DHR with a DHX 5 and haven't ridden a single other bike that is anywhere near as lively.
I really like my new 951, which is a lively bike, but it doesn't have that *!POP!* that my old DHR did. (though it does track a lot better). The DHR doesn't feel like a DH bike, it's just a really big and soft 4x bike.
I really like my new 951, which is a lively bike, but it doesn't have that *!POP!* that my old DHR did. (though it does track a lot better). The DHR doesn't feel like a DH bike, it's just a really big and soft 4x bike.
maybe (not necessarily correct) you just dont like the demo and you like the DHR and selling it isnt such a bad idea. i have two of the older demos (and have ridden the new 1) they ride large and in charge, not a bad thing, but if you dont like it, i would like to say that it might not be the right bike for you
A number of things worth mentioning in this thread:
1) The DHR is one of the most lively, flickable DH bikes available.
2) The potential for changing the characteristics of a bike with the double barrel shock are huge.
3) The CCDB was developed on the demo, hence the stock range of damping curves being a little on the heavy end for bikes with lower leverage ratios, but on the Demo, the range of the original shock should be way more than sufficient to get your ike feeling as you want.
3) You say you have enough HSC to avoid bottom out on drops, but drops are handled by LSC.
I suggest adding a little (like, half a turn) of preload if you're not running any already, and then gradually increasing the LSC ONE CLICK AT TIME to see how it changes the feel of the bike. If it starts to feel a little harsh, begin to back off the HSC, again, half a turn at a time (my HSC adjusters aren't indexed. Yours may be).
See where that gets you and report back.
1) The DHR is one of the most lively, flickable DH bikes available.
2) The potential for changing the characteristics of a bike with the double barrel shock are huge.
3) The CCDB was developed on the demo, hence the stock range of damping curves being a little on the heavy end for bikes with lower leverage ratios, but on the Demo, the range of the original shock should be way more than sufficient to get your ike feeling as you want.
3) You say you have enough HSC to avoid bottom out on drops, but drops are handled by LSC.
I suggest adding a little (like, half a turn) of preload if you're not running any already, and then gradually increasing the LSC ONE CLICK AT TIME to see how it changes the feel of the bike. If it starts to feel a little harsh, begin to back off the HSC, again, half a turn at a time (my HSC adjusters aren't indexed. Yours may be).
See where that gets you and report back.
I agree, I love the CCDB... but it is not a lively feeling ride. If you want lively, get an RC4 or a Roco.
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Replace the shock with a straight bar of the same eye-to-eye length. That ought to liven things up.
Not sure why it is that everyone is recommending MORE compression... if you want to make your bike more lively, what you tend to want is LESS damping (in both directions - particularly LSC and LSR) and a stiffer spring. Running more LSC will mean that every time you want the bike to pop off something, it will convert more of the energy you put into compressing the suspension into heat (via the damper) rather than storing the energy in the spring and returning it as "pop". If you have a way to make the spring rate more progressive, that will help as well, but the only way you can do that is by changing the linkage characteristics, which I don't think is an option on any of the Demos.
I have found a good motivational speech works well, or a stern pep talk.