[chaostactics]

I tried getting this answered elsewhere, but to no avail...

I had a rock shox bar 1.1 and went off a 3 foot drop yesterday, bottomed out and lost all compression. The thing it shot. Thing is I have an Iron Horse bike (not the DW-link ), love it but... obviously no support at the moment. I'm doing a lot more aggressive down hill and jumping off of stuff so I'm thinking of going to a coil over. I would consider myself ... all mountain

1. Is is a good idea to go coil over, I don't really mind losing some stroke power to suspension as long as I don't bottom out and wreck the shock/rear swing arm off a 3-4ft jump.

2. I'm a broke as can be student at the moment so I can't buy a $200-$600 shock. But I'm looking for a step up from the rock shox bar, from what I understand thats not too hard considering it seems to be just barely entry level shock.

3. Whats this weight in lbs ratings on springs/coils? 350,400,700? etc. What does it mean to me and how do I know which one is right for me?

4. Lastly for now, do i have to put a 8"(erm 7.75) eye-eye length (what i have now) shock in or could I do say 7.5-8.5" and still have it work?

Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

[ultraNoob]

I tried getting this answered elsewhere, but to no avail...

I had a rock shox bar 1.1 and went off a 3 foot drop yesterday, bottomed out and lost all compression. The thing it shot. Thing is I have an Iron Horse bike (not the DW-link ), love it but... obviously no support at the moment. I'm doing a lot more aggressive down hill and jumping off of stuff so I'm thinking of going to a coil over. I would consider myself ... all mountain

1. Is is a good idea to go coil over, I don't really mind losing some stroke power to suspension as long as I don't bottom out and wreck the shock/rear swing arm off a 3-4ft jump.

2. I'm a broke as can be student at the moment so I can't buy a $200-$600 shock. But I'm looking for a step up from the rock shox bar, from what I understand thats not too hard considering it seems to be just barely entry level shock.

3. Whats this weight in lbs ratings on springs/coils? 350,400,700? etc. What does it mean to me and how do I know which one is right for me?

4. Lastly for now, do i have to put a 8"(erm 7.75) eye-eye length (what i have now) shock in or could I do say 7.5-8.5" and still have it work?

Thanks for all the help in advance.

Aggressive downhill is a relative term... unless you have an IH SGS or something in that league, I'd assume you mean that you ride it hard.

What year and model Ironhorse do you have? Without knowing this, all I can spit out is generic mumbojumbo.

Based on the info you've provided (7.75... more likely 7.875" I2I, non DW-Link IH) I'll proceed with the hypothesis that you're riding a single pivot IH Warrior of some sort. If I remember correctly, the 2006 IH Warrior SE/Pro/etc... had a rear shock of 7.875x2.00 and came stock with a 400# spring.

Coil is nice, and IMHO more reliable, but it's usually heavier than an airshock.

Spring rates are dependent on your supsension design (leverage ratio) and rider weight. If you are riding an IH Warrior, I think you would have to multilply your body weight (in pounds) by 2.5 to find your spring rate.
i.e. If you weighed 150lbs, your spring rate should be about 375#. When I had my Warrior, I was 220lbs and used a 550# spring.

Going with a shock different from the i2i measurement your bike was made for is not often recommended unless the bike was specifically designed for different spring measurments. You also have to take into consideration the stroke of the shock. If your bike is meant to accept a 7.875x2.00 shock (2.00" is the stroke)... I would not deviate from that.

Hope this helps... and Welcome to Ridemonkey

 

[Leppah]

I run coil on my DH bike and on my trail bike. For me, they just seem more predictable. They're always consistent, very reliable and handle abuse. They are a little bit more heavy. But i don't worry about the weight really. I just run a cheap FOX VAN R on my trailbike. I think it was around $200 brand new.