[dhzion]

So, I've been on my Remedy 7 for about 6 months now and am absolutely LOVING the bike, however, the stock RP2 is well, yuck!

I know that FCLinder had put a DHX coil on his and said it felt great, but being the Remedy is falling rate I'm curious as to just how "good" it could be expected to perform?

The only interwebz consensus I can find is shimming the can (which brings the loathing of modifying something I already paid for).

Is anyone having superior luck with a different shock that FITS??

 

[Secret Squirrel]

...shimming the can...

That sounds really dirty...

 

[William42]

fits? it will take you about 5 bucks and 5 minutes to try the shim. you're not going to bother trying it first?

 

[dhzion]

fits? it will take you about 5 bucks and 5 minutes to try the shim. you're not going to bother trying it first?

Shimming as I type actually. I'm just leary. Something that works better with more adjustability is what I'm looking for. I've read most of the posts here and on MTBR where you've posted as well Will, some shocks, roco etc., aren't fitting the frame.

 

[William42]

Shimming as I type actually. I'm just leary. Something that works better with more adjustability is what I'm looking for. I've read most of the posts here and on MTBR where you've posted as well Will, some shocks, roco etc., aren't fitting the frame.

True! The Manitou Evolver ISX-6 doesn't fit either. depending on how much money you have, I'd start with the shim, then consider pushing it, or if you have enough, buy a DHX5.0 and send that off to push for the MX tune for an ultra pimp setup.

 

[dhzion]

True! The Manitou Evolver ISX-6 doesn't fit either. depending on how much money you have, I'd start with the shim, then consider pushing it, or if you have enough, buy a DHX5.0 and send that off to push for the MX tune for an ultra pimp setup.

Are you currently running the RP with shims then? How big are ya? How many?

 

[William42]

Are you currently running the RP with shims then? How big are ya? How many?

nope, talk to jeng over on MTBR. He's 200 range I think?

 

[dhzion]

Then whatcha runnin?

 

[William42]

a double barrel, soon to be switched out for an elka

 

[dhzion]

a double barrel, soon to be switched out for an elka

Ooohh lala, elkas fit, that's the direction I was looking for!

 

[Brian HCM#1]

I don't know if the Elka will fit, but so far I'm impressed with the shock.

 

[William42]

Ooohh lala, elkas fit, that's the direction I was looking for!

ah, I should clarify. I don't have a remedy. Just a couple friends with them and some time on them plus demo's

No idea if the elka will fit, or if it even comes in the right size.

 

[dhzion]

ah, I should clarify. I don't have a remedy. Just a couple friends with them and some time on them plus demo's

No idea if the elka will fit, or if it even comes in the right size.

Ahh, the anti-climax, back to shimming!

 

[William42]

Ahh, the anti-climax, back to shimming!

if its any help, I strongly recommend not even considering a CCDB (no idea if it will fit/be the right size) because its so linear, and an air can will be way better.

 

[dhzion]

if its any help, I strongly recommend not even considering a CCDB (no idea if it will fit/be the right size) because its so linear, and an air can will be way better.

Yeah I was wondering when you said CCDB to Elka when in another post you swore against the CCDB.

Hopefully these shims are a marked improvement.

 

[Routier07]

If your interested in an Elka, If I were you id email Pat @ Elka and ask him if they could possibly work something out for ya.

 

[bpatterson6]

shimming the can

I Shimz.

 

[FCLinder]

My 2 Cents

The DHX 5.0 gave the Remedy a much better feel over the stock air can. If you are looking for it to Track better than the Air Can does, change it to a Coil over. If you want an air shock then get a DHX 5.0 Air or you may want to also look into the new X-Fusion shock. They make it also with a lock out.

As for the Cane Creek DB, it will work fine on the Remedy maybe even better than the Fox Shocks. Call Malcom at Cane Creek as he will be able to help you with this and give you real feed back on the CCDB on the Remedy. Great guy!!!

Size you will need is 7.875x2.25

Great do it all bike. Wished they would have made it with convertable travel from 4.5" to 6" to match up with some of the 6" forks out there with convertable travel.

Good luck,
Cecil

 

[FCLinder]

I know I have put these shots up before, but thought you may want to see them again if needed. Just to let you know you will need to have a Size Med frame or larger to put a shock with a Piggy Back shock on the frame. Someone on here tried to put a DHX on the small frame and it was hitting the frame. Never hit on my Med frame though.

 

[dhzion]

My 2 Cents

The DHX 5.0 gave the Remedy a much better feel over the stock air can. If you are looking for it to Track better than the Air Can does, change it to a Coil over. If you want an air shock then get a DHX 5.0 Air or you may want to also look into the new X-Fusion shock. They make it also with a lock out.

As for the Cane Creek DB, it will work fine on the Remedy maybe even better than the Fox Shocks. Call Malcom at Cane Creek as he will be able to help you with this and give you real feed back on the CCDB on the Remedy. Great guy!!!

Size you will need is 7.875x2.25

Great do it all bike. Wished they would have made it with convertable travel from 4.5" to 6" to match up with some of the 6" forks out there with convertable travel.

Good luck,
Cecil

I was hoping you'd weigh in, thanks. Doing a night ride with the shims in tomorrow and I think I tracked down a DHX that will fit I can give a try.

 

[davec113]

I rode my Remedy at Sol Vista for a few days so far with a shim. I'm riding everything except the biggest ~30 foot gaps. It works really well. There is a thread on modding the rp23 on mtbr with spring curves posted with and w/o the shim. Basically the shim makes the shock have more of a rising spring rate which stays fairly linear until the last part of the travel, where it ramps up nicely. PUSH posted the spring rate of their modified rp23 for comparison, it has a rubber bumper and has less of a rising rate, but more bottom out control. Of course, PUSH tuned damping is probably a big improvement too.

I used to bottom the Remedy all the time, not harshly, but very consistently. It still bottoms, but less often and the o-ring isn't as far down on the shaft unless I hit something way harder than I wanted to.

Anyway, if you want more small bump compliance and a plusher ride, you're probably going to want a coil. If you just want to tune the shock to your riding style, try the shim or send it to PUSH. As far as the ccdb, ALL coil over shocks are linear, thats the result of having a coil spring vs an air spring. The damping on a ccdb is more adjustable than most other shocks, so there's NO REASON a ccdb wouln't work as well or better than a dhx coil. A falling rate leverage curve isn't ideal for a coil shock, but combined with bottom out control and adjusting the damping, it could end up working ok.

 

[tuumbaq]

I was hoping you'd weigh in, thanks. Doing a night ride with the shims in tomorrow and I think I tracked down a DHX that will fit I can give a try.

Im curious to see if you liked it better with the shims or not?

Im light, never bottom out but I'd like to try something that would track better and give me better small bumps compliance without buying a new shock on my Remedy...

 

[amnonis]

with the stock RP2?
I'm riding it for a year and don't see any problem.

 

[tuumbaq]

with the stock RP2?
I'm riding it for a year and don't see any problem.

I dont think anyone on here is having problems with it, we are just trying to improve the suspensions performances.

The stock RP23 feels dead like, well most air shock ! A coil shock usually has greater small bumps sensitivity and tracks better as well.Gives you more of a DH bike feel.

I was on a Nomad with a ti-coil shock last year, overall I think the Remedy is a better bike, simply put ; its better composed and its quicker compare to my Nomad but the coil was livelier on small bumps and I somewhat tracked a better a bit...I kinda miss that

 

[dhzion]

Shims were a great improvement, sufficient enough that i feel the bike is where i want it in the stable without getting a push or coil. All the indicated benefits are true. However now that the rear shines the fork feels a little choppy. Im running about 6mm thick worth of strips of plastic cover from a notebook at about 200 pound rider weight. Might try up to 10mm soon just for comparison.

 

[dhzion]

It's really so easy there's no reason not to give it a try.

 

[time-bomb]

Shims were a great improvement, sufficient enough that i feel the bike is where i want it in the stable without getting a push or coil. All the indicated benefits are true. However now that the rear shines the fork feels a little choppy. Im running about 6mm thick worth of strips of plastic cover from a notebook at about 200 pound rider weight. Might try up to 10mm soon just for comparison.

I am jumping in late on this, especially now that it sounds like you found the magic setting/tune for your RP23. However, I have been using an RP23 (7.875x2.25) on my AM bike and I was really disappointed with its performance out of the box, compression felt like a brick and the rebound was too slow even when it was fully open. Long story short, I sent it to PUSH and I have been happy ever since. It almost feels like a coil shock now and when I do reach the bottom of the travel it is very subtle. The pro-pedal settings have very distinct changes and I can get the rebound as fast as I want it now. I am not saying you should send it to PUSH if you are happy with where it is now but if you want to take it to the next level I think having it PUSH'd is worth every penny. May even be a better investment than buying a new shock.

 

[Jm_]

As far as the ccdb, ALL coil over shocks are linear, thats the result of having a coil spring vs an air spring.

That might be more true for the CCDB, but it's not true for most coil shocks. The spring is pretty linear. With shocks like the 5th element and later the DHX, much more end-stroke compression was possible, resulting in something that doesn't blow through the travel. This can be tweaked and is one of the benefits of using a shock with an IFP and nitrogen charge. While this isn't a huge effect, shocks like the 5th element and DHX have some usefull tunability in this area, and then of course there's the bottom-out bumper. Case in point, I originally had a fox vanilla RL on my Foes. The foes had a drastic falling rate. The two ways to set up the bike were "good on small stuff and bottoms on bigger stuff" and "way too friggin stiff on small stuff to prevent bottomout on big stuff". The curnut shock fixed this, but felt like absolute crap. I finally fitted a DHX, which worked pretty well, it had the end-stroke adjust so it didn't react at all like the original vanilla. It still wasn't as good as a linkage-controlled bike, but it wasn't too bad at that point and the shock wasn't "linear". If it was, the bike would have been bottoming out like before. You might also want to check some facts on air springs, as they the rate isn't constant throughout the stroke (so it's not gradually increasing as you may think).

 

[Udi]

That might be more true for the CCDB, but it's not true for most coil shocks.

I think given current trends, it's actually *reasonably* true for most shocks. The platform valved shocks of old all provided position sensitive compression damping by nature (5th, Swinger, DHX), however if you think of most newer / boutique shocks, they do away with that (BOS, CC, Avy, Elka, and even the Vivid).

The only real progression they get is via shaft displacement and resultant air volume decrease in the reservoir, but that's not damping progression (only a small variation in spring rate curve).

So essentially most good shocks these days are linear by definition, and IMO it's not really a bad thing as these shocks have pretty good control over compression damping reducing the need for progression.

Some (eg. regressive) frames will still benefit from a progressive shock though.

 

[Jm_]

The platform valved shocks of old all provided position sensitive compression damping by nature (5th, Swinger, DHX), however if you think of most newer / boutique shocks, they do away with that (BOS, CC, Avy, Elka, and even the Vivid).

Yeah, but 90% of the shocks out there are DHXs.

 

[davec113]

You might also want to check some facts on air springs, as they the rate isn't constant throughout the stroke (so it's not gradually increasing as you may think).

force vs displacement curves posted here:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=503070

So yes, the spring rate isn't rising, but with the shim, it rises more than it does stock. I was just comparing w and w/o the shim.

Anyway... I'm very happy w the shim mod, but will send to push when it needs a rebuild most likely.

Just broke my arm and crushed the Remedy's downtube, so I'll be out for a bit, but the bike does far better on the dh than I ever expected. Luckily, Trek has a crash replacement deal My arms gonna take 6-8 weeks

 

[Cordsport]

Im light, never bottom out but I'd like to try something that would track better and give me better small bumps compliance without buying a new shock on my Remedy...

If you never bottom out then your spring rate is incorect, running a softer spring (less air pressure) will fix this, and at the same time improve your small bump compliance.

 

[tuumbaq]

Just came back from a ride on my Remedy with the shim mod and I could not believe how large the difference was...like OMG!!!!

Prior to the shim mod, I was running 35% sag, no real problem bottoming but didnt feel like the back was tracking really well on small bumps.

I now run 42% sag (110 psi @ 150 lbs ) which gives me WAYYYYYYYYY better small bumps compliance and added bonus, it makes the bike noticeably "slacker".

I rode for 2 hours straight on the roughest trails around where I live ( Squamish )The o-ring was still on the shaft and only felt a bit harsh once .

Im installing a bumper from a coil over shock as I type this hoping it will eliminate 100 % of the harsh feel...Shouldnt be too hard to beat that little gay o-ring sitting at the top of the can anyway...

I highly recommend this mod to everyone.

 

[Orfen]

Just came back from a ride on my Remedy with the shim mod and I could not believe how large the difference was...like OMG!!!!

Prior to the shim mod, I was running 35% sag, no real problem bottoming but didnt feel like the back was tracking really well on small bumps.

I now run 42% sag (110 psi @ 150 lbs ) which gives me WAYYYYYYYYY better small bumps compliance and added bonus, it makes the bike noticeably "slacker".

I rode for 2 hours straight on the roughest trails around where I live ( Squamish )The o-ring was still on the shaft and only felt a bit harsh once .

Im installing a bumper from a coil over shock as I type this hoping it will eliminate 100 % of the harsh feel...Shouldnt be too hard to beat that little gay o-ring sitting at the top of the can anyway...

I highly recommend this mod to everyone.

what size shim did you use?

also how hard is it to replace that small o-ring with a proper size bottom out bumper? don't you have to remove the shaft?