[Ridemonkey.com]

Trek Bikes have always been a leader in the bike industry. Whether it's supporting some of the top riders in the sport, or developing a simpler way to tune your suspension, they're doing it right. Check their Suspension Calculator!
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Courtesy of Bike Magazine

Trek Bicycles has made tuning its suspension a just a few clicks away.

Trek Bicycle has now made a perfectly tuned ride available anywhere internet is available by launching an online ‘calculator’ that, when given the rider’s bike, model year and weight (in pounds or kilograms), outputs the perfect suspension settings–including optimum air pressure (or spring weight for it coil-sprung bikes), rebound and compression settings–for the bike’s fork and rear shock. It has been made to work on mobile, tablet and desktop devices. It is also available in nine different languages.

The calculator is accessible now at Trek Bikes.

“It’s a must for anybody looking for the right suspension settings from bike shop mechanics to the rider who feels they need to make on-trail adjustments,” said Trek Mountain Bike Brand Manager Michael Browne. “We want every rider to get the most out of their suspension and this is as indispensible a tool as there is.”

This application provides data based upon Trek’s original suspension fork and shock specifications and will initially launch with settings for Trek’s 2011 and 2012 full suspension products. The calculator’s database will be updated shortly with the appropriate settings for all Trek full-suspension bikes dating back to the 2009 model year.

This calculator could be a teaser of what’s to come from Trek too…Roscoe 29er anyone?

[fblike]http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3670902#post3670902[/fblike]

 

[stoney]

How does a calculator know the specifics of how and where you ride to make this determination?

 

[Uncle Cliffy]

How does a calculator know the specifics of how and where you ride to make this determination?

It's for the parking lot. Duh.

 

[tacubaya]

 

[demo 9]

 

[armada]

it is great they have the calculator for the 2012 models and not for the 2010 models realy useful for the average joe

 

[I.van]

How does a calculator know the specifics of how and where you ride to make this determination?

You don't think its a good thing that Trek are providing some ballpark setup information rather than nothing?

 

[binary visions]

You don't think its a good thing that Trek are providing some ballpark setup information rather than nothing?

No joke.

How is this bad? It provides you with a general, easy-to-use, recommended setup from which you can explore further tweaking.

No calculator for anything is perfect, it's all based on generalities. It's pretty nice, though, that they can boil something down into a good starting point for people who, maybe, don't have a lot of expertise.

 

[Steve M]

How does a calculator know the specifics of how and where you ride to make this determination?

Given that at least 50% of riders are on completely the wrong spring rate to start with (very easy to do with air shocks in particular), how is this a bad thing? It's about time manufacturers provided baseline settings for their stuff - after all, if they don't know how to set the bike up to a decent starting point for any given rider, who does? This isn't a substitute for proper adjustment or custom tuning, it's just helping people get started by giving them the best possible starting point. Where and how you ride are comparatively minor factors to leverage rate and rider weight.

 

[jonKranked]

Given that at least 50% of riders are on completely the wrong spring rate to start with (very easy to do with air shocks in particular), how is this a bad thing? It's about time manufacturers provided baseline settings for their stuff - after all, if they don't know how to set the bike up to a decent starting point for any given rider, who does? This isn't a substitute for proper adjustment or custom tuning, it's just helping people get started by giving them the best possible starting point. Where and how you ride are comparatively minor factors to leverage rate and rider weight.

its certainly not a bad thing, but the reality is that its just a band-aid for the fact that the average mountain biker has no clue as to how their suspension works.

most shops offer clinics on the basics - change a flat, adjust deraillers and brakes, maybe its time they start offering suspension 101.

 

[jonKranked]

case in point - i was riding over the weekend, randomly came across some guy on the trail, started chatting bikes and whatnot, he commented that my suspension appeared to be setup too soft. I said no, that's how properly tuned suspension is supposed to work. I checked out his setup and his was retardedly stiff. In talking I learned I had a good 30lbs on the guy, and when I sat on his bike I wasn't getting anywhere close to proper sag, and his compression was through the roof. When I gave him some pointers on how to improve it, he got all uppity and told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I gave up, and told him that for how stiff and poorly his suspension was setup he was doing himself a real disservice, and that he'd be better off ditching suspension altogether and saving a few lbs with a full rigid if he was gonna run his bike that stiff.

 

[OGRipper]

While I don't see it as necessarily "bad", I don't see how this is much better than the set-up guides offered by most manufacturers on their websites already. The only difference is that you get to plug in your specific weight rather than figure out where you are in the range. Again, not a bad thing, but not exactly earth shattering.

 

[stoney]

Trek's are only available at real shops. When you purchase the bike they need to set it up for you. If they are not setting it up correctly (or at all), Trek should not need to make a website to address the problem; it should have its reps train the mechanics to not bee so damn ignorant.

 

[IH8Rice]

Trek's are only available at real shops. When you purchase the bike they need to set it up for you. If they are not setting it up correctly (or at all), Trek should not need to make a website to address the problem; it should have its reps train the mechanics to not bee so damn ignorant.

that can be said for any mfg though.
the trek dealers around here dont know jack about suspension.

 

[davec113]

case in point - i was riding over the weekend, randomly came across some guy on the trail, started chatting bikes and whatnot, he commented that my suspension appeared to be setup too soft. I said no, that's how properly tuned suspension is supposed to work. I checked out his setup and his was retardedly stiff. In talking I learned I had a good 30lbs on the guy, and when I sat on his bike I wasn't getting anywhere close to proper sag, and his compression was through the roof. When I gave him some pointers on how to improve it, he got all uppity and told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I gave up, and told him that for how stiff and poorly his suspension was setup he was doing himself a real disservice, and that he'd be better off ditching suspension altogether and saving a few lbs with a full rigid if he was gonna run his bike that stiff.

LOL, I met a guy with a dhx5 with 100 lb too high of a spring rate, 20-30 turns of preload (no joke), rebound set for "eject", half the minimum recommended air pressure in the can, and the bottom out adjuster turned almost all the way out on a frame with a linear suspension rate.

Sooo, I would have to agree that the calculator is going to get a lot of riders MUCH closer to their ideal setup.

 

[davec113]

Trek's are only available at real shops. When you purchase the bike they need to set it up for you. If they are not setting it up correctly (or at all), Trek should not need to make a website to address the problem; it should have its reps train the mechanics to not bee so damn ignorant.

The owner of the Trek store I got my Session 88 from was completely clueless about how to setup a coil shock. His adjustments would have caused coil bind and broken the shock. It was ridiculous...

 

[IH8Rice]

LOL, I met a guy with a dhx5 with 100 lb too high of a spring rate, 20-30 turns of preload (no joke)

a bit of a exaggeration here

 

[davec113]

a bit of a exaggeration here

LOL, I wish... he had a solid INCH+ of preload on his 550 lb coil and 2.6:1 frame... and he weighed maybe 170 lbs. I was shocked! (sorry)

 

[denjen]

case in point - i was riding over the weekend, randomly came across some guy on the trail, started chatting bikes and whatnot, he commented that my suspension appeared to be setup too soft. I said no, that's how properly tuned suspension is supposed to work. I checked out his setup and his was retardedly stiff. In talking I learned I had a good 30lbs on the guy, and when I sat on his bike I wasn't getting anywhere close to proper sag, and his compression was through the roof. When I gave him some pointers on how to improve it, he got all uppity and told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I gave up, and told him that for how stiff and poorly his suspension was setup he was doing himself a real disservice, and that he'd be better off ditching suspension altogether and saving a few lbs with a full rigid if he was gonna run his bike that stiff.

I know a guy that never ever gets more than half the travel on his fork and freaks out if he does. Hopefully this will at least get most people in the ball field.

 

[jonKranked]

I know a guy that never ever gets more than half the travel on his fork and freaks out if he does. Hopefully this will at least get most people in the ball field.

no, they'll just assume that the program is wrong, or it doesn't take into account how "they like their suspension"

 

[Steve M]

its certainly not a bad thing, but the reality is that its just a band-aid for the fact that the average mountain biker has no clue as to how their suspension works.

most shops offer clinics on the basics - change a flat, adjust deraillers and brakes, maybe its time they start offering suspension 101.

Band-aid? What's your proposed solution? And how is a suspension basics course really going to be better than an online calculator, what are the odds of the average shop employee being able to explain things better and offer a baseline setup better than this?

Seriously, I'm not much of a Trek fan personally, but you guys are just hanging s**t on them for the sake of it now.

Trek's are only available at real shops. When you purchase the bike they need to set it up for you. If they are not setting it up correctly (or at all), Trek should not need to make a website to address the problem; it should have its reps train the mechanics to not bee so damn ignorant.

Most bike shops that I've worked at have pretty rapid turnover of staff, and even the most experienced mechanics usually aren't suspension specialists. Why try to train thousands of people around the world in a relatively half-arsed manner when you could have ONE website that's done properly that offers more accurate, more useful advice anyway?

 

[jonKranked]

Band-aid? What's your proposed solution?

rigid bikes for everyone!

 

[stoney]

Band-aid? What's your proposed solution? And how is a suspension basics course really going to be better than an online calculator, what are the odds of the average shop employee being able to explain things better and offer a baseline setup better than this?

Seriously, I'm not much of a Trek fan personally, but you guys are just hanging s**t on them for the sake of it now.



Most bike shops that I've worked at have pretty rapid turnover of staff, and even the most experienced mechanics usually aren't suspension specialists. Why try to train thousands of people around the world in a relatively half-arsed manner when you could have ONE website that's done properly that offers more accurate, more useful advice anyway?

It's a simple concept: 30% sag. Rebound and damping is preference to the user. But how is suspension setup not common knowledge to a shop monkey?

 

[Jim Mac]

It's a simple concept: 30% sag. Rebound and damping is preference to the user. But how is suspension setup not common knowledge to a shop monkey?

Didn't a bunch of RP 23's come with little plastic sag measurement markers? Hitting 25-30% was never made easier. I work PT in a shop that mainly sells Treks, and suspension knowledge is hit/miss, depending on who's on for the day. Those little measurement markers did wonders for staff.

 

[jonKranked]

It's a simple concept: 30% sag. Rebound and damping is preference to the user. But how is suspension setup not common knowledge to a shop monkey?

the problem with compression and rebound tuning/knobs is that there's a disconnect between how people think it works and how it actually works

 

[jackalope]

I've actually thought about marketing little "compression dampening" sponges, which one could wet and then apply to the shock/fork slippery areas to adjust compression. Perhaps call them "Dampening Widgets" so I could ride DW's coat tails through false association.

I swear they would sell...

 

[IH8Rice]

Didn't a bunch of RP 23's come with little plastic sag measurement markers? Hitting 25-30% was never made easier. I work PT in a shop that mainly sells Treks, and suspension knowledge is hit/miss, depending on who's on for the day. Those little measurement markers did wonders for staff.

if they dont come direct from the mfg on the bike, then they are available to buy separately. several companies provide them with the bike or have some sort of marker on the frame to help with sag.
we keep several different ones handy for the different amounts of sag.