Hey Shovelon! Swinger question...

[Matno]

Terry,
How much stroke travel do you get with your Swinger? The Trek tech support guy told me the shocks from the Liquid (which mine is) had a 2.5" stroke for '03-'04 and a 2" stroke for '05. Mine is not the newer style of the '05, but I'm getting almost exactly 2" of travel (with no air in the shock, that's the max). When fully inflated (to 65-75% of my weight) I only get about 1.3". I'm not overly interested in getting tons of travel, but I just thought it was curious. If I set the pressure based on sag, it seems to get even lower in its travel after a few minutes of sitting in the saddle. That could be purely subjective though, as visual inspection--while riding--of the O-ring makes it appear to be about the right amount of sag.

What have you found with yours? Also, how do you have your air pressure and SPV set up? I'm only starting to experiment with mine, but it feels funny. Like there's quite a bit of stiction in it - i.e. it's not a smooth feel when I push down on the seat. While riding it seems to be okay, but not as quiet as I would like. Hmmm.

Curious beasts, these air shocks.

Matt

[Frankd3000]

If I set the pressure based on sag, it seems to get even lower in its travel after a few minutes of sitting in the saddle. That could be purely subjective though, as visual inspection--while riding--of the O-ring makes it appear to be about the right amount of sag.

Matt

You can't properly set sag on platform forks/shocks. It's a misnomer.

[shovelon]

Hey there,

I set the main spring pressure at 100 psi.
The SPV chamber I set at 80 psi. This allows .5 inch of sag. Total stroke of my 7.5 inch swinger 3 is listed as 2 inches, but I have not really measured it.

Try adding more pressure  til you get a comfortable riding position. But you need some sag. Are you bottoming out?

I too feel a lot  of stiction as compared to the my coil swinger. But I use it as quasi-compression damping. Really my air shock is light, but I prefer the coil shock on long rides.

Terry

[Matno]

How much do you weigh?

I have it set up now so that it barely bottoms out on big hits. Just about right. I just read somewhere that you have to readjust the shock after at least one hour of riding (the "break in" time). Makes sense since this is a brand new shock. I rode it about that long on Saturday for the first time, and it seemed much better by the end. I THINK I had it set up at about 100 psi in the main chamber and 50 in the SPV, but it's hard to tell with my messed up shock pump gauge. I'm going to try it just a little higher in both chambers the next time I ride.

[shovelon]

I weigh 185lbs.

The shock says to set spring pressure at 2/3 rider weight and 1/3 in the SPV chamber for starters. I ended up setting the spring at 100 for a spongy ride, and then stiffening up the threshold at 80. Initialy, the ride was too hard at 120psi for the main spring.

Now that is what my gauge says before I unscrew it from the valve. Where it ends up is anyone's guess but those are the parameters I go with.

[Matno]

I guess our shocks are valved slightly differently. Mine is from a Trek Liquid, and it says to start with 75% in the main chamber and 50% in the SPV chamber. Interesting. I'm not totally interested in having a stiff SPV platform, but a little bit can't hurt. On the other hand, I don't want to bottom out too easy. Seems to be at a happy medium now though. I'll have to ride a little rougher terrain before I know for sure though.

I only weigh 140, so I'm sure we'll have them set up differently!

[Carbonman1]

I really love this shock.  I am still playing around with the set-up but I find the bike much more controlled on the rear.  I am using the stable platform as a rebound assist of sorts.  I have been running 120 in the main chamber and 70 in the spv.  I weigh 185 , yeah, I just got back from an Alaska cruise and I love pizza....Anyway,  I was having trouble getting a accurate pressure measurements in the spv chamber because of its extremely low volume.  My solution was to remove the shrader pin valve and grind off 1/1000th or so off the pin.  I have to screw the pump on a little tighter, but the air loss is substantially reduced when removing the pump.   I'm happy...

[shovelon]

Hey Carbonman,

Good idea on reducing the pin.

Got to say that your Oz with the fournales is super sick looking. Judging from the performance of my shock, your ride should be pretty sweet.

Terry

[Carbonman1]

Hey thanks Shovelon,  the bike handles so level over obstacles that I am overriding my "good sense."  I liked the way the original factory set up handled,  but me thinks the current iteration of the Oz is a keeper.  The swinger sealed the deal.

[Frankd3000]

Hey, Matt, did you ever get this worked out?

I have a bead on one locally (6.5 x 1.5) and i'm thinking about it. Still unsure of the platform-rear stuff, but it's basically new and inexpensive.

Worth the "risk"?