FlareMAX4

The suspension on your Cotic droplink bike is designed to work at it’s best when the suspension ‘sags’ with the rider on board the bike. 'Sag' is the amount the shock compresses with a rider on board. The suspension works at its best when set with between 25% and 30% of the available travel as sag, with our preferred starting point being 30%.

Your FlareMAX Gen4 has a 50mm stroke shock, so that means:

• 13-15mm sag on the shock
• 24-30mm sag on a 120mm fork
• 26-32mm sag on a 130mm fork
• 28-35mm sag on a 140mm fork

As a starting point we suggest going for the middle of those options, so 14mm sag rear, and front sag of 27mm (120 fork), 29mm (130 fork) or 32mm (140 fork).

How To Set Your Shock Sag

Using a shock pump, put 170psi in the rear shock. Leave your forks as they are (if you've already set them up) or put the recommended pressure for your weight in them according to the fork manufacturer's manual.

Check the shock and turn off any lockout or Climb Switch. This allows the shock to compress unhindered and ensures a more accurate sag measurement.

Put your riding kit on. Or at least a fully loaded backpack if you usually ride with one. Make particular note of the amount of water in your pack or your bottles. It's probably the heaviest thing you strap to your bike after yourself, and it makes a difference to the suspension setup.

Set the saddle to your correct full pedalling height.

Mount the bike and go for a quick ride in a suitably quiet area. Whilst riding, bounce on the saddle a couple of times to get the rear shock compressing as much as you can.

Pull in somewhere safe, stop, get off the bike and slide the o-ring on the shock down against the seal. Now get back on the bike and with saddle at full height sit down and let your legs dangle off the pedals and make sure the o-ring on the shock is still up against the seal. Now, gently get off the bike without moving the shock (dropping the saddle and using a kerb or something as step helps).

Once off the bike, measure the distance between the o-ring and the shock body. Adjust the air pressure in the shock accordingly to get the desired amount of sag.

How To Set Your Fork Sag

Once you’ve set the rear sag, check the front fork sag. If your bike is brand new, put 60psi in the fork to start with and dial all the compression damping adjuster to minimum. For forks, we recommend running with 20-25% sag.

In a quiet area with minimal traffic, drop the saddle and ride around slowly, giving the forks a bounce once or twice to free them up. Whilst rolling along, sit down and – being careful of the spinning wheel - slide the o-ring on the fork leg down to the seal. Now stand up slowly into a balance position on the bike as if you're about to do a downhill section of trail. Now, without moving the fork any more, move yourself rearward and sit down, and slowly roll to a halt. If you have to use the brake, use it very gently and carefully so that you don't dive the fork under braking and mess up your sag measurement. Gently get off the bike and measure the distance from the o-ring to the fork seal. That is your sag. For a 130mm fork, you should be aiming for around 26-32mm sag (20-25%).

If the fork sag requires alteration, alter it, then check the rear sag again. Keep doing this procedure until both front and rear sag is set as desired by the rider, within the manufacturer recommendations for the frame and fork.

Weight Distribution

It’s worth noting that as the weight distribution of all bikes is different, being dependent on saddle position, stem length and bar width amongst many other things. It’s quite possible that with the correct sag at the rear of the bike, your forks may end up with too much or too little sag because there’s more or less weight on them compared to your previous bike. This is why we don't recommend any particular pressures, because even quite subtle differences in your saddle/cockpit set up compared to anything we measure will result in different pressures being required for a given level of sag. We always recommend setting up using sag measurement as your guide, not a generic shock pressure.

How To Set Damping - Shock

Once the front and rear sags are set, adjust the rebound and compression damping to your preference. If you have specified the Cane Creek shock, then our base setup is on the shock when it's delivered. These settings are listed below all relative to fully open position on the adjusters:

DB Air IL

• 2 x large volume spacers
• 1.0 Turns HSC (High Speed Compression)
• 6 Clicks LSC
• 1.0 Turns HSR
• 4 clicks LSR

Follow the excellent instructions in the Cane Creek Field Tuning Guide (click here to download) for fine tuning of your Cane Creek shock.

Cotic base settings tend to run on the lively and fast rebound side of things. This might feel quite different to what you were previously used to, but do stick with it for a couple of rides before making changes. Light rebound damping let's the rear wheel 'patter' and maintain traction better. The links to the base tune for your Cane Creek shock can be found above in the Component Sizes tab.

For other shock brands:

Rebound

It is recommended to start with the rebound 3 clicks from fully open. As mentioned above, we believe that the fastest rebound you can run with safely is the best for traction and lively feel. If you feel like you’re being bounced out of the saddle on big compressions, or springing back too hard off drops, or the bike feels like it’s bouncing back at you at high speed on rocky sections, then add more rebound damping until this sensation is eliminated.

Compression / Pedal Platform

It is recommended to start with the compression damping/pedal platform switched off (or set to minimum). The Cotic Droplink suspension is designed not to require the assistance of a compression damping circuit to give good pedalling performance. Using the minimum setting allows the suspension to move under bump forces more easily and track the ground better.

How To Set Damping – Fork

As with the rear shocks, we recommend running the fork damping as light as possible for best traction.

Rebound

Set this in the middle of the range and see how it feels matched up to the rear shock. As with the rear, try riding it faster than you ordinarily would. It's amazing what a difference it makes, and it's key to getting the most out of the fast acting rear shock, because it keeps the bike in balance.

Once you have done a couple of rides, if you feel the in higher speed bumpy trails the fork is kicking back too much for your liking, or too much that you lose confidence, then increase the rebound damping. If you find the middle setting OK, trying making it faster until you get to the point of it feeling sketchy, then go back one click.

Compression

Almost regardless of size, weight or style of riding, everyone at Cotic runs the high speed compression damping on their fork fully open, or very close to it. We recommend you start with fully open and go from there. If you find you are using the full travel a little too easily for your liking, we suggest adding 1 volume reducer to your fork air spring rather than ramping up the damping.

For low speed compression damping, this is a balance between traction and helping keep the fork held up, so for this we recommend starting with it set in the middle of the range. If you are finding that the bike feels confidence inspiring, but it's a little uncomfortable or 'chattery' through your hands, try reducing the low speed compression 3 clicks. If you feel that the sag and air spring feel is what you want but you are getting a lot of diving under heavy braking, or in steep terrain, try adding 3 clicks. Keep refining like that until you are happy with the setup.

A Bit of Advice

One thing to avoid is setting the rebound based on the 'bounce in the street' test. This usually results in setting the rebound too slow for good grip in trail riding conditions, because doing the 'bounce test' with rebound set fast enough for good performance usually feels too fast in this unhelpful scenario. Only start adjusting once you have a feel on the trail.

Try It Out – The Only Way You'll Know Is By Going For A Ride

We recommend starting at 15mm shock sag and going for a couple of rides to see how this feels. This is a good middle ground for tackling the trails with an active, plush feel combined with a low bottom bracket height for confident handling.

If you feel that you’re catching your pedals too often, or the steering isn’t as fast as you’d like, or you're not getting the climbing position you want, then add more air to the shock and reduce the sag 1 or 2mm, or maybe drop the sag on your fork a few extra millimetres to move your weight forward.

It's well worth taking a couple of hours and doing laps of a trail you know well, and making changes one at a time. A good way to learn it to turn one damping dial fully closed, do a run, then go again with it fully open. You will learn what these big changes to damping do to the bike, which will help you make more subtle changes afterwards.

Take Some Notes Before Tweaking

With all the adjustments available on modern suspension it’s quite possible to get lost chasing a set up and ending up with a bike that doesn’t handle too well. So, if you’ve twiddled and tweaked and the handling just seems to be getting worse, go back to your base setup.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your suspension settings and general bike setup (stem length, bar height, etc), but always have a base set up written down that you can go back to. This should include a fork travel (if the fork is adjustable) with air pressures for front suspension units. Note down how many clicks of rebound you're running. Same goes for compression damping if its adjustable on your fork.

As your experience grows, you’ll begin to know what certain adjustments do and how to undo them, but it’s a learning curve so keep your head and don’t be afraid to start from scratch.

We really think you could get more out of your bike by playing around with things a little. We're always happy to help if you want advice. Just drop us a line at info@cotic.co.uk

Our service doesn't stop when you order a frame. We want to help you enjoy your new bike to its full potential.