I believe that what your feeling, olaa, is the benefit of having the rider mass between the wheels. As each wheel is moved away from the rider mass, it's better able to move freely to input from the ground. Think of it as a hammock. As we compress with the G16 or G1 (or Pole bikes and similar, longer wheel based whips), our mass moves down between the axles more than it would on a more conventional bike. Similarly, without our mass over the axle as much, the wheel is better able to move up and over obstacles in the trail. The more beneath the rider the wheels, the more the damper needs to compensate for our sprung mass.
Terrain and riding style still come into play, though. When things get smoother, I can stop down on the damper but because of all the features in the terrain around where I live, in an effort to have the wheels move out of the way quickly, I run my compression quite open.
I can't say that I've noticed a large change in my rebound settings but I am lighter on the compression on my bikes than on test bikes with the same fork. It's harder to compare with the rear because different setups greatly change how the damper needs to be tuned, without even getting to the mass on the bike.
Oct. 9, 2019, 10:08 a.m. - AJ Barlas
I believe that what your feeling, olaa, is the benefit of having the rider mass between the wheels. As each wheel is moved away from the rider mass, it's better able to move freely to input from the ground. Think of it as a hammock. As we compress with the G16 or G1 (or Pole bikes and similar, longer wheel based whips), our mass moves down between the axles more than it would on a more conventional bike. Similarly, without our mass over the axle as much, the wheel is better able to move up and over obstacles in the trail. The more beneath the rider the wheels, the more the damper needs to compensate for our sprung mass. Terrain and riding style still come into play, though. When things get smoother, I can stop down on the damper but because of all the features in the terrain around where I live, in an effort to have the wheels move out of the way quickly, I run my compression quite open. I can't say that I've noticed a large change in my rebound settings but I am lighter on the compression on my bikes than on test bikes with the same fork. It's harder to compare with the rear because different setups greatly change how the damper needs to be tuned, without even getting to the mass on the bike.