"or if you’re just predisposed to endlessly faffing with your bike"
I'm so sick of this trope being used in reviews. More adjustments does not automatically mean frequent adjusting. I have a Grip2: 4 external adjusters means I must be twiddling knobs continuously, right? No, the only time I touch either rebound knob (after the initial setup that took less than an hour of repeats on a typical janky trail) is after maintenance, since the adjustments almost always move when removing the lowers.
It's also extremely useful for riders outside the average that the non-adjustable is tuned for. Example:
I run pretty good chunk of pressure, and both my rebound clickers faster than Fox's recommended clicks for that pressure, but still more damping than the middle setting that the non-adjustable tune would be equivalent to. Without external HSR I would be slightly underdamped for big hit recovery, but that's the better side of being not-average size:
I can only imagine a very light rider without external HSR adjustment would end up quite overdamped since the default HSR is going to be tuned on the slow side for much more spring than they run. So their little spring is going to be overwhelmed deep in the travel and not recover fast as they might need. And the fork packing on repeated big hits is one of the worst feelings: front is low and steep and stiff and you still have the second half of the rock garden to get through
Same for HSC: rarely touched, but a light rider being able to back it off a bunch (and leave it there) can really change the ride quality through rough stuff.
June 22, 2022, 7:45 a.m. - Justin White
"or if you’re just predisposed to endlessly faffing with your bike" I'm so sick of this trope being used in reviews. More adjustments does not automatically mean frequent adjusting. I have a Grip2: 4 external adjusters means I must be twiddling knobs continuously, right? No, the only time I touch either rebound knob (after the initial setup that took less than an hour of repeats on a typical janky trail) is after maintenance, since the adjustments almost always move when removing the lowers. It's also extremely useful for riders outside the average that the non-adjustable is tuned for. Example: I run pretty good chunk of pressure, and both my rebound clickers faster than Fox's recommended clicks for that pressure, but still more damping than the middle setting that the non-adjustable tune would be equivalent to. Without external HSR I would be slightly underdamped for big hit recovery, but that's the better side of being not-average size: I can only imagine a very light rider without external HSR adjustment would end up quite overdamped since the default HSR is going to be tuned on the slow side for much more spring than they run. So their little spring is going to be overwhelmed deep in the travel and not recover fast as they might need. And the fork packing on repeated big hits is one of the worst feelings: front is low and steep and stiff and you still have the second half of the rock garden to get through Same for HSC: rarely touched, but a light rider being able to back it off a bunch (and leave it there) can really change the ride quality through rough stuff.