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Dec. 16, 2024, 2:07 p.m. -  ShawMac

I have been a subscriber to the hypothesis that it is better to be too open than too closed so I tend to the faster end of the spectrum. If the trailhead app for RS recommends an 8, I am anywhere from a 9-11 from closed. I did run into one interesting situation this summer that reinforced for me that I struggle in real time identifying "feelings" of my suspension set up. During a warm up run before Sunday morning Race Day practice at the Stevie Smith memorial, I put into practice the above tuning philosophy and spend up my fork rebound by a couple clicks thinking "I am trying to go at race pace, it won't hurt to speed it up a bit to stay higher in my travel". I then forgot about it and headed up to my practice, of which I only planned one to avoid this old man getting too fatigued. I subsequently lost control straight out of the start and barely held it together, then proceeded to have two more crashes, one of which hurt my leg so bad I thought I was going to have to DNS. It wasn't until getting through the run that the light bulb went on that "hey, I f'ed with my suspension"... so I swapped it back and then went up for a clean run, albeit a lot slower because I was hurting so bad. So I was clearly having trouble holding my lines and couldn't maintain control, but in the moment it didn't really "feel" like I wasn't until I was upside down and didn't know why. I thought I was just having a real shit day, being tired from the day prior. It was a real good learning for me to feel what the "too fast" limit was. It was also a learning that often my settings are just manifesting themselves for me as "that ride didn't feel good" or "I had a great ride" even if I am not recognizing the suspension settings as a factor. And I do spend more time playing with and setting up clocks than the average rider.

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