Moutnain bikers-suspension question: what are lockouts used for?

Better quality forks and some frame shocks have lockouts. The lockout simply prevents the suspension fork or frame shock from compressing.

Under most offroad riding situations you will not want to use the lockout. After all, compression of the fork and shock enhances control of the bike and rider comfort.

However, compression of the fork and shock also absorb some of your pedaling energy. If you watch a mountain bike, particularly one being ridden on a smooth surface, you will see rythmic compression of the fork and shock as the rider pedals. The less smooth the rider's stroke, the more "bobbing" you will see. This bobbing action is absorbing energy that should be going into the pedals.

Thus, on smooth surfaces you will want to use the lockouts. Also, on a hard uphill run, where you want all of your pedaling energy to go into the pedals, you will want to use the lockouts.

Hope this helps.

Lock-outs is a function that ships with some suspension forks/shocks. It is used to lock-out the suspension so that you avoid "bobbing" while you climb a hill with the bike. Having a rigid fork (i.e. having your lock-out turned on) is a more effective way to climb, than having your front end of the bike bumping around everywhere whilst you climb like it would with a suspension fork wothout the lock-out turned on.

Lock-outs also have a valve that opens in case you do hit a large bump/drop and you have forgotten that the lock-out was turned on. This can prevent your suspension fork from being trashed.

For climbing. When you ride up a steep incline you want your suspension as stiff as possible. This helps give you more traction and puts more power to the wheels.

They "lock out" the suspension action so that the shock/fork acts more like a rigid part. Their only real usefulness is for smooth pavement riding where any bob/bouncing would really be noticeable. Some xc racers still like to lock out their fork for climbing, but it's not as popular as it was because it isn't really necessary, and lots of people forget to open it back up again after the hill or sprint.

With all of the improved platform-type valving today, lockouts aren't as helpful or necessary, but many forks still include it as a feature.

Whenever i am doing road riding or if i am climbing a steep hill I use my lockout. It conserves pedaling energy and increases speed and power to the wheels. Be careful not to forget and leave in on though. If you land a jump or hit a big rock with the lock out on, it will break, unless you have a pop-lockout.