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| *Vultures Knob>>>Mountain Bike |
Lockout vs Preload suspension? |
What is the difference between lockout suspension and preload adjustment on mountain bike forks. A preload suspension fork is a shock upon which has some sort of adjustable dial/knob/doo-hickey. This allows you to adjust the amount of sag on the fork. Generally, setting it so when you are on the bike it sags about 1/3 the way down is a good starting point, and you can adjust it from there. A lockout suspension fork is a shock which, something also with preload, has another knob/dial/whatever that can completely turn off the suspension, making the front fork completely stationary. This is great for riding on flat surfaces and climbing. Depending on your bike, but most upper level cross country/all mountain mountain bikes will have a preload suspension with lockout on the front, and at least preload, if not with lockout, on the rear (i.e. Cannondale Rush 2 Carbon, lockout on front and rear shocks). You tend to not get lock out on pure downhill bikes, since they are not designed to climb in any way shape or form (i.e. Cannondale Judge 1 has no lockout on its front or rear shocks). Pre load sets up your re-bound so that your forks give addequate damping for your weight. In short, you can adjust how much bounce your forks have, spefically for your body weight. Lock out will do just that. They will stop your forks from moving, if not totally, then quite so much. This is because suspension will blead off some of your cycling power. This is OK for XC, but bad for road work. So if you can lock your forks while on the road, it means that you don't lose power when peddling and therefore go faster. Luck preload refers to the amount of compression required to activate the fork. more preload means more force is needed to activate the fork, and vise versa. lockout is a way to completely shut off the fork so it will preform almost like a rigid. some forks come with a lockout switch on the crown, and some have a remote switch that mounts to the handlebars. i have a 115mm Rock Shox Reba team with remote lockout. when the fork is open, i can use all 115mm. when i lock it out, i can only use about 10mm, during normal pedaling circumstances. cheaper forks with lockout just lock the fork, which makes sprinting and climbimg more efficient. mine has an adjustable floodgate, which is an override for the lockout. if i hit a bump of a certain size, the fork opens briefly to accommodate the shock, then locks again. its a very nice feature. |
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