THE MTB MINUTE

Setting up mountain bike suspension sag

Having your suspension set up correctly for you is critical. It affects so many aspects of your riding, from grip and traction to confidence and safety. If you’ve just taken your bike straight from the box and hit the trails, it’s unlikely to be set up to deliver the best ride for you.

Setting suspension can be daunting at first with myriad dials, clicks, pluses and minuses to fiddle with. With this in mind, we’ve gone back to basics to help you set up your mountain bike suspension, with the first step being, setting your sag.

11 steps to setting up your mountain bike suspension sag

1. Wear full riding kit, including fully-packed backpack plus water
2. Rest bike against suitable structure or get someone to help
3. Step on pedals / clip in
4. Set o-rings to base position
5. Assume the attack position
6. Don’t bounce, allow suspension to settle
7. Reset o-rings to base position whilst still standing on bike
8. Step off bike, ensuring not to compress the suspenion further
9. Measure position of o-rings from top of seal
10. Calculate SAG measurement against full stroke length
11. Approx settings: 20% firm, 25% neutral, 30% soft setup

Tick, tick, tick, tick…

What can you learn in a minute? Well, quite a lot as it turns out…

From changing a gear cable to mastering the attack position, in the #MTBminute we take on some of the most pressing questions around your mountain bike life and attempt to show you the key stages in just 60 seconds!

Using decades of collective guiding, riding and mechanical experience we’ve carefully created each minute-long video to give easy-to-follow, practical tips that will instantly demystify skills and techniques. They might still take a lifetime to master but with the #MTBminute at least you’ll be off to a solid start.