Question on Rear Shock PSI…

Body weight at shock pressure aren’t really related. Well, they are, but not in the same way on every frame. In my old Anthem I ran about 80% of my body weight.

You need to adjust the air pressure to get the recommended sag. Sag is how much the suspension moves with just your body weight on it. Sag is measured in % of total available travel. Every frame is designed to be used with a certain amount of sag. Some (like some of Pivot’s bikes) recommend as much as 30%, on my old Anthem I ran it really stiff and only had about 10%. Ask your local bike shop how much sag you should have, or better yet, call Santa Cruz directly and ask. You may find you don’t like it at the recommended sag, but it will provide you with a good starting point.

Here’s the easiest way to set it up IMO.
-Figure out the total stroke (or travel) of your rear shock. For this example, we’ll say it’s 100mm to make the numbers easy.
-Pump the shock up so it barely moves when you get on the bike
-Place a zip tie (or the o-ring if there’s already one on there) on the shock shaft at the recommended sag. So if you are supposed to have 25%, that’s 25mm in our example. So the edge of the ziptie/o-ring would be 25mm from the body of the shock.
-Get on the bike with a shock pump connected to the shock
-Slowly release air from the shock until it compresses enough to hit the zip tie. Now, you’re at the recommended sag. Write this number down for future use.

Like I said, you may want to play around with it, but that’s a good starting point. It may be too soft or too firm, but you can adjust from there.

Rear shock pressure is specific to frame design, so check out the Santa Cruz website for recommendations.

For example, for my Trance, Giant recommends startin with psi equaling body weight, and then adjust from there. I weigh about 200, and I run it at 185.

Don’t forget, it’s your fully loaded weight, camelbak and all, not your ‘just got out of the shower’ weight