Just curious with what others have done.
5ā8ā on a Medium EE7 with a 28ā saddle height (center bb to top center of seat).
Add a spacer and increase your sag.
I donāt know what sag youāre running and Iām confident in saying itās too low.
Isnāt the more accurate measurement from saddle to pedal spindle? 175mm vs 160mm cranks is an .6" difference which is fairly significant.
Edit: fixed the math.
I need less progression which is the opposite. Iām running a 30% sag which is pretty crazy on a fork I can only get maybe 70% of travel out of
Have you serviced the fork recently?
Something soundsā¦really off. If itās a new fork they absolutely glob the hell out of the internals with grease which can cause issues out of the box as well.
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Sent it in for a damper service yesterday
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First local XC race was this past weekend. Felt like 1/3rd of the bikes there were Epic 8ās with more than a handful of the Team colorway. This was not a course that required 120/120 either.
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Iām just giving a point of reference.
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Last year at leadville (~ 6 months after E8 was released), I was amazed at the number of new Epics. I expect it will be like an Epic 8 bike parade this year. Again, on a very non-tech course that doesnāt demand much suspension travel.
Bottom line, the bike pedals so well that you lose nothing with the extra travel unless you just prefer the feel of a short travel bike. I had no plans to upgrade my 100/100 Spark RC, but specialized ticked every box for me on this bike. Itās not even about being faster, itās just makes racing more fun.
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1"=25.4mm
Woofā¦yeah, too early to be posting about conversions. Thanks for correcting.
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Adding my comment here as I finally had time to really quantify this on my bike.
Put my Flight Attendant Oiz on the trainer, locked it out and did a ride. Rear shock was compressing to 25% sag, and maybe two fingers worth of travel on the fork.
Has me wondering if I should be in contact with Rockshox or looking at a re-bleed.
I was thinking how long till we see the standard in XC be 130/130mm bikes. Brand are doing a great job at making bigger bike pedal really well so you donāt lose anything with more travel.
My understanding based on a couple discussions with Rockshox support -
Both fork and shock dampers should allow the bike to sit/settle at the sag point when you are riding, but should be so heavily dampened to the point that they donāt move significantly unless they see a big hit. Should not actively bob when riding locked. The only time I see any bob is in the fork when climbing out of the saddle. Itās not terrible, but my manual lockout didnāt do it.
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That helps (and makes sense). Iāll see if I can do a little more testing and mark the sag point, then get after it out of the saddle while locked and see if/how much it moves on mine.
Subjectively, Iām becoming more and more of a fan every time I ride it. While I like it for training with the road and gravel training rides I do, even wondering if I remove the manual override for Leadville as Iām not using their dropper.
Agreed. Even with the damper questions/challenges, there is no looking back for me. So much better than constantly manipulating manual lockouts.
On the remote/manual override issue - Iāve got mine configured to disable the fork lockout when in auto mode, so the only way to lock the fork is with remote override. My logic is that I donāt want the fork locked out when I might be going from smooth surface (locked) to something like a rock garden and take those first initial hits before it adjusts (quick, but not instant). Probably a rare situation and wouldnāt matter that much, but thatās the logic. I figure I never want the fork locked unless Iām climbing/sprinting out of the saddle or riding on the road, so those are the situations where I use the manual override. Donāt use it that much on most courses, but I like it when itās there. Iāve done a couple gravel races on my Epic and itās pretty nice to lock into a fully rigid bike in places.
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Hearing everyoneās experiences with the Flight Attendant upgrade really has me wanting it, especially on a bike that doesnāt have remote manual lockouts. Itās finally available for the Spur, which Iām absolutely stoked about, so itās definitely on my upgrade radar for this spring.
Unless you are on the World Cup circuit I just donāt see a need for a 130 āXCā bike. Iāve never bottomed out my 120 in a XC race but Iām not taking unnecessary big jumps or risks either. 130 would also add more weight and xc bikes are already getting porky.
That said, I have a Tallboy (130 travel). Great bike but as is it currently weighs in at 30+ pounds. It descends really well and climbs good enough for a 30 pound trail bike. But if you could combine XC climbing, with the descending of a trail bike youāll have a really fun every day bike (Epic Evo. 8?). But getting that to 23 pounds and under to race is going to be tough with how heavy components to are getting these days. If they canā¦ Iām all for it!
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I have it on my blur. Itās great for racing.
Every day riding though I take my āacoustic bikeā every time. The FA locks out a lot and makes for a really stiff ride. Practically riding a rigid bike a lot of the time and the little micro bumps can start to take the fun out having a full squish.
I guess my point isā¦ have two bikes. 
Isnāt this where adjusting the bias setting comes into play?