Quick Tips for When Your Forks Fell ‘Stiff’

When your forks feel too stiff, or harsh, it can be a frustrating experience. You lose trust in the front end. Your riding style may shift slightly to compensate, which can cause premature fatigue, and/or the dreaded arm pump. What was supposed to be a fun day on the bike can quickly turn into a rough outing. Fortunately, there are a few things you can try while you’re at the track or on the trail to try to help the symptoms. 

First, you need to confirm if the forks are indeed too stiff. Sometimes, that harsh (also called stiff) feeling when you’re hitting bumps—especially when you’re entering a corner or under braking—can be a sign of the forks being too soft. They may feel stiff because they’re actually too low in the stroke and have to firm up quicker so as not to bottom. We call this a ‘step’ in the valving, where the fork loses progressive movement, and goes from a softer- to a firmer-feel too quickly. To rule this out, try going in (stiffer, clockwise) on the compression clicker between one-to-three clicks. Then, feel if there was improvement when you go back out and ride. If the forks smoothed out some, meaning they actually got a little plusher or more comfortable, then chances are your forks are too soft, or there’s a step in the internal valving that needs to be addressed (we can help with that!).

Another way to try firming up the forks that usually keeps the action smoother, especially if your compression clicker is already on the tighter side (meaning six-clicks-out from full-stiff, or less) is to add oil to the forks. This is more labor intensive while out riding, as you’d need fork oil and a special syringe to add the oil through the air bleed screw, but it’s an option we’ve used many times on a race weekend when riders need a little more hold-up in the front end to get off of a harsh step in the valving. Adding 5-to-10cc’s at a time is a good rule of thumb.

Now, if firming up the forks didn’t help, then of course you can go the other way, softening (going out, counter-clockwise) one-to-three clicks on the compression clickers. If that helps the forks feel smoother or plusher, then it would seem they were genuinely on the stiff side and needed to move into the stroke easier.

Yet another way to attack a harsh/stiff-feeling fork is to go out (softer/counter-clockwise) on the rebound adjusters. Doing this helps the forks recover faster after hitting a bump. In cases where the forks are recovering too slowly, staying too low in the stroke over successive bumps, this can present with symptoms of harshness, and even head-shake. So, try going a couple clicks softer and see if that helps smooth out the fork action. 

These are just a few quicks tips to address forks that are feeling too harsh or stiff. As always, try to only adjust one thing at a time (meaning try to avoid adjusting the compression clicker and the rebound at the same time, as you won’t know which adjustment made what difference). And to the best of your ability, keep a log or memory of what adjustments you’ve made and how they improved, or worsened, anything you felt while riding. Having this feedback helps us at Precision Concepts tremendously in narrowing down how to fine-tune the internal valving when you bring your suspension in to be revalved or updated.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your next outing on the bike!

P.S.: If you need to have your suspension updated or serviced, call us today to get on the schedule!
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