City Rock

RockShoxWe typically think of suspension forks for bicycles as being something intended for off-road riding. However, this winter has left many urban roads in conditions that are worse than some mountain bike trails and fortunately RockShox has just the thing.

The company’s new Paragon fork is intended for urban and trekking cyclists. The 700c fork is designed to take the edge off vibrations from the road and trail. It features a lightweight tunable Solo Air spring paired with an in-ride adjustable lockout, with a PopLoc remote option. The fork legs feature fender mounts and are available in rim brake and disc brake options Without a fender, the Paragon provides room for tires up to 45c in width.

Since city riders might want to see where they are going the Paragon also comes with an integrated wiring management system for dynamo hub-powered lighting; while a headlight can be secured to an integrated mount on the fork brace.

RockShox Official Website

Trek Suspension Calculator for Trek 2011 and 2012 Mountain Bikes

Setting up the suspension on a mountain bike can be a little confusing. How much air pressure is required? How many turns are needed for compression and/or rebound knobs? What springs are used? Does a shock from Rock Shox require a different setup configuration than one from Fox? Where are the instruction manuals?!?! If you are the owner of a 2011 or 2012 full suspension Trek mountain bike, Trek has made this job a little easier for you.

Trek has recently created a calculator to assist these owners in setting up their bikes. Simply navigate over to the site, select your bike and enter your weight. The calculator returns all of the settings that you will need to adjust your shocks. Once you have your settings, you will need your shock pump, sag meter and preferably a friend to help make these adjustments. The sag meter is usually a simple plastic clip attached to the upper leg of a suspension fork to measure the distance the fork sinks when the rider sits on the bike. The friend helps in the process since, it’s sometimes difficult to visually see how much the bike sags under the weight of the rider, if you’re the rider.

The Trek suspension calculator provides the rider a good starting point for adjusting their shocks – certainly not the final settings. Usually the hardest part of adjusting all of the variables on a full suspension bike is knowing where to start. Once this starting point is determined, minor adjustments can then be made with regards to air pressure, compression and rebound to achieve a truly ‘custom’ ride. This calculator is an excellent tool to help Trek owners setup up there bikes to achieve its full potential.

Trek Suspension Calculator