Guys with icons ?

[RoushRaptor661]

The spring rate doesn't help, but it's not the entire issue.
Certainly changing it to a softer one would help, but I suspect the heavier spring rate is there for a reason.
I'm sure the icon guys have arrived at this as the best compromise between ride and performance.
The heavier compression settings I'm not sure about, from a practical standpoint they're virtually useless. You want softer daily driver settings, not stiffer.

I personally do not think you are going to get what you want out of one set of shocks. You want soft a low speed and the needed stiffer shock at high speeds. I read this whole thread and I think you understand it but dont get it. I'm not trying to bash you at all. Maybe helping you see something you don't. I run the 3.0's. S on the front. 4 clicks to the right on the top knob on the rear. I have a sway bar because I'm pushing 590hp. IMO I see nothing wrong with them at all. I think they are perfect. JMO. I hope you find what your looking for.

Ryan

 

[justvettn]

I think he gets it, its just a personal preference. Can you have it both ways maybe maybe not? Thats what he's trying to figure out.

 

[RPG]

I personally do not think you are going to get what you want out of one set of shocks. You want soft a low speed and the needed stiffer shock at high speeds. I read this whole thread and I think you understand it but dont get it. I'm not trying to bash you at all. Maybe helping you see something you don't. I run the 3.0's. S on the front. 4 clicks to the right on the top knob on the rear. I have a sway bar because I'm pushing 590hp. IMO I see nothing wrong with them at all. I think they are perfect. JMO. I hope you find what your looking for.

Ryan

I've had the opportunity to speak with the op and he has one of the better understanding of shocks and how they are behaving when I compare his statements to most people I speak with.

Your statement about not having one shock do it all is true to some degree. The majority of shocks available don't allow the the shock to be tuned in different ride zones because they are basically the same throughout the entire stroke of travel. This is where bypass technology comes in. Through the use of bypass ports you can tune a shock to ride smooth and compliant in the effective ride zone, yet also have the ability to ramp up compression when needed in the bump zone. As the piston passes the the compression ports, the high pressure zone is engaged and offers over 1000 pounds of force to control extreme bottoming regardless of spring. All of this can be had without having to choke off fluid flow to the reservoir via compression adjuster which generates extreme high pressures and increases heat, which is a shocks worst enemy.

At this time the shock is also capable of slowly releasing the piston into droop travel and back into the ride zone where typical forces are only around 250 pounds resulting in a soft and spongy ride. When you take the soft ride zone, and couple it with a soft spring, you have great low speed control of stutter bumps and pot holes type hits. When the shock droops back out and cycles through again, it will have the forces needed to control the energy because of the high pressure zone created on full extension

As I said earlier, with bypass technology you don't just have compression port control, but rebound as well which is equally important. You can tune the shock to hold up and softly release the energy from the spring. You can tune it to control the force at full extension so it reduces how harsh the piston wants to pull out of the shock body. By understanding how the bypass ports are used, placed and shimmed, you can create a shock that is capable of handling all the different terrain that is offered. This is why this discussion about high speed and low speed control rarely gets brought up when the topic is rear shocks. The reason, all three of the big companies run bypass technology in the rear.

Another thing that barely gets mentioned is piston flow characteristics and how this effects overall ride. Fox for example has both a low flow or high flow piston that allows the shock tuner to further hone in on the ideal setup.

Jarrett

 

[Huck]

Well said jarrett

 

[RPG]

No smarty pants! But when Fox is building the shock would it not make more sense to have them (FOX) valve them a specific way? Instead of purchasing them valved and taking them apart to revalve.
Just like you can special order a set from Icon valved differently.


To answer your question we have to open and revalve the fronts, not the rears. Our rears come from Fox with the tune we requested. If we want to have Fox do the fronts, then we need to have them ordered and commit ourselves to certain amounts each month. For forecasting and and cash flow reasons it's easier for us to just open them up. it takes 20min

 

[ntm]

I personally do not think you are going to get what you want out of one set of shocks. You want soft a low speed and the needed stiffer shock at high speeds. I read this whole thread and I think you understand it but dont get it. I'm not trying to bash you at all. Maybe helping you see something you don't. I run the 3.0's. S on the front. 4 clicks to the right on the top knob on the rear. I have a sway bar because I'm pushing 590hp. IMO I see nothing wrong with them at all. I think they are perfect. JMO. I hope you find what your looking for.

Ryan

We will see, I can only try all the 3.0 offerings and see if anything works for me.
It's all about the kind of terrain you spend the most time on.
The icons are great on pavement, I'm running no sway bar and seeing less body roll than the stock setup with the sway bar on. But that does not translate well offroading in certain types of terrain, like square edged chop. And we've got a lot of that here, usually mixed with big g-outs with kickers (frame benders !).
I'm sure the rpg fox's are going to have a lot more body roll and not as tight of handling on road, but I'm guessing they are going to be more compliant offroad.
Whether or not they can soak up the big hits as well as the icons is the only question.
I'm really not tied to anything at the moment, whatever works best for me is what I'll run. If that ends up being a dual setup with a 3" external bypass, then so be it.
If its the rpg fox 3.0's, great.
If it's revalved icon 3.0, also great.

I just hope that along the way we can get some information about the different setups out there, both their strengths and weaknesses, rather than the usual "I think these are the best, because they're the ones I have" baloney.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Hockster]

I'm running no sway bar and seeing less body roll than the stock setup with the sway bar on.

Regards,
Nathan

??? How can you get less body roll with this device off??? Please explain to a nobbie.. thansk

 

[bstoner59]

??? How can you get less body roll with this device off??? Please explain to a nobbie.. thansk

What i hear him saying is that the Icon shock with its spring rate helps to limit body roll, even without the sway bar, more than the stock shocks with a sway bar.

 

[justvettn]

I wonder if the King shocks would be in between?

 

[ntm]

I wonder if the King shocks would be in between?

Nah, they'd be further out for me yet. Not position sensitive at all, kind of a one trick pony so to speak.
The icons have the benefit of the bottoming piston and cup.
If the kings were used with a bit longer travel and auxiliary bump stops, they'd be alright. With their linear damping, they're more of a component in a damping setup as opposed to the whole system.