I did the setup on mine on my own too. What I did was compress the suspension (with just little pressure in the shock) and wrapped a tie-down strap around it the frame and chain stays. Then slowly l released the tie-down until it extended to the correct amount of sag.
It makes a big difference where the suspension is when you set the gap. Just for yucks I set it when the bike was fully unloaded then when I set it for real under sag I was amazed how far off it was from the fully extended setting.
Completely agree. It is REALLY sensitive to correct sag. I went through multiple attempts to set the B-screw. I finally set my O-ring when sitting on bike with full riding kit and then released the air on the rear shock to that position and then set the B-screw with the white SRAM plastic device.
Exactly what I do - I even have a really small / ultralight pulley system that makes it super easy. I’ll usually sit on the bike and use the o-ring on my shock to see where sag is, hop off without bouncing, then bleed air out of the shock, put it up on my bike stand, and then use the pulley to slowly compress the shock to where I need it and tie off.
Am waiting for a new plastic tool, but was able to check with the broken one. It looks like that had to be it, re-checked at sag and it was significantly off. I know I had it at sag the first time I did it, but what I think happened was I realized I had to shorten the chain, removed derailleur to re-check that, put it at full compression, and I must’ve left it there while setting the B-screw rushing.
Considering this one fixed and a simple brain fart messing up one step.
Glad things got sorted out for you. While I love mtn biking (as well as road biking) a FS MTB certainly is a lot more work to setup and keep in good running order as well as the cost and time in routine servicing of the fork + shock - pivots etc.
No kidding. No good deed goes unpunished, but at least now I have a drivetrain that’s been completely cleaned, serviced for the season.
Perfect reminder that even though you’ve done something multiple times, you’re not immune to messing it up. Should probably start taking notes on service processes for the next time I decide to mess it up
As I ride downhill and tend to smash my derailleur or hanger a lot, I got bored of used the tool. I just took a photo of the everything when set up correctly, and also drew an outline of the largest on the back of the cage when in second biggest cog.
This way I can pretty much eyeball it without any SRAM tool needed.
Unfortunately for me, the exact sag leaves the chain and top jockey wheel about 5mm from my frame due to the bike design. The B-screw has a habit of winding itself out, so be sure to use blue loctite on the little s**t.
That’s a good jury rig way to do it. I just use a 3mm alllen key to measure between the jockey wheel and the cog. Gets me pretty close without the gap tool.
