Bomber Z1 coil upgrade thoughts

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
@mas2 - Buy one, buy one now!

Initial impressions. First couple of runs felt really weird as I was coming off an 140mm travel air-sprung Z1 stuffed with 4 volume reducers. Travel is obviously more linear - but it actually felt better supported. I've typically always had to run about 1/6th of a turn on the compression adjuster to get the support in corners and rollers I wanted, but with the coil's extra mid-travel support that much damping felt a bit too chattery with the same settings, so I eased it off over the next couple of runs, ending up with it fully open and it was mint. With the rebound I started in the middle of the recommended range for the spring weight, but ended up with it at the slowest end of the range for that spring weight. Overall impression is good support without the occasional spikiness/harshness further into the travel with air, better grip both from the compression damping being more open through chatter, and just the "floaty" wheel-on-the-ground coil feel through flatter/looser corners. Only negative I found was it made the bike feel a bit doughy on climbs because the fork is so active, but luckily with the Z1 a 2-second twist of the compression adjuster round to full compression locks it out for smoother/fireroad climbs. I thought the coil "traction" would be nice, but the overall feel is just sweet and really encourages confidence. The only other minor change I noted from air is it sits probably 5mm-ish deeper at sag, so the coil 150mm didn't really feel much higher than the 140mm air at sag. Unless you're trying to run it at max travel, it shouldn't be an issue as you can always play with the travel spacers.
 
Last edited:

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
@mas2 - Buy one, buy one now!

Initial impressions. First couple of runs felt really weird as I was coming off an 140mm travel air-sprung Z1 stuffed with 4 volume reducers. Travel is obviously more linear - but it actually felt better supported. I've typically always had to run about 1/6th of a turn on the compression adjuster to get the support in corners and rollers I wanted, but with the coil's extra mid-travel support that much damping felt a bit too chattery with the same settings, so I eased it off over the next couple of runs, ending up with it fully open and it was mint. With the rebound I started in the middle of the recommended range for the spring weight, but ended up with it at the slowest end of the range for that spring weight. Overall impression is good support without the occasional spikiness/harshness further into the travel with air, better grip both from the compression damping being more open through chatter, and just the "floaty" wheel-on-the-ground coil feel through flatter/looser corners. Only negative I found was it made the bike feel a bit doughy on climbs because the fork is so active, but luckily with the Z1 a 2-second twist of the compression adjuster round to full compression locks it out for smoother/fireroad climbs. I thought the coil "traction" would be nice, but the overall feel is just sweet and really encourages confidence. The only other minor change I noted from air is it sits probably 5mm-ish deeper at sag, so the coil 150mm didn't really feel much higher than the 140mm air at sag. Unless you're trying to run it at max travel, it shouldn't be an issue as you can always play with the travel spacers.
Now that’s more like it.
Just ordered.
 
Top