Bike advice Marin Wolf Ridge

[Diviy]

I have just bought a Marin wolf ridge 1999 it has a 450 2.30 spring I will not be doing any jumps as I am using the bike as part of a physio programme to sort my knee out.
The reason I went for a full suspension is I broke my back in 3 places so full of titanium and using my hard tail jars my back waiting on another operation to sort that .
I am 93 kilos 5ft11inches tall I need to do a minimum of 40 min of cycling a day to sort my knee out.
Would any one have a good guide on setting up the rear shock .
I only had the bike yesterday took it out for 20 min and found it was way easier on my back.
Also is it worth doing a service on the forks they are Manitou Xvert forks .
Or fit a set of modern forks I have spare
as its Its a 27 speed I am thinking to convert it to a 11 speed as I also have most of the bits there to do it and it is flatish 450 acre country park I use it on .
The decals are shot and really spoil the look of the bike as most of the paint is good any idea where I could get a set i can only find generL Marin decal's on ebay
Gerry

 

[ishaw]

I'd look at fitting modern forks, they are bound to be better than the older ones you have, and servicing old forks, while fun, can be challenging to find the parts needed to do it.

If there's nothing wrong with the gearing, save yourself the hassle and stick with it. You'll get more ratios with 3x than 1x, though there is simplicity in 1x, and if you have the parts and inclination, why not.

A dropper post might be a good addition for you as you can drop the saddle out of the way rather than contort yourself and save your back some pain.

I've had a number of knee ops, I think some damage to them was caused by SPD pedals so I use flats now. The constant twisting out of the pedals on my commute was not my knees friend.

 

[hawkhill97]

What do you want to achieve with the rear shock?

If there's currently too much bob / it feels inefficient and squishy, you could try putting a bit more pre-load on the spring by tightening the collar that holds it in place (this makes it a tiny bit less responsive, but will be fine if the rear suspension is mainly for your back rather than wanting to ride really technical trails).

If it feels like a pogo stick and kicks back hard after compressing, you could look to see if there is a dial to adjust the rebound damping. Turning it clockwise will slow down the return of the shock and calm things down a bit. Not all rear shocks have this feature though.

Finally if the bike sags loads (say more than 33% of the total travel) when you sit on it, and you can't fix this by tightening the pre-load collar, you may need a stronger spring. You'll need to match the length & diameter of the existing one and pick a higher weight (they're normally rated in lbs/ft), and you'll need to be confident removing and refitting the rear shock in order to swap the spring.

Hope this helps!

For the fork, something like a 2000s Rockshox Tora or Recon would be brilliant, or if you're not really riding technical trails with rooty staircase etc, a Suntour XCM/XCR will also be perfectly adequate.

They're nice bikes, good luck getting it set up how you want, and let's see some piccies!

 

[hawkhill97]

Oh yeah, and I'd second the advice above to stick with 3x9 - personally I prefer this to 1x11, and it's much cheaper!

 

[Diviy]

What do you want to achieve with the rear shock?

If there's currently too much bob / it feels inefficient and squishy, you could try putting a bit more pre-load on the spring by tightening the collar that holds it in place (this makes it a tiny bit less responsive, but will be fine if the rear suspension is mainly for your back rather than wanting to ride really technical trails).

If it feels like a pogo stick and kicks back hard after compressing, you could look to see if there is a dial to adjust the rebound damping. Turning it clockwise will slow down the return of the shock and calm things down a bit. Not all rear shocks have this feature though.

Finally if the bike sags loads (say more than 33% of the total travel) when you sit on it, and you can't fix this by tightening the pre-load collar, you may need a stronger spring. You'll need to match the length & diameter of the existing one and pick a higher weight (they're normally rated in lbs/ft), and you'll need to be confident removing and refitting the rear shock in order to swap the spring.

Hope this helps!

For the fork, something like a 2000s Rockshox Tora or Recon would be brilliant, or if you're not really riding technical trails with rooty staircase etc, a Suntour XCM/XCR will also be perfectly adequate.

They're nice bikes, good luck getting it set up how you want, and let's see some piccies!

 

[Diviy]

Many thanks the routes are nothing to hard at just following the instruction from my physio to build up my knee and the FS does not jar my back .

 

[hawkhill97]

Many thanks the routes are nothing to hard at just following the instruction from my physio to build up my knee and the FS does not jar my back .

Should be a great bike for that purpose! In that case all you really need to do is eliminate excessive pedal bob (as above) and you're good to go!