How Recommendations Work

Last updated: August 3, 2026

Rebound MTB suggests a starting point for your fork, shock, and tyre setup based on your rider weight and the components on your bike. This page explains exactly where those numbers come from, how confident we are in each one, and where our judgement ends and yours begins.

The short version

• Every suggestion is a starting point, not a final tune. Suspension is personal, and your frame, riding style, and trails all matter.
• Always confirm your sag after setting pressure, then fine-tune by feel over a few rides.
• We show you where each number comes from — manufacturer, community, estimated, or our own generic starting point — so you can weigh it yourself.
• Click settings are counted out from fully closed, so more clicks is softer. See How to read a click number.

How the suspension engine works

We resolve each setting in two tiers, most trustworthy first:

• Manufacturer-first. For supported forks and shocks, we look up the manufacturer's published setup guidance for your rider weight — air pressure (or spring rate for coil), rebound and compression clicks — and use that as the baseline.
• Generic fallback. For anything without a published table, we fall back to a weight-based heuristic anchored to widely-used rules of thumb (roughly 1 psi of air-spring pressure per pound of rider weight, referenced at a 165 lb / 75 kg rider), adjusted for your chosen tuning style.
• Sag comes from each component's published recommended sag window, so it reflects how that specific fork or shock is meant to be set up.

Air-pressure figures assume a typical frame. Because we can't know your bike's exact leverage ratio, treat pressure as a starting point and always verify sag — see Limitations below.

How to read a click number

Every click figure we show is counted out from fully closed: wind the dial all the way in (clockwise) until it stops, then back it out by that many clicks. This is the convention every component we support uses, and it's the one thing worth getting right — counting from the wrong end turns the softest setting into the firmest.

It also means more clicks is softer, not firmer, because you're opening the damping circuit. That's why heavier riders get fewer clicks, not more: a stiffer spring stores more energy and needs more damping to control it. In the app, tap the ⓘ next to any click setting for that component's dial colours and direction.

Where the numbers come from

Every baseline setting carries a label so you know how much to trust it:

• Manufacturer — taken from the component maker's own owner's-manual or published setup guidance.
• Community — drawn from reputable published rider or tuner setups where the manufacturer doesn't provide a weight-based table.
• Estimated — interpolated from a manufacturer's stated rule (for example, "start at your body weight in psi") where no exact per-weight table exists.
• Generic starting point — no published figure exists for that setting on that component, so it comes from our own weight-based heuristic. These are the least specific numbers we show, and for click settings they aren't adjusted for your weight at all. Treat them as a place to begin bracketing from, not a target.

We only publish a per-weight table where the source actually gives one. Where a manufacturer documents a procedure instead — Manitou's Mezzer guide, for instance, says to start rebound fully open and close it a click at a time — we don't invent a table to fill the gap, and the setting falls through to the generic tier above.

Across the current catalogue, our baseline tables break down as: 53 manufacturer, 7 community, and 4 estimated.

Tuning styles: Plush, Balanced, Performance

You can bias every recommendation toward comfort or support with a single choice, applied consistently across fork, shock, and tyres:

• Plush — softer: a little less spring pressure, a touch more sag, softer low-speed compression, fewer volume spacers, and slightly lower tyre pressure. More grip and small-bump comfort.
• Balanced — the neutral baseline. This is exactly the middle of the recommended range, with no bias applied.
• Performance — firmer: a little more spring pressure, less sag, firmer compression, more volume spacers, and slightly higher tyre pressure. More support and pop.

Presets only ever move you within the manufacturer's published range — they never recommend a setting the maker doesn't sanction.

Note that a firmer preset makes compression click numbers go down, not up. That follows from counting out from closed: fewer clicks out is a more closed circuit and more damping. Pressure moves the way you'd expect — up for Performance, down for Plush.

Tyre pressure

Tyre pressure is calculated from your rider weight and tyre width, then adjusted for casing, inserts, terrain, and temperature. The curve is calibrated to published pressure calculators (ENVE, Schwalbe Pressure Prof, and SRAM/Zipp), which agree on a relatively flat weight-to-pressure slope — much flatter than a naive "pressure scales straight from weight" model, which over-inflates heavier riders.

The full method (rear tyre, tubeless, in psi), for those who want the details:

• Base (rear): rider weight (lb) ÷ 13 + 9.5, anchored to a 58 mm (~2.3") reference tyre. That's roughly 0.077 psi per pound, with a sensible floor.
• Width: −0.30 psi for every mm wider than the 58 mm reference.
• Front tyre: ~2 psi lower than the rear.
• Casing (vs a trail casing): XC +1.5, enduro −2, downhill −3.5. Heavier casings support the tyre, so they run lower.
• Insert (e.g. CushCore): −3.5 psi.
• Terrain: loose or muddy −1.5, rocky +1.
• Temperature: ±0.1 psi per °C away from a 20 °C reference.
• Results are clamped to a sensible 12–50 psi and rounded to the nearest 0.5 psi.

Worked examples — rear tyre at the 58 mm reference, no other modifiers:

• 130 lb → ~19.5 psi
• 150 lb → ~21 psi
• 170 lb → ~22.5 psi
• 190 lb → ~24 psi
• 210 lb → ~25.5 psi

Absolute pressures still vary a few psi rider-to-rider, so every suggestion comes with a ±2 psi range and a plain-English explanation of how it was derived. Start there and adjust to taste.

Supported components

Rebound MTB currently has published or curated setup data for the following forks and shocks. Any other component still gets a sensible weight-based starting point from the generic engine.

• Cane Creek
  Shocks: DB Air, DB Coil
• Fox
  Forks: 32 Factory, 32 Rhythm, 32 Step-Cast, 34 FLOAT, 34 Factory, 34 Rhythm, 34 Step-Cast, 36 Factory, 38 Factory, 40 Factory
  Shocks: DHX2, Float DPS, Float DPX2, Float X, Float X2
• Manitou
  Forks: Machete, Mezzer
• Öhlins
  Forks: RXF 38 m.2
  Shocks: TTX Air, TTX Coil
• RockShox
  Forks: BoXXer Ultimate, Lyrik Ultimate, Pike Ultimate, SID Ultimate, ZEB Ultimate
  Shocks: Deluxe Ultimate, Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate, Super Deluxe Select+, Super Deluxe Ultimate, Vivid Ultimate

5 manufacturers, 32 components.

Limitations & disclaimer

• Starting points, not a professional tune. Our suggestions are a baseline. They are not professional suspension-tuning advice, and results depend on your bike, riding, and conditions.
• Leverage ratio. Weight-based pressure and spring guidance can't account for your frame's specific leverage ratio, so always set and verify your sag rather than trusting a pressure number alone.
• Ride within your limits and re-check critical settings before riding. You use these suggestions at your own risk.

Fox, RockShox, Öhlins, Manitou, Cane Creek, ENVE, Schwalbe, SRAM, Zipp, CushCore, and all component and product names referenced here are trademarks of their respective owners. Rebound MTB is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these companies. Manufacturer names are used only to describe the components the app supports. Setup figures are our own interpretation of publicly available guidance, provided as a starting point.

Sources

• ENVE — Mountain Tire Pressure calculator (enve.com)
• Schwalbe — Pressure Prof calculator (schwalbe.com)
• SRAM / Zipp — tyre pressure guidance (sram.com)
• CushCore — insert pressure guidance (cushcore.com)
• Fox, RockShox, Öhlins, Manitou, Cane Creek — published owner's manuals and setup guides

Questions

Spotted something that looks off, or want a component added? Email support@rebound-mtb.com.