S22 tips, mods, suspension settings, tire pressure, etc. Share your experiences!

[Rawnei]

33 minutes ago, Weatherman159 said:

So, having gotten over the honeymoon period with my S22, I am noticing the ride isn't as comfortable as I hoped when I bought it. Apart from getting a different wheel (which I might do if I manage to sell both the old 18XL and the S22), what changes can I make to make the S22 more comfortable for riding streets/bike paths?

• change the suspension geometry? I think I have it at the highest right now...
• suspension settings? I have fiddled with it, but don't really know what to do...
• different spring? I weigh about 85kg/187lbs geared up, stock spring at the moment
• change the tire? I don't mind the behavior of the default one and I've gotten used to it, but willing to re-learn on a different one
• anything else? (it is a Pro, so roller sliders are already in)

The most I jump off of is the occasional curb, no trails/bmx parks etc.

Thanks

What are you not comfortable with? Start with that.

[techyiam]

48 minutes ago, Weatherman159 said:

suspension settings? I have fiddled with it, but don't really know what to do...

Before you consider the other options, you need to figure this out first.

[jrhz06]

Do you have the rollers instead of the blocks in the suspension?

[mrelwood]

49 minutes ago, jrhz06 said:

Do you have the rollers instead of the blocks in the suspension?

 

4 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

(it is a Pro, so roller sliders are already in)

 

[level9]

7 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

• change the suspension geometry? I think I have it at the highest right now...
• suspension settings? I have fiddled with it, but don't really know what to do...

The highest setting is unnecessary for street/bike path riding and is going to make the wheel pretty awkward to handle with the center of gravity so high. Change back to the stock setting. The stock setting handles street potholes and such just fine even at 50+km/h. Even at the stock setting, it's difficult to pedal scrape.

Change the suspension linkage bolts to the proper size (search the forums). I assume KS didn't fix this issue on the PRO.

7 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

• different spring? I weigh about 85kg/187lbs geared up, stock spring at the moment

That should be fine, again, for mainly street/bike path riding. I'm heavier and it works just fine and I do curbs and stairs.

7 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

• change the tire? I don't mind the behavior of the default one and I've gotten used to it, but willing to re-learn on a different one

I personally hated the stock tire for street riding. I immediately changed to a Michelin City Grip 2 90/90-14. Night and day difference in handling.

[Tawpie]

13 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

the ride isn't as comfortable as I hoped when I bought it

When the roller suspension is working, I'm not certain it could be much 'better' from a comfort standpoint. What's not comfortable about your ride? It might be a matter of adjusting the shock. But in their infinite wisdom, KS again managed to bork a good suspension design by using those black wheels with the absolute wrong profile in the stock Pro. Those things tend to break/flatspot and once that happens you lose a lot of the plush. Sadly, the best option is to replace the sliders with ningning's setup—at least for me my ride quality (plushness) hasn't changed in the 1000+ miles since I installed the OG version. Ningning is up to (I think) version 3 now, and I haven't heard any complaints at all.

[fbhb]

2 hours ago, Tawpie said:

Those things tend to break/flatspot and once that happens you lose a lot of the plush. Sadly, the best option is to replace the sliders with ningning's setup—at least for me my ride quality (plushness) hasn't changed in the 1000+ miles since I installed the OG version. Ningning is up to (I think) version 3 now, and I haven't heard any complaints at all.

This 100% ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

[EUCzero]

If it is comfortable ride you want....

• Do not have any pre tension on the coil expect for the amount you need to keep it tensioned and not move around.
• Inspect the rollers for damage
• rebound at just a few clicks. So not to dampened.
• compression damper adjustment at minimum. No dampening.

This will make it more plush. Not for jumping, but more plush/smooth. Check for stickiness but pressing the wheel down to the ground and up to see if it moves smoothly or jerky.

[Rawnei]

A lot of tips and tricks and personal subjective preference being suggested, nothing wrong with that but first I think it's important that @Weatherman159 defines more precise what exactly doesn't feel comfortable, lots of things was mentioned and it's not clear at all what is being meant.

Suggesting to change tire or other major changes doesn't help if we can't identify what the problem is first.

[Weatherman159]

Wow, lots of helpful suggestions, thanks everyone.

To define my "issue" - I guess my main problem is with small bumps and uneven road surfaces. I feel a lot more of them than I would ideally like. I tried messing with the compression setting today, riding at full "hard" part way and full "soft" afterwards. The full "soft" is better, but not by all that much. Rebound is set about in the middle.

I'm going to try and get rid of preload on the spring. I'd also like to try adjusting the geometry, but related to that I have a question - can it be done without taking the whole wheel apart, just by removing the six screws (three on each side) on the very bottom bracket? Or will the whole suspension fly in my face and require me to dissasemble everything?

[Levitate]

3 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

I'd also like to try adjusting the geometry, but related to that I have a question - can it be done without taking the whole wheel apart, just by removing the six screws (three on each side) on the very bottom bracket? Or will the whole suspension fly in my face and require me to dissasemble everything?

Just back off the preload nut completely, then remove the 6 bolts on the brackets. Moving the bracket up will soften the suspension at the top of the travel as it increase the angle between the linkage arms and the force is applied more tangentially to the upper pivot joint. It of course increases the ride height also. I haven’t found that makes much difference to stability and has the advantage of reducing pedal scrape on the tight low speed turns, which is a problem with the OEM tire that really needs to be lent over.

[Levitate]

3 hours ago, Levitate said:

Moving the bracket up will soften the suspension at the top of the travel as it increase the angle between the linkage arms and the force is applied more tangentially to the upper pivot joint.

Actually, I’m not so sure about this statement. Looking at the suspension again, the distance between upper pivot and lower bracket only changes as the sliders slide up and down in the battery case. For the angle between the suspension arms to change the distance between the upper pivot joint and the bracket needs to change. When the bracket is moved up the whole assembly moves up relative to the wheel, but doesn’t appear to change the geometry. I think a may have been misled about the geometry changing with the height of the bracket.

Like to hear from others if they have any comments on this.

[okvp]

5 hours ago, Levitate said:

Actually, I’m not so sure about this statement. Looking at the suspension again, the distance between upper pivot and lower bracket only changes as the sliders slide up and down in the battery case. For the angle between the suspension arms to change the distance between the upper pivot joint and the bracket needs to change. When the bracket is moved up the whole assembly moves up relative to the wheel, but doesn’t appear to change the geometry. I think a may have been misled about the geometry changing with the height of the bracket.

Like to hear from others if they have any comments on this.

The pivot points coordinates and arm lenghts stays the same, only the wheel moves up and down on sliders when the bracket is moved, so the geometry of the suspension will not change. It will however bottom more easily if wheel ride height is lowered.

[Rawnei]

13 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

Wow, lots of helpful suggestions, thanks everyone.

To define my "issue" - I guess my main problem is with small bumps and uneven road surfaces. I feel a lot more of them than I would ideally like. I tried messing with the compression setting today, riding at full "hard" part way and full "soft" afterwards. The full "soft" is better, but not by all that much. Rebound is set about in the middle.

I'm going to try and get rid of preload on the spring. I'd also like to try adjusting the geometry, but related to that I have a question - can it be done without taking the whole wheel apart, just by removing the six screws (three on each side) on the very bottom bracket? Or will the whole suspension fly in my face and require me to dissasemble everything?

If you want the ride to feel softer you need to change the spring, how much do you weigh? 550-650lb spring depending on your weight would make it feel a lot softer.

Optimally you don't want preload on a spring that make small bump compliance worse so that is a good place to start checking, might be part of your problem.

Yes you can just adjust the 6 small screws when wheel is on the side, just be aware of that sometimes those screws can be hard to get out from factory due to copious amounts of loctite (not always).

[okvp]

13 hours ago, Weatherman159 said:

Wow, lots of helpful suggestions, thanks everyone.

To define my "issue" - I guess my main problem is with small bumps and uneven road surfaces. I feel a lot more of them than I would ideally like. I tried messing with the compression setting today, riding at full "hard" part way and full "soft" afterwards. The full "soft" is better, but not by all that much. Rebound is set about in the middle.

I'm going to try and get rid of preload on the spring. I'd also like to try adjusting the geometry, but related to that I have a question - can it be done without taking the whole wheel apart, just by removing the six screws (three on each side) on the very bottom bracket? Or will the whole suspension fly in my face and require me to dissasemble everything?

If you want softer ride first thing is to turn compression damping softer and you can try to lower the tyre pressure also (danger of rim damage, if too low).

Next thing is to change suspension spring softer, which is easy task with s22, here is one tutorial video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3jR47riog  

Preload does not affect the stiffness of the suspension, it only affects the height and total unloaded travel of the suspension. 

The s22 pro has a very good suspension, with long travel, good geometry and little friction.
But black rollers may break quickly, especially when doing off-road and jumps, white ones last longer. Hou Ning's sliders with nylon rollers is the most durable solution, but they cost approx. 200€.

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by okvp

[Weatherman159]

On 6/3/2023 at 11:25 AM, Rawnei said:

If you want the ride to feel softer you need to change the spring, how much do you weigh? 550-650lb spring depending on your weight would make it feel a lot softer.

Optimally you don't want preload on a spring that make small bump compliance worse so that is a good place to start checking, might be part of your problem.

Yes you can just adjust the 6 small screws when wheel is on the side, just be aware of that sometimes those screws can be hard to get out from factory due to copious amounts of loctite (not always).

Just about 90kg with gear and backpack, which is how I normally ride. I found a Rock Shox 500lbs spring that I think should fit, not too expensive, I might just buy it and see...

I'm still in half a mind to sell the S22, take the financial hit and buy myself a Sherman S. @Rawnei since your profile thingy says you own both, how would you compare the ride/suspension feel of the two? I'm going to try and get someone from the local community to let me try the Sherm, but I'm taking all options.

[Rawnei]

1 hour ago, Weatherman159 said:

Just about 90kg with gear and backpack, which is how I normally ride. I found a Rock Shox 500lbs spring that I think should fit, not too expensive, I might just buy it and see...

I'm still in half a mind to sell the S22, take the financial hit and buy myself a Sherman S. @Rawnei since your profile thingy says you own both, how would you compare the ride/suspension feel of the two? I'm going to try and get someone from the local community to let me try the Sherm, but I'm taking all options.

I think 600-650lb would be good for your weight.

Make sure it's a coil for 75mm stroke.

I would say Sherman S has nicer small bump compliance, when tuned correctly it's very smooth on uneven terrain, the S22 with roller sliders is also very nice for small bump compliance but Sherman S is smoother, Sherman S can't complete when it comes to bigger things like jumps and drops where the long travel of the S22 is a big advantage (not to mention almost 10kg weight difference).

Edited June 4, 2023 by Rawnei

[MetricUSA]

Thanks to the first couple of posts I am definitely going to put a plate between the wheel and the sliders, when I reassemble the wheel after my accident... 

[BlackSheriff84]

On 6/2/2023 at 12:09 PM, Tawpie said:

Best option is to replace the sliders with ningning's setup—at least for me my ride quality (plushness) hasn't changed in the 1000+ miles since I installed the OG version. Ningning is up to (I think) version 3 now, and I haven't heard any complaints at all.

I have to agree with this ningning's sliders are top quality I originally got slider from someone else and the quality was not great unfortunately.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtGPWq-xxwO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[MrMonoWheel]

I recently picked up an S22 for the GF to ride since the V11 wasn't enough wheel for her after a month. Suspension didn't budge when I got it and ewheels sent me a free CNC roller set. Installed it today and I'm blown away by how good it feels. Only problem now is there's some clacking noise at full extension.

I also converted it over to tubeless and threw on a Michelin pilot street 2 in 80/90-14. Haven't gotten to ride it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I gotta say it's probably the nicest looking wheel I've had thusfar.

 

 

[Rawnei]

9 minutes ago, MrMonoWheel said:

I recently picked up an S22 for the GF to ride since the V11 wasn't enough wheel for her after a month. Suspension didn't budge when I got it and ewheels sent me a free CNC roller set. Installed it today and I'm blown away by how good it feels. Only problem now is there's some clacking noise at full extension.

I also converted it over to tubeless and threw on a Michelin pilot street 2 in 80/90-14. Haven't gotten to ride it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I gotta say it's probably the nicest looking wheel I've had thusfar.

Like I wrote on Telegram, if it happens when the suspension tops out that's normal, it's around the area where the lift handle is, when suspension fullt extends there is some slack there and makes a noise nothing to worry about

[MrMonoWheel]

1 minute ago, Rawnei said:

Like I wrote on Telegram, if it happens when the suspension tops out that's normal, it's around the area where the lift handle is, when suspension fullt extends there is some slack there and makes a noise nothing to worry about

😂 I had already started writing this before I saw that so I just left it in. It is strange that it makes this sound though. Can it not be fixed?

Edited June 9, 2023 by MrMonoWheel

[techyiam]

10 minutes ago, MrMonoWheel said:

threw on a Michelin pilot street 2 in 80/90-14.

What was the original tire size?

And, is the new tire wider or taller?

Thanks.

[MrMonoWheel]

Just now, techyiam said:

What was the original tire size?

And, is the new tire wider or taller?

Thanks.

Original tire was a 2.75-14 Chinese knobby, new tire is an 80/90-14. Since it doesn't have knobs it's not taller however it does have a nicer round profile, seems a little wider. I'm planning on throwing the same tire on my Sherman S (also converted to tubeless).

[Rawnei]

14 minutes ago, MrMonoWheel said:

😂 I had already started writing this before I saw that so I just left it in. It is strange that it makes this sound though. Can it not be fixed?

It doesn't happen when you ride normally just when there is no load on the wheel and you are bouncing it like you did in your clip.