With mountain bike suspension technology becoming more advanced year by year, we find it necessary to make sure that we have the right settings configured for our suspension to get the most out of it. Modern forks and shocks will have multiple settings for things such as compression and rebound which need to be dialed in to get the best performance out of your suspension. Sometimes it seems as if you need a PhD in suspension setup to get things right! |
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One of the more important settings that you need to do when setting up your suspension is make sure that you have the correct air pressure, otherwise you will find that you are either bouncing around like a pogo stick or not getting the proper response from you suspension due to lack of air pressure.
You have quite a few choices when it comes to shock pumps and many people like to use the Fox or RockShox brands but that doesn't mean you have to. Syncros makes a variety of bike parts and they also make a few shock pumps as well. They have a standard analog version and a couple of digital versions.
Their top of the line model is called the SP1.0 and offers a lot of features for the price even though the price is on the higher side. The best feature of this pump is their Zero-leak 2-Step Schrader valve which lets you remove the pump without loosing air pressure. Usually when you are adding air to your shock or fork, you need to add maybe 10 psi extra to account for air leaking out when you unscrew the pump from the valve. Its hard to say if the SP1.0 completely solves this problem, but it does appear to work very well.
The amount of effort needed to add air to your shock is about the same as other pumps and you will get about 11cc of air volume per stroke with a maximum pressure of 300 PSI. As you get to higher air pressures it will get harder to pump but that goes the same for any pump. The pump is pretty easy to hold on to when using though thanks to its larger gauge housing. They claim it will also accurately measure to 0.1 PSI increments.
The amount of effort needed to add air to your shock is about the same as other pumps and you will get about 11cc of air volume per stroke with a maximum pressure of 300 PSI. As you get to higher air pressures it will get harder to pump but that goes the same for any pump. The pump is pretty easy to hold on to when using though thanks to its larger gauge housing. They claim it will also accurately measure to 0.1 PSI increments.
The pump also has a release button to let out small amounts of air if you fill your suspension too high making it easy to get just the right amount of air in your shock or fork. You can also set the pump to display in PSI or bar depending on what measurement type you need. The gauge housing also rotates so you will be able to see your measurement while you are pumping up those hard to reach shock valves. The hose rotates 360 degrees as well.
The Syncros SP1.0 is not a small pump and is not really made to take on the trail with you unless you have the room in your pack or don't mind taking on the weight. If you have an e-bike then it probably won't, make a difference though! The pump weighs in at 275 grams and 240 mm long and a little on the bulky side thanks to its larger gauge housing.
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