^^^ How does it feel going back to a coil shock, so far?
In a word: Finally!
But I changed from DHX2 to Jade X, the latter having an air bladder PSI setting in exchange for the internal floating piston design (170-210 range), and a linear rate 600 in/lb coil to 500-670 progressive so there’s a lot going on here fairly specific to this bike (DH geo, trail bike rear linkage).
The setup is extremely supportive off the top with the Jade in open setting (3 settings for compression like a Fit 4 plus a single rebound dial). Pedaling is excellent and the coil gives all that rear traction as they do. Small bump compliance is coil smooth despite the firm support, and for big hits the back half of the travel is finally not just crashing through. It feels like 160mm.
The Valt coil progressive rate ramps up at 50% travel so it’s kicking in exactly where the Stumpjumper linkage is rotating towards vertical and offering little resistance itself to flex.
Outside of big hit resistance/performance, the bike is just glued in corners. I’m figuring out just how fast it is, but I dropped 4 seconds on a minute and a half downhill that is half slickrock tech and half flow with some hairpin turns at speed. I got all of the time on the lower “trail” portion in those corners.
Now this is only two rides, but it feels like enduro race ready on an efficient daily trail bike. Finally.
Always can tell the weight, but it’s minimal for the performance. The DHX2 is missing some light hardware here, these two setups and virtually weight identical and both 320g more than the DPX2. I’m keeping a DPX2 as a spare, but I’m not sure I’d use it even for big alpine rides because it’s hard to get the sag more supportive for long pedals. Probably the X2 is the right air shock for this bike on the Fox side.