Are you tuning your shock yourself ?

The other thing most people don't know, is that if you turn that high speed compression knob you disable the low speed compression tune.  So you should be riding with your HSC wide open and set the shock for your normal trail.  Then if you happen to do something like extreme downhllls, that is where you use HSC for that specific section then open it back up.

A more general question on rear shock choice. In particular, choosing between 2pos and 3pos shock. What are your experiences with your setup, have you tried both options (not necessarily on the same bike) and what led to choosing one way or another (other than lighter 2pos weight).

Looking at most other models, NS synonym, orbea oiz, vitus rapide, bmc fourstroke, etc tend to use 2pos shock,  but scott spark is with 3.

In my case, primary riding conditions will be forrest, sometimes a bit hilly and rooty, but no mountains whatsoever, unless I would go stage racing abroad. Bike would be used for XC, havent decided on 120 or 100 front.

Thank you.

For the 936, 120 up front is very nice.  I may try 130, easy change for a pike.

As far as lockout, for modern shocks you don't need to really use it for most riding.  I think the exception is racing, where you have some gravel road climb that is long or something.  Otherwise a properly tuned modern shock should be ridden open.

I had a fuel 90 back in 2002.  The performance was so bad, that I ended up  riding it super high pressure most of the time because the pedal bob was terrible.  It was so bad that I sold it and started riding hard tails only.  A friend of mine convinced me a few years ago to give full sus another try and that they are so much better now.

I bought a cheap bxt type frame to test it out.  He was 100% right.   It is so much better. I have Fox shock on that and it is just smooth, I never lock it out.  I built up the 936 with a rock shox over xmas this year, just took it out.  Again, awesome, never need to use the lockout.

FYI, my friend is a road cat 1 racer and one of the top amateur mountain bikers in Washington.  He tells me he never uses the lockout, I think he said he used it maybe one race that had a super long gravel climb.

So my point in all this, I think the use of a lockout is not really necessary with modern shocks except for the most elite riders/racers and I think most people use it either for piece of mind or they have an improperly set up/bad shock.

Just my take.

Adam from Carbonda told me the paint flaking off is because of my installation, I haven't even installed anything yet.  He also said the misalignment was normal.  UGH. 

While Carbonda does seem deliver the most consistent quality, it's still a chinese frame. Most major bike brands have dedicated quality control person onsite to catch these things. We don't get that at this price point.

Several other reports are in this thread of linkage/shock issues, especially on the regular (non-SL) version. To be fair, these are some of the least visually inspectable defects.

You definitely got unlucky, they will make you saw the frame in half before sending you a new front traingle and it will probably take a long time.

As for the paint, Carbonda paint used to be better. Ask for a paint refund. My FM1002 had the same flakey issue.

Good advice, I read about some flaky paint and other paint issues and was hoping I would get a quality paint job.  In hindsight, I should have just went for a carbon finish.   Mine is the regular NON-SL version.

Bearings are pressed in tight.  The rocker linkage may be the issue also, it could be shifted to right by a few mm.  Should I disassemble the linkage and reassemble that?
 
Here are some pics where you can see when the shock is mounted to the rocker arm,  it is shifted to the right(sitting on the frame looking forward)

also, the shock was a super tight fit at the trunnion mount, is that normal.  I really had to push to get the shock between the trunnion bearings.

Never mind, found it

will the DVO TOPAZ gen 3 fit this frame?