Hi everyone, I just joined this forum, but I've owned my FM036 for two years now, and really enjoy riding it! There are however a few things that bother me about this frame:

• The rear linkage is not very stiff, I'm currently looking for new chainstays with 12x142 axle to replace my current QR chainstays
• The suspension curve is unusual, so the rear shock must be specially tuned to get the most out of the bike, see the data here

So I was wondering what kind of tuning all you FM036-owners have done to get the most out of your rear suspension.

I'm currently using a Rockshox Monarch RT3 from 2013. I like the 3-setting switch, even though I would probably survive just fine with setting it to "open" all the time. But the problem was with the rebound. When I use a pressure that allows me to ride with ~30% sag (while in attack position), I had to close the rebound completely, otherwise the rear end would produce a big kickback, but suppleness over small stuff would disappear.
The reason why the rebound must be completely closed is because the leverage ratio at the end of the travel is more than 3:1, which stores a lot of energy in the progressive air spring, and gets unleased in G-outs (such as riding through a ditch while seated), and the deepstroke rebound (handled by a shimstack) cannot dissipate this energy.

So I upgraded to a H/H tune by replacing the compressionpiston in the Monarch. This improved the ride enormously, allowing me to open the rebound knob a little for softness in the top-of-the-stroke. But still it is not enough.

My next experiment will be to further tune the rebound shimstack of the Monarch. I'm also considering a Debonair aircan upgrade.

I'm very curious about your experiences