Best Cushiony Rear Shock for Ebike

Grider

100 mW
Joined
Oct 30, 2017
Messages
36
On my bike, I have a 9C rear hub motor and the battery is on a rack over the rear tire, so all the weight is on the back of my bike. I mostly ride on the road but sometimes I have to ride on the sidewalk. Currently I have a 2 month old Rockshox Monarch RL on the bike with a RST Omega front fork. The front is fine, but on the rear, it's still a little bumpy and stiff, even with me adjusting the settings and running low air pressure in the shock. I am looking for something that has more cushion. Need recommendations.

The Monarch RL is a great shock, but I think it's better for mountain biking - trails and xc.
 
I have the following suggestions:

A coil shock will have better small bump sensitivity then an air shock.
A shock with more adjustments (high speed compression, low speed compression, high speed rebound and low speed rebound) will potentially be better, but reaching that potential will take more trials and errors than for a shock with less adjustments.

Hope this is helpful,

Avner.
 
What frame/suspension design are we talking here? Really, no matter what shock used, you're going to be out of its designed parameters.
A titanium-coiled Ohlins TTX or Cane Creek Double Barrel would be great for compression "cushyness". That would be an expensive option. You could even get a cheap used Fox DHX and have it rebuilt by PUSH or Avalanche. However, I'd imagine most of your harshness is coming on the rebound due to the mass of the hubmotor. Make sure you have your sag set up properly, so you'll have enough negative travel. What is your current shock stroke? It could even be worth going up in length (then increasing sag) just to assure enough negative travel and dampening.
 
Seatpost mounted rack? If so, not a good choice to carry the battery. Sooner or later, you'll break something. The way you put your question suggests you don't stand up when you roll over bumps.

If it's an Old Man Mountain rack or something comparable that mounts to the swingarm, your problem may be more related to unsprung weight than to shock absorber compliance.
 
Another option would be a ThudBuster LT seat post. I was amazed at how effective these are.
 
fechter said:
Another option would be a ThudBuster LT seat post. I was amazed at how effective these are.

This is very good advice, if you're trying to improve comfort rather than reduce shock and vibration of the battery and other components.
 
ferret said:
I have the following suggestions:

A coil shock will have better small bump sensitivity then an air shock.
A shock with more adjustments (high speed compression, low speed compression, high speed rebound and low speed rebound) will potentially be better, but reaching that potential will take more trials and errors than for a shock with less adjustments.

Hope this is helpful,

Avner.


I think you may be correct on this. I spent 200 bucks on that Monarch RL and expected more since I paid that amount of money on it. I dont plan to spend anymore if it won't yield the results I want....to have better small bump sensitivity. I may try a cheaply coil shock with a very low spring rate. The one that came with the bike is way too stiff at 850lbs.
A low end fix might work.
 
need more info on what you have. What kind of bike is this going on? How do you have the rack attached? How much sag are you running in your suspension? What size and how much pressure are you running in your tires?

Short arm, single pivot, linear motion suspensions are very good at soaking up very small bumps, but very bad at bigger bumps. those can make a black top toad feel smooth as glass but hammer your spine if you hit a rock the size of a wad of chewing gum.

Long travel, long arm multi link suspensions are great at soaking up huge hits, but are very sensitive to small bumps, meaning you may feel every pebble in the road, but not that Honda you just road over.

large volume tires really do great soaking up hits, but they can slow down the impact of a large bump enough so that the shock's valves don't cycle correctly and you feel larger impacts more.
 
And of course that heavy motor on the rear will upset just about any shock/spring combo. Their parameters are set for a bike wheel with maybe 1 kilo of hub weight or less. Put a 7 kilo hub on the wheel and jounce and rebound are not happy campers. Perhaps you can adjust the better shocks and use a more accurate spring for the weight, but extra unsprung weight always makes problems for ride and handling.
Just sayin'
otherDoc
 
UPDATE:

So I bought a cheap $20.00 coil shock off of ebay with the lowest spring rate I could find, which was 350lbs/in.

Anybody want to guess how it performed/compared to the Monarch RL?
 
Grider said:
UPDATE:

So I bought a cheap $20.00 coil shock off of ebay with the lowest spring rate I could find, which was 350lbs/in.

Anybody want to guess how it performed/compared to the Monarch RL?

Superbly!

(Over road ripples; less well over big bumps.)
 
What he said.
otherDoc
 
YES!!! It's just overall better!!! Now I am going to try to "dial" it in!! The 20 dollar part did the job. But the $200 modern high tech shock just didn't work out! On little and small bumps like the sidewalk it's not as harsh or sensitive. And on bigger bumps, its fun because it's springy!!

The winner!!!:
s-l1600.jpg


The loser!!!:
s-l1600.jpg
 
Yeah a coil will always win. Especially on a frame that isn't designed for an air shock, leverage ratio/curve, etc.
At least get one with dampening though That one pictured is like Walmart quality. I'd imagine it won't be great at high frequency impacts and the lack of rebound dampening could potentially send you over the bars in the right conditions.
 
Epyon said:
I'd imagine it won't be great at high frequency impacts and the lack of rebound dampening could potentially send you over the bars in the right conditions.

Works great all around for me. Cheap shock suprisingly got the job done over the brand name.
 
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