[batchman]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

the addition of the rear spare tire carrier calms down some of the rear end "bounciness".

Does a full tank of gas behave differently than near-empty?

Bounciness in my experience indicates a bit of a mismatch between spring and shock. The shock is not fully able to control the spring. This can be due to age (loss of gas pressure or an oil leak, internal or external) or a just a (somewhat common) original mismatch. This points to either rebuilding or re-valving the shocks, or reducing the spring rate.

The other thing that can feel like a bounciness is reaching the end of the shock's travel. If adding the spare, a full tank and maybe some heavy luggage or something improves things, that's where I'd look - if you can get a small zip-tie around the shock shaft that can tell you about the maximum compression you're seeing, and measuring tire-to-fender lip at rest vs when jacked up by the body can tell you about where you are with respect to droop travel. If it's a travel thing you may be able to improve it by changing your ride height.

I hope this helps some - but take my advice with a grain of salt. I'm sitting here with most of my front end apart for months, the rear not apart yet, and the season's first event looming large. At the moment I feel more like an internet race engineer than an amateur one .

Best,
- Jeff