Quarq Shockwiz Suspension Tuner: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

Mountain bike suspension has advanced so quickly in such a short time. With a seemingly endless amount of adjustments on some models, it can be hard to know if your suspension is fully dialed. Are you taking full advantage of every millimeter of travel? Should you run more compression or less rebound? The Shockwiz will tell you all of that and more! Check out the following rider review for more. 

Introduction

I bought the Quarq ShockWiz with the idea of getting the most out of my bikes and helping my riding crew do the same. I typically ride a couple of thousand miles a year, on trails in the southwest and northwest, and split those miles between a 27.5 and 29er all mountain bikes. On poppy, fast trails, The 29 bike felt like a log while the 27.5 bucked at any provocation.

Using the calibration wizard to measure stroke and pressure, I learned things I never knew. First I found that both forks and one shock ‘set in’ to the suspension stroke by well over 15%. When I learned to release the stiction and pull to full stroke, I found I was 15lbs off where I thought I was on the shock, and 7 or more pounds off on both forks. With all this corrected, and calibration complete, I set out to ride at the local bike park.

Data Gather

I learned quickly how much riding it took to generate enough data for a high confidence level result. I lapped a fast chunky downhill, a fast and flowy jump trail, and to finish I would ride some boulder field landscaping, filled with 6-8 inch smooth river rock. So with about 1000 feet of climb and a couple of quick laps, I could get over 90% result confidence. I have seen some suggestions on YouTube saying to get as much data as possible. I don’t think that is necessary if you can get a varied terrain with some high G corners, chunky features, and jumps that you would typically do. If your confidence after this is over 90% you are fine. I found nothing changed by leaving it on for multiple more rides.

The second thing I learned was that one fork had a leak, and pressure changed throughout a ride. If you think about it, I learned the simplest of things: do you really know your shock and fork pressure throughout a ride? So when you pull your suspension manually to full extension, what does it read?

After a riding session, each component wanted a different adjustment. Both forks, Pikes, wanted more progressive ramp rates and air adjustments. That meant more spacers. The rear shocks both wanted air adjustments and various compression and rebound changes. I chose to make all changes in one shot, then do a re-ride to fine-tune, which worked fine.

A note about how this product works: data memory is only held on the device, not in the app on your phone. When you recalibrate or do a new session, there is no old data. So, I learned to change the name for each device and run, and take screenshots of the 4 data output pages. That not only allowed me to save the suggestions but also to vary my riding style preference and document the result.

Results

My bikes both became similarly predictable, which was a first. Now all I can feel is the shorter wheelbase and different wheel size effects. I would imagine most people, when they compare a 27.5 to a 29, are really feeling suspension tune effects.

We then moved to the fork on my son’s 27.5 all mountain bike. His initial tune score was high at 88%, but the suggestion was a more progressive ramp rate. The data indicated he was bottoming out, and with this change, he found the bike to be much more stable on the landing of big hits.

I found the process to be a little complicated the first time but after that, it became pretty easy. With 5 components and at least two sessions each, I got over a dozen ride results and change suggestions. The changes to all three bikes were significant and allowed the bikes to inspire better rider confidence. I am excited now to help my riding crew, who after seeing my result, have offered to kick back a nominal fee to ease my cost burden.

Make sure to check out our complete installation guide and review of the ShockWiz to see how you might benefit from this neat suspension tool. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, this product works extremely well in the all-mountain application, with tech climb and downhill, and with anyone who is working on jump trails. I do not possess the skills to do a bracket approach, changing one variable at a time and re-riding, and noting the feel difference. With the diligent setup, an understanding of how the device works, and just a couple of sessions for each component, I was able to significantly improve my rides.