Make Flight Attendant Yours

HOW TO PERSONALIZE YOUR SETUP

Flight Attendant is all about making you more efficient—using real-time data from you and the trail to put your suspension in the right position at the right time. Whether you know exactly how you want your system to respond or you're just starting to explore how Flight Attendant transforms your ride, we'll walk through dialing in your suspension and customizing your Flight Attendant system to match your ride style.

SUSPENSION TUNING – FLIGHT ATTENDANT PERSONALIZATION

SUSPENSION BASICS

Perfectly personalized suspension is well within your reach. We’re here to walk you through suspension setup, starting with fine-tuning your air spring and then dialing in your Rebound and Low Speed Compression.

Follow these steps to establish a good baseline, but we encourage you to make adjustments to find what feels best for you as your riding style evolves.

Remove the air valve cap and thread on the shock pump. Add or remove air depending on the recommended starting pressure and remove the shock pump.  
Adjust the Rebound knob based on the TrailHead suggestion—the suggested setting is the number of clicks from Closed or slowest position, indicated by the turtle icon. This is just a starting point.
Slowly—like, really slowly—compress the fork / rear shock a few times to equalize the air pressure between the positive and negative chambers.
Attach the shock pump and re-pressurize the air spring to the suggested starting point. The pressure can drop as the air you put into the air spring moves into the negative chamber during equalization, requiring you to re-pressurize the air spring until you get to the right pressure.
Move the red o-ring against the rubber wiper seal on your fork and rear shock. This will indicate how much travel you’ve used during your ride and whether your air spring is set up correctly. Ideally, you use most of your travel while riding, but occasional bottom outs on bigger hits is normal. 
Go ride! Preferably on a trail that you ride often to get the best idea of setup.

DIAL IN YOUR AIR SPRING FIRST

Air springs absorb impacts from the trail to provide comfort and support. We aim for a soft but supportive feel, occasionally using all your travel but not bottoming it out too often.

If the suspension feels too firm, doesn't easily compress when cycling the suspension, or isn't using all of the travel, drop five PSI at a time until the suspension achieves full travel when needed.

If the suspension feels too soft, isn't supportive in the middle of the stroke, dives through travel, or is bottoming out regularly, add five PSI until it feels more supportive and you aren't bottoming out too frequently.

If you’re bottoming out often each ride, but the suspension feels soft and supportive, you may need to add a Bottomless Token for bottom-out support.  Instructions for adding and removing Bottomless Tokens can be found in your suspension's Service Manual, available through the TrailHead App or at sram.com/service.

REBOUND ADJUSTMENT

Rebound affects how quickly the suspension returns to full travel after compression.

If the suspension rebounds too quickly, causing a pogo effect that can decrease wheel control or contact with the ground, add 1-2 clicks of Rebound damping at a time by rotating the Rebound Knob clockwise (toward the turtle to slow it down).

If the suspension rebounds too slowly, causing the suspension to feel packed down (like the suspension has less and less travel with each consecutive hit), remove 1-2 clicks of Rebound damping at a time by rotating the Rebound Knob counter-clockwise (toward the jackalope to speed it up).

TECH TIP: You may need to adjust your Rebound speed when making significant air spring pressure changes. While it's not an exact science, generally, removing 5-10 PSI from your air spring could necessitate removing rebound damping 1-2 clicks since the Rebound circuit has less air pressure to work against.

The same concept applies to adding air spring pressure: 5-10 PSI more could require increasing rebound damping to balance out the higher air pressure.

LOW SPEED COMRESSION (LSC) ADJUSTMENT

LSC affects how the suspension feels in gradual compressions. Think berms, weight shifts, small bumps, and transitions—whenever the damper shaft moves slowly.

Available on Flight Attendant versions of Pike, Lyrik, ZEB, Super Deluxe, Vivid, and Vivid Coil Ultimate. Not available on Flight Attendant versions of: SID, SID SL, or SIDLuxe Ultimate.

If the suspension feels too soft, dives into travel, or feels floppy and unsupported during low-speed events, add 2-3 clicks of LSC at a time for more support. Press the Menu button on the Control Module until the bottom left LED is blue, then press the + to add LSC, indicated by LEDs increasing in brightness from left to right.

If the suspension feels harsh, is not using enough travel, or is unsettled in low-speed events, remove 2-3 clicks of LSC at a time to soften the damper. Press the Menu button on the Control Module until the LEDs are blue, then press the – button to remove LSC, indicated by LEDs decreasing in brightness from right to left.

Riders on Rockshox Flight attendant suspension

FLIGHT ATTENDANT PERSONALIZATION

Now that your suspension is set up, let’s look at how to tune your system. We'll start with how Bias Adjustment tells your system to react to the trail, then we'll explore how Adaptive Ride Dynamics learns from you to calculate your Effort Zones for a truly personalized ride experience. Then, we'll wrap up ways to customize Flight Attendant in the app.

BIAS ADJUST

Bias Adjust is the first step to personalizing your Flight Attendant system.  Your Bias informs Flight Attendant how to react to trail input—favoring a firmer or softer ride feel—depending on your ride goals or personal preferences.

From the factory, the system is set in the middle at zero for an effective balance of all three suspension positions (Open, Pedal, and Lock positions), but you can change your Bias setting at any point during your ride. There’s no right or wrong—Bias Adjust is all about dialing in the feel to match your preferences.

POSITIVE BIAS

When you bias the system towards Lock position (+1 or +2), it favors Pedal and Lock positions to maximize rider efficiency.

NEGATIVE BIAS

When you bias the system toward Open position (-1 or -2), it will be less likely to lock, giving you a more comfortable ride.

UNDERSTANDING ADAPTIVE RIDE DYNAMICS AND EFFORT ZONES

Next up in Flight Attendant personalization is Adaptive Ride Dynamics and Effort Zones. Adaptive Ride Dynamics is a feature of Flight Attendant's algorithm that learns how you ride to continuously personalize your suspension without any direct input from the rider. Adaptive Ride Dynamics analyzes your effort data from the past eight rides to calculate your personalized Effort Zones.

Effort Zones help Flight Attendant know the difference between cruising with your friends and an all-out sprint, so your suspension can be exactly in the right position when you want it. Adaptive Ride Dynamics requires a power meter to build and maintain your Effort Zones, but the more SRAM AXS components you use, the more data Flight Attendant has to make suspension state decisions.

You might be wondering how Bias Adjust and Adaptive Ride Dynamics work together. Think of it like adding your favorite toppings to a post-ride pizza, or customizing your coffee order on the way to the trailhead—they complement each other to make your ride experience uniquely ~~delicious~~, ahem, yours. Bias Adjust tells the system how to adapt for the trail, and Adaptive Ride Dynamics tells the system how to adapt for you. 

ADAPTIVE RIDE DYNAMICS PREFERENCES

Want to have more input on your Effort Zones? Great news—you can have as little or as much input into your Effort Zones as you'd like.

AXS APP SETTINGS

The AXS Mobile App is a centralized place to control and personalize all AXS enabled components from SRAM and RockShox. Download the app to personalize your Flight Attendant system.

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