Mountain Biking - How can you tell if you bottom out your shocks?

I'm sure it's not good for the shock if you are so I just want to make sure.

first you have to decompress it and push it down to see where is the end.
than you put normal pressure you ride with. Usually on the for you have a rubber ring (rear) or the dirt (on the front fork) will indicate how much is working. if the dirt or the rubber ring is very close or at the end of fork travell you can assume that you are bottomind it.
Second when you use very low pressure you can feel at the end that it is hard like a wall (you feel that you hit something) - but this case happens when you have very low pressure. I have only experience with air dampers. I don't know much about the coil ones.

If you bottom out, your suspension goes from working to a dead stop, and you get a clunk.

Not that it has happend with me.

Mine goes *WHACK*!

It happens now and again and while it's not good if it happens all the time, it is to be expected when you hit something that's outside the norm. How it feels depends on how your shock or forks are designed. Some have "soft stops" that reduce the sensation associated with bottoming out a shock others don't and "whack" is a good description of what it sounds and feels like.

lots of people put a zip tie around the sachion(sp). if it moves all they way to the top near the crown you’re bottoming out.

I usually hear a loud "CLUNK" then a "aaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh, BAM!" because I"ve gone TOO Big and crash!

Originally posted by Jim311
Mine goes *WHACK*!

Thats what mine used to sound like :D

CLUNK!, usually followed by the unique feeling of going over the handlbars pretty rapidly depending on how fast/big you were going.

-Moab

Yeah , WHACK followed by "unghh" is how mine usually works. If you bottom out you will know it, believe me.

The manual fox RL that came with your stumpy says that, properly setup, it should bottom out occasionally