About & methodology
bikesetting.com is a free suspension and tyre pressure calculator for mountain bikes, e-MTBs, gravel bikes, road bikes, touring bikes and city bikes. This page explains who runs the site, where the data comes from and how the values are produced.
Who is behind bikesetting.com?
The site is operated by Basislager 8® Bernard Prigge e.K., an advertising agency in Breisach-Niederrimsingen, Germany. We are neither a bike manufacturer nor a workshop; we build software and databases – and take the trouble to record manufacturer data cleanly and calculate transparently. Address and commercial register entry are in the legal notice.
The site is free to use. It is funded by advertising (Google AdSense), which is labelled “Advertisement”. Recommendations and calculated values are not influenced by it. More about cookies and consent is in the privacy policy.
Where does the data come from?
- Specification data (fork, shock, shock size, travel, tyres, weight, price) is recorded from manufacturers’ websites or importers’ pages, together with the retrieval date. Each build links to its source.
- Currently that is 1,494 builds with a manufacturer source from 67 brands in total; further models are stored as family values with typical travel (1,835 entries in all).
- Missing information stays empty instead of being estimated. If, for example, the shock size is missing, the calculator says so and asks you to read it off the shock.
- Specifications vary by model year, frame size and market. The type plate, the owner’s manual and the manufacturer are always authoritative.
How we calculate
All values are starting values. The formulas are deliberately simple and described in full here:
- SAG targets: fork 17 % (cross-country), 20 % (trail), 22 % (enduro), 20 % (bike park); shock 24 %, 28 %, 30 % and 27 % – in line with common manufacturer recommendations. A manufacturer’s own targets take priority.
- Fork and shock pressure: about 0.93 psi (0.06 bar) for the fork and about 2.5 psi (0.17 bar) for the shock per kilogram of rider weight including kit (e-MTB: +2 and +4 psi (0.28 bar)), capped at the maximum pressure. This is a rough rule of thumb – measured SAG decides.
- Rebound: the higher the pressure, the fewer clicks from fully closed (more damping), because heavier riders need more rebound damping.
- Coil shocks: instead of an air pressure we estimate the spring rate from rider weight, a rear-wheel load share of 65 %, the leverage ratio (travel ÷ stroke) and the SAG target. This is an estimate.
- MTB and e-MTB tyre pressure: a starting value from weight, tyre width, casing, setup (tubeless, inner tube, insert), rim width, terrain and riding style; e-MTB with a small allowance.
- Gravel, road, touring and city tyre pressure: we split the system weight between front and rear wheel (rear 57–62 %). Pressure rises roughly in proportion to wheel load and falls with tyre width (exponent 1.8–2.0). Every millimetre of internal rim width makes the tyre about 0.4 mm wider in the model. It is aligned with common manufacturer charts for tyres in these classes; on hookless rims we cap pressure at 5 bar (72.5 psi, ETRTO).
- Units: 1 bar = 14.5038 psi. We always show pressures in bar and psi.
Limits: the values replace neither manufacturer information nor expert setup on the bike. Never exceed the maximum pressures of fork, shock, tyres and rims.
Guides and editorial approach
Our guides explain setup, maintenance and equipment for mountain bikes, e-MTBs, gravel and road bikes. This is how we work:
- Tyre pressure charts come from the same model as the tyre pressure calculator, so guides and calculators do not contradict each other.
- Figures from tests or manufacturers (intervals, weights, prices, rolling resistance) are labelled as guideline or example values. They change with model year and offers.
- Every guide shows its date. When manufacturer data or formulas change, we update the text.
- We are not a workshop. For safety-relevant work on brakes, fork and shock we point to the manufacturer’s instructions and a professional workshop.
Our principles
- No invented data: what we cannot back up, we leave out.
- Sources are linked, retrieval dates appear on every bike page.
- What we changed and when is listed under What’s new.
- We correct mistakes – feedback is welcome (contact).
- German is the original language. English, French and Spanish are translations; for the legal texts only the German version is binding.