Rear suspension adjustments for dummies ?

[dm0kk]

i recently got a full suspension bike... and i'm heading out to the mountain trails soon and I need some help on what to do with the rear suspension adjustments.. I've been told that I can turn the spring on the rear shock to change how plush I want it to be and that theres another knob where I can change the rebound on the spring.. I've been told that I should change the adjustments according to the riding I do.. which leads me to my question.

How should I adjust my rear shock in order for it to perform it's best on the mountain? I know the question is quite vague, but I'm pretty new with this stuff so I'm not sure how bouncy I should set the rebound to be and how stiff the suspension should be put at when riding on different types of terrain.

Any tips or advice would help..

I'm pretty lost with this stuff... but thanks for any help guys...

[Hack On Wheels]

Can you give some info like what type of shock, what riding you are doing and what bike its on. Hopefully people with similar equipment or just a lot of know-how can help you out then.

For the mean time, most shocks these days have rebound knob that will say "slower" with an arrow. Basically if the shock bounces back too quickly and can buck you and make the bike harder to control you can add more dampening to make it slower on the return, however, if you add too much, the shock will "pack up" over consecutive bumps and will not be doing much as a result. How stiff it should be is very subjective and is relative. The for freeride and downhill I believe anywhere from sagging 1/5 of your total possible suspension through to 1/3 sag is used depending on riding and preference.

[dm0kk]

it's a giant hv coil shock and it came stock on my giant ac.. i've been doing mostly urban riding lately but i'm planning to head onto the mountain for some light free ride.. but i am planning to upgrade the shock... any suggestions on what i can replace it with? =)