[Drth Vadr]

I have an X-firm spring with 28% sag and I'm experiencing a lot of dive in my Totem coil w/MiCo DH. The LSC seems to not make a difference. Is this just a the characteristic of the DH damper or is there something I can do without negitively impacting the full use of travel I'm getting?

 

[tabletop84]

It seems that the range of the dials on the mission control damper is too small. All forks with this damper I got my hands on had this problem: you could barely feel a difference between a fully opened or closed lsc.

The normal mc has a bit more lsc support since it has the floodgate hanging in there. But I removed it because I liked it bettter with less damping and that was also in the mind of rs when they developed the mcdh.

You could either buy a mc unit, play with shims or try to add preload to the spring that sits on the shimstack in the damper.

The easiest way would be thicker oil though.

 

[Udi]

You just need to stiffen up the valving on the shimstack, it's very soft from factory. Once you do that the adjusters will come to life and you'll be able to tune your troubles away.

 

[4130biker]

You just need to stiffen up the valving on the shimstack.

Not that I have a totem mico dh, but how do you do that?
I have had the exact problem with other RS offerings of mine...

 

[Drth Vadr]

You just need to stiffen up the valving on the shimstack, it's very soft from factory. Once you do that the adjusters will come to life and you'll be able to tune your troubles away.

How many preload spacers are needed?

 

[HardtailHack]

As few as possible to get the desired sag.

I had a 2010 Totem DH coil(motion control) and I had the opposite problem, I was 200Lb and had to run 2.5Wt oil and almost no compression damping at all. Not really sure if you can give advice on RS forks over the net as they are garbage and can vary greatly from fork to fork.

My Totem's are on my Corsair frame that just sits in a garden behind my shed hopefully rotting away, I gave up on both of those POS's. Avy cart didn't fix the Totems but a second hand 888 has done wonders for my DH bike.

 

[Udi]

Post #32 onwards in this thread has some valving suggestions, these were when I ran a 35mm Boxxer but the same principles apply:
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/f19/things-you-can-take-out-2010-boxxer-wc-237443/index3/

This thread is a rough guide on how to access the shims, I don't think it's a great guide so be careful and use your own intuition:
http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/tune-your-mission-control-high-speed-shim-stack-how-guide-pics-541403.html

If you aren't comfortable with intricate mechanisms, or don't have access to valving shims, any good suspension tuner will be able to help you out. If in BC check out Vorsprung.

 

[Drth Vadr]

Post #32 onwards in this thread has some valving suggestions, these were when I ran a 35mm Boxxer but the same principles apply:
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/f19/things-you-can-take-out-2010-boxxer-wc-237443/index3/

This thread is a rough guide on how to access the shims, I don't think it's a great guide so be careful and use your own intuition:
http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/tune-your-mission-control-high-speed-shim-stack-how-guide-pics-541403.html

If you aren't comfortable with intricate mechanisms, or don't have access to valving shims, any good suspension tuner will be able to help you out. If in BC check out Vorsprung.

So, these are shimz that will have to be added or change sizes to the MiCo damper?
If so, these are the stock shimz sizes; what am I looking to change or what to add?
20mm x 0.10
20mm x 0.10
13mm x 0.10
20mm x 0.10
17mm x 0.10
13mm x 0.10

 

[Udi]

Firstly, rearrange it so it looks like this:

20 x 0.1 (x3)
17 x 0.1
13 x 0.1 (x2)

Then you want to increase the face shim thickness and the ones immediately behind it, if you can find a 20x0.2 and maybe an 18x0.2 to add in there you can make the stack significantly firmer. Otherwise, just add more 0.1 shims to your liking, keeping the pyramid configuration.

 

[IH8Rice]

You just need to stiffen up the valving on the shimstack, it's very soft from factory.

you mentioned this in the thread about making a boxxer better (lol,) but why do companies do this? is RS the only one to do it?

 

[Udi]

you mentioned this in the thread about making a boxxer better (lol,) but why do companies do this? is RS the only one to do it?

Definitely not just RS - all the major brands have done it at one point or another. I suspect it's some sort of safety concern, or an assumption that consumer riders have completely different requirements to pro riders - when realistically things just need to be toned down, not almost nullified.

RS was actually one of the first brands to offer a huge range of compression damping (in their Motion Control damper) - a bit crude for sure, but very cool in a time period where you couldn't get that level of support out of the box anywhere else. Once they switched to a conventional shimmed damper though, that vanished.

Marzocchi had forks with almost zero compression damping for years, and even the '12 Evo Ti is valved quite softly out of the box - thankfully you can change it yourself now.

Fox was also lacking in that department for many years, but as of '11 they have a very large range of compression adjustment, which is nice.

 

[Steve M]

you mentioned this in the thread about making a boxxer better (lol,) but why do companies do this? is RS the only one to do it?

I believe most manufacturers basically do it because a fork with very little compression damping feels "nice" (as in smooth and plush) to anybody at first, regardless of weight/aggression, whereas if it's heavily damped, any lighter riders who get on it will find it excessively harsh and horrible to ride. A 100lbs rider who gets on my (210lbs) personal heavily valved 40 will find it almost unrideable, but a 200lbs rider on a properly sprung fork with too little compression damping will just find that it blows through the travel too easily - significantly less of a complaint in most people's eyes.

 

[Drth Vadr]

Firstly, rearrange it so it looks like this:

20 x 0.1 (x3)
17 x 0.1
13 x 0.1 (x2)

Then you want to increase the face shim thickness and the ones immediately behind it, if you can find a 20x0.2 and maybe an 18x0.2 to add in there you can make the stack significantly firmer. Otherwise, just add more 0.1 shims to your liking, keeping the pyramid configuration.

Well I change the configuration from a two stage pyramid to a single as you suggested. I can feel a difference with LSC at max hardness. I found 20mmx.15mm and 18mmx.1 shimz at MX Tech Suspensions for a $1.19ea., but shipping is $15. I might go with thicker oil for now considering it's going to be 5-7 days before I get them and I can get oil anytime for the same price. Plus, there are only a few more weeks of lift access.

 

[Udi]

Good to hear it helped... that's really not bad pricing for the shims, I'd probably just do it personally. $20 or so is about the same price as a bottle of oil, and will make a more significant difference to the fork. But fair enough on the lift access issue.

Anyway good luck with whatever you decide.