Demo8 Shock rebuild or replace?

I have 2012 demo had the shock rebuilt by push I love it now

And on a side note I rode it 5 times and it lost the nitrogen charge they emailed me an over night label rebuilt the shock again and had it back to me in 4 days at no cost to me. Now that's customer service

When I'm pretty deep in the suspension it still feels plush and soft in the rocks and chunder

PepperJester said:

The VanRC on my 2012 Demo 8 seems to have lost its compression dampening. Rebound still feels fine but the shock has no support what so ever, It blows thought its travel very quickly. I almost thought I had broken a spring at fist as was so soft. There is some oil leaking around the shaft but not tons.

I've never been totally stoked on the stock shock but it's not bee terrible either. Should I have it rebuilt by say some one like Avalanche or Push, or look at buying another shock to get a bit more performance out of the bike?

Thoughts?

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First up, if there is ANY oil leaking, anywhere on the shock, stop riding it and get it fixed. You take a very serious risk of sudden and catastrophic failure at a really bad moment otherwise.

Secondly, it's not a particularly high performance shock - increasing compression damping by cranking the compression adjuster creates substantial harshness due to the rather strange configuration in there, and over time they commonly break a retaining ring seat that causes knocking in the shock. To really improve upon them, the whole base valve (compression adjuster assembly) needs to be replaced with an aftermarket base valve. Alternatively, in that frame you will get better performance than the stock Van RC out of almost any other shock. Our experience is that shocks with a position sensitive damper or a progressive spring (RC4 with boost valve, or air shocks) work best in those frames, otherwise you will be relying quite heavily upon a stiff spring rate and low sag, and/or heavy high speed compression damping to prevent bottoming. With that said, if you're happy enough with the performance of the shock as-is, just get it rebuilt.

alarmist much?

jstuhlman said:

alarmist much?

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In what sense?

in the sense of "your shock is nit only shite, it is endangering your life (paraphrasing):

Steve M said:

You take a very serious risk of sudden and catastrophic failure at a really bad moment otherwise.

Secondly, it's not a particularly high performance shock ... you will get better performance than the stock Van RC out of almost any other shock. IF YOU KEEP RIDING IT YOU'RE GONNA DIE...(but you could also just get it revalved and you'll be fine)

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jstuhlman said:

in the sense of "your shock is nit only shite, it is endangering your life (paraphrasing):

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Hahah. In all seriousness, performance is somewhat subjective - if you're happy with the way the shock rides, keep riding it in its current configuration. My perspective on the base valve/compression damping is based on our considerable experience with these shocks (they are very common in Whistler) - we don't offer an aftermarket system for those ourselves so it's not that I'm trying to sell something to somebody. Avalanche however do (we are not affiliated with Avalanche in any way). The base valve uses dished shims which are not a standard item (ie only Fox has them) and a flat plate that the shims preload against the compression piston. The damping characteristic this creates is a little bit crude, but as mentioned previously, it's not something you can get around without replacing quite a few parts. Revalving the main piston can help somewhat but you still won't have a very useful compression adjuster. But once again, if you're happy enough with how it feels already, just ride it as it's currently configured.

However, I'm really not joking or exaggerating about the danger of riding a leaking shock. This isn't like riding a fork with a leaking stanchion seal where in most cases your main concern is that it'll start wearing stuff out once the lube oil disappears - your shock only has to lose a few mL of oil before the IFP starts bottoming out in the reservoir and your damping becomes completely unpredictable. We get quite a few people come into our workshop who tell us there's no rush to fix their shock, because they're in a sling for the next 6 weeks anyway. Especially since in this case the OP has already noticed that something isn't working correctly, why take the risk?

Having it serviced is a definite, Tuning is an option that will surely get you closer to a setup that will increase the performance, but if you're going to keep the bike go with an MX-Tune upgrade to add both low and high speed compression adjustment externally!

Darren

PepperJester said:

Hey Darren,

Does the MX Tune fit a Van RC? On your website it's only listed as an option for the DHX.

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Yes we have a version for both the VAN-R and VAN-RC as well as the DHX units. Welcome to our 2008 website!

Those images I posted are actually from the new website coming soon....with the correct information.

PUSHIND said:

Those images I posted are actually from the new website coming soon

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Hadley has the jump on you guys