[Harry BarnOwl]

Hi,

Managed to get a great deal on some 40's off a friend recently, and the first couple of rides on them have been brilliant so far. Having come from a 2010 boxxer race I can't believe how much more grip these things give. Having said that, I'm having a spring weight issue: while the sag is spot on, I can get close to bottoming it in the car park, even with fair amounts of lsc and hsc. But despite this, it feels awesome - both grippy and very responsive to rider input i.e. when I'm hopping stuff. It's a blue spring in there at the moment and I weigh about 190 lbs, so while I'm aware I should technically be on a green spring, how bad will it be for the fork if I run it like this?

Ta

Harry

 

[baca262]

if you're not bottoming metal to metal regularly, no worries there.

 

[phycoref]

It won't be bad at all if you aren't bottoming it out. I am over 200lbs with gear on and I run the stock Blue spring in. They are just recommendations, you just have to find what works for you!

 

[Udi]

On the pre-2011 40 (i.e. non-inverted damper, rebound adjuster on top) which I'm assuming you have, the compression adjusters don't do a whole lot - I weigh less than you and could bottom that damper out pretty easily on a blue spring, even with the adjusters pretty close to maxed out. It shouldn't be a hard bottom out, as the bottom out cone system will kick in and prevent that most of the time.

I don't think it's bad for the fork for it to bottom out occasionally, but your riding will probably benefit from a firmer setup if it is happening often - as it is probably not giving you the support you need to go faster.

Two things I'd suggest - the first is to try a green spring if you can, a lot of people would have these lying around as the fork comes with three springs and most people just run the blue. Feel free to run lots of compression damping in the meantime, keep the HS maxed out (fully closed) as the old damper does very little otherwise.

The second is probably not something you want to consider now, but perhaps later down the track, the 2011+ inverted damper cartridge is a significant upgrade. It has a lot more compression range on tap, and is a lot more reliable than the old cartridge. However it's worth noting that there are two different lengths of these depending on which year 40 you have (I believe '09-10 will directly accept an '11-12 cartridge).

 

[Harry BarnOwl]

Thanks for the detailed response. It is indeed a 2010 non-inverted damper, I did think that the compression adjustments weren't doing a whole lot.

Yeah like you say it isn't a hard bottom out, but all the same I've always run my suspension fairly stiff, so I've just got a green spring off a mate for cheap so hopefully I can find a good balance between responsive and grippy.

I would like to get the 2011 cart but it's not really financially viable just now. I guess that's the nice thing about 40's, I can always upgrade them down the line. Still seriously loving these forks. I really can't put my finger on it, but despite being a bit soft they still hold up in their travel better and provide a lot more grip than my 2010 boxxer race ever did. Think I'm definitely converted to fox forks.