[ramstein-dh]

Hello

Right i'm sure everybody knows how good Avalanche stuff is , and was wondering about sending my 5th element to Craig at Avalanche.
I live in the UK and the price Craig charges is the same price TF tuned charge for just a service.
My question is what do they feel like when done and are they fit and forget unlike normal 5th shocks which constantly leak from the rebound adjuster.
Will having this done convert the shock completley and will it be the nearest thing to an actual Avalanche shock?
Also if you had the choice would you get a manitou 4 way done or a 5th , or does this make no difference.

Thanks for the advice

Jason

 

[weedkilla]

okay, my comments are only general because I have not had a 5th converted by avalanche. I have however converted several 5th and Manitou shocks to shim based damping which is the heart of this conversion.

The Manitou has one large advantage over the 5th and that is the actual shaft - much harder and slipprier. The decrease in stiction can be felt when a manitou shaft is put in a 5th. Avalanche also change the seal type which will bring a 5th closer to a manitou in this regard. Other than that there is little practical difference (nicer manufacturing is a moot point in shocks of this age). Certainly I would choose a manitou if I had the choice but I wouldn't buy one just for the purpose - I believe TF are pretty handy with vivid tunes so I would look for a 2nd hand vivid myself if I were buying a shock to get speed sensitive damping. (Or CCDB, Bos etc.)

The feel of the shock will completely change, it will absorb bumps of nearly every size better and give you better traction. The rebound improvements should be immense, this is the key to any custom shock setup. You will lose any "rising rate" effect so it may be easier to bottom out the shock on large hits. It is quite common to need a heavier spring after a conversion like this.

Your bike will almost certainly "bob" more during pedalling.

This damping technology would bring your shock inline with a Rockshox vivid, the feel should be similar - with the advantage of a custom tune.

The leaking rebound should be solved - this is a guess based on looking at what Avalanche change. I would make sure it was known to be one of your concerns before I had it done.

Is it worth it? You have to know what you want to improve/change about your bike before anyone can help you with this. But the answer is almost certainly yes in a dh bike.

There is a large thread on here about 5th's and shims with a lot of very good info.