[William42]

I have an old 2014-2015 era 27.5 40 on my DH bike, which uses a coil as the negative spring.

Anybody have any experience with these things?

Before I've even sat on the bike I'm getting about 7" of travel, and the air spring is set for about a 190lb rider.

That seems like a lot of lost travel due to a super strong negative spring for a rider at my weight, I could understand it if it were set up for like a 110lb rider and it just had really low air pressure, but this seems excessive at my weight. Were the negative springs on these puppies really so stiff that they were set up for riders in the 230-250 lb range and anybody who weighed less would be getting significantly reduced travel?

I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary when I take it apart, but I also don't really know what I'm looking at whether there was any sort of preload adjustment or different negative coil springrates available.

Or is it possible for their to be a damper issue that makes it not want to extend all the way?

Just trying to figure out what's causing this performance before I start throwing time and effort at fixing it by shooting in the dark, when their might not actually be a fix for it and its just working as intended. If the fix is just "buy a new stantion and airspring, that generation kind of sucked" I'll probably just ride as is as I got the bike for a grand and about the only thing I've spent money on for it is replacing tires when necessary and I'd like to keep it that way.

Cheers

 

[HAB]

Well, easy to check if it's the damper — loosen the spring side crowns and see if you can extend the damper side leg more.

I don't remember the deal with those forks well enough to have any comment on the spring part.

 

[englertracing]

Are you looking at the right pressure charts?
If i recall correctly alternative neg springs were listed but maybe never seen...

I think the regular spring was right for mid weight riders

 

[William42]

Are you looking at the right pressure charts?
If i recall correctly alternative neg springs were listed but maybe never seen...

I think the regular spring was right for mid weight riders

Pressure wise I'm not certain - going by sag doesn't work because I'm sitting 1-1.25" into the travel before I even sit on the bike, and I haven't seen any air pressure charts for that fork that go beyond "set sag to 15-20%"

I've just been matching it to the rear end of the bike to make sure they feel fairly even in how they go through the travel, and my rear spring rate is right in line with the spring rate calculator, 30-32% sag, and what generally feels good on the bike and calling it good enough.

I haven't seen any different negative spring rates on the market, and idea what the color breakdown is so that I can see whats in there and if their are other options or if there's just a "one size fits all" approach and a "sucks to suck" attitude.

 

[Happymtb.fr]

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/First-Ride-Air-Sprung-Fox-40-Float-RC2-Fork--The-Truth-is-Reveal.html

Is that similar to your fork?

 

[englertracing]

Pressure wise I'm not certain - going by sag doesn't work because I'm sitting 1-1.25" into the travel before I even sit on the bike, and I haven't seen any air pressure charts for that fork that go beyond "set sag to 15-20%"

I've just been matching it to the rear end of the bike to make sure they feel fairly even in how they go through the travel, and my rear spring rate is right in line with the spring rate calculator, 30-32% sag, and what generally feels good on the bike and calling it good enough.

I haven't seen any different negative spring rates on the market, and idea what the color breakdown is so that I can see whats in there and if their are other options or if there's just a "one size fits all" approach and a "sucks to suck" attitude.

 

[William42]

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/First-Ride-Air-Sprung-Fox-40-Float-RC2-Fork--The-Truth-is-Reveal.html

Is that similar to your fork?

That's the one!

*super helpful comment*

That's exactly what I was looking for, thank you! I'll have to take a look and see what spring I have in there. My guess is that it's going to be orange, and tracking down a green will fix me up. Which, given that they shipped with the green and it was good for pretty much everybody, and its a titanium spring, I'm going out on a limb and guessing means that I'm SOL and looking at never finding that part and I should resign myself to my fate now!

 

[iRider]

Fox Germany seems to have it in stock for €135.

Spring: Negative Titanium 2014 40 FLOAT, 22 lb/in

Spring 2014 Negative Titan 40 Float 22 lb/in GREEN

www.foxracingshox.de

 

[englertracing]

Fox Germany seems to have it in stock for €135.

Spring: Negative Titanium 2014 40 FLOAT, 22 lb/in

Spring 2014 Negative Titan 40 Float 22 lb/in GREEN

www.foxracingshox.de

So
It might be cheaper to get a newer air spring and use an mrp fullfill to air up the neg chamber

 

[englertracing]

Actually that won't really work that's got a spiral lock, new stuff takes a hoopster.

I machines a coil tube for the new air stuff to for go the equalization dimple

 

[LAP]

Don't know where you are located but it look like suspension werx in Vancouver has them, and for cheaper than Fox Germany : https://suspensionwerx.com/products/copy-of-vorsprung-smashpot-springs-1?variant=44746228400349

Some more infos straight from 2014 : https://ridemonkey.bikemag.com/threads/2014-fox-40-float-negative-spring-options.266194/