Hey guys,
So for years I ran a Fox Vanilla coil sprung 5" fork. When I bought my Giant Trance X1 it came with the 2008 Fox F120RL fork on it. An air sprung fork.
So I follow the Fox setup instructions and set the sag to about 25% of the 4.7" of travel (funny as this bike is sold as a 5"x5" bike). After a couple break in rides I noticed I was barely using any travel still. So I upped the sag to about 30% of the 4.7". Still, I could only use about 3.3" of travel on the fork in bottom out impact type situations.
So I upped it again to ~33+% sag. At this point the fork is sitting pretty darn low in the travel and the first 1/3rd of the stroke is supper soft-marshmellowy. HOWEVER(!) even now, when I ram into a curb head on (as a test) to bottom it out, I still can't get it to use more than about 3.8" of travel. This is crazy. I have to let out so much air that it's about 50% sag before I can slam into something and get it to lightly bottom.
I called fox and they said that I need to get used to that style of fork as it's progressive and it ramps up at the end much more than my old linear coil fork. I understand that concept, but this seems pretty ridiculous considering it's a 4.7" fork and at 33%+ sag in the most extreme riding conditions I can throw at it it never goes beyond about 3.7" of travel. They said I could send it in but that it was probably working fine and I'd have to pay the $120 or whatever it was to service it--which they said would probably turn up nothing.
Does anyone have experience with this fork or other Fox air forks?? Is this common?? I thought I was buying a 5"x5" bike and it's more like 3.7"x5".
BTW, my local bike stores are no help. I live in the midwest and no one knows how to rebuild/work on/check suspension forks.
Thanks!
D
So for years I ran a Fox Vanilla coil sprung 5" fork. When I bought my Giant Trance X1 it came with the 2008 Fox F120RL fork on it. An air sprung fork.
So I follow the Fox setup instructions and set the sag to about 25% of the 4.7" of travel (funny as this bike is sold as a 5"x5" bike). After a couple break in rides I noticed I was barely using any travel still. So I upped the sag to about 30% of the 4.7". Still, I could only use about 3.3" of travel on the fork in bottom out impact type situations.
So I upped it again to ~33+% sag. At this point the fork is sitting pretty darn low in the travel and the first 1/3rd of the stroke is supper soft-marshmellowy. HOWEVER(!) even now, when I ram into a curb head on (as a test) to bottom it out, I still can't get it to use more than about 3.8" of travel. This is crazy. I have to let out so much air that it's about 50% sag before I can slam into something and get it to lightly bottom.
I called fox and they said that I need to get used to that style of fork as it's progressive and it ramps up at the end much more than my old linear coil fork. I understand that concept, but this seems pretty ridiculous considering it's a 4.7" fork and at 33%+ sag in the most extreme riding conditions I can throw at it it never goes beyond about 3.7" of travel. They said I could send it in but that it was probably working fine and I'd have to pay the $120 or whatever it was to service it--which they said would probably turn up nothing.
Does anyone have experience with this fork or other Fox air forks?? Is this common?? I thought I was buying a 5"x5" bike and it's more like 3.7"x5".
BTW, my local bike stores are no help. I live in the midwest and no one knows how to rebuild/work on/check suspension forks.
Thanks!
D