[Josef]

Have any of you used this optional hand bleed on your X2's?

https://www.ridefox.com/help.php?m=bike&id=683

How well does it work? I would love to be able to work on these things at home but I have always steered away due to the need for a nitrogen charge. If this works it could be super nice.

 

[Udi]

For literally the price of 2-3L of oil you can make an oil bath and have a far better solution.

IMO hand/bench bleeds work fine when done by an experienced mechanic who understands every possible way that air can enter a shock during a rebuild. In my experience this is very few people (and guides like that one don't often cover all the potential sources of error), which is why they often turn out poorly.

Cycling the shock and performing assembly (before final tightening) under a bath of oil eliminates most potential sources of error. You can also filter and re-use your bath for multiple rebuilds, I've seen people use blue shop towels for filtering. If you make sure your parts are very clean before entering the bath you won't even need to worry about that.

Either way, be sure to use the correct fluid - viscosity index (VI) is important for shock fluids as temperature-viscosity stability is a concern.

 

[Josef]

Welp that makes even more sense. I know that fox recommends their 10wt red oil. Does anyone know an equivalent that can be had cheaper?

 

[SkaredShtles]

And people look at me askance when they find out I run a coil shock.

 

[Josef]

That's probably because you use words like askance.... haha. I just like messing with this stuff. I think I have found the answer on cheaper sources:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJ9JO2A/ref=twister_B00FS0E5T4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Kanye West]

What are you trying to accomplish with it anyway?

 

[FarkinRyan]

The bench bleed method with the glove stretched over the body works plenty well enough to work on these at home, worst case scenario being that you get a bit of air in there and have to do it again. They run very low internal pressures too, so it's very easy to hand-test them in your bench vice to see if it's a good bleed before you put them back on the bike.

You can't just substitute anything you want that says 10w on it for Fox Red either, you gotta look at the table! You want Silkolene Pro RSF 10w or something like it with a high VI and similar viscosity.

 

[jeremy_2640]

And people look at me askance when they find out I run a coil shock.

Does your coil shock not use oil in the damper?

 

[Josef]

What are you trying to accomplish with it anyway?

Well I have a float x2 on my v10 that I wanted to replace with a dhx2. The dhx2 I bought was the performance version without the high speed adjustments. I just wanted to swap the adjuster assemblies. The more I looked into it the more I looked like I could do full rebuilds at home. I searched the interwebs and had found anyone talking about doing this at home. More or less just wanted to know how stupid it would be to crack one of these open at home.

Following fox's guide I swapped this assemblies tonight and good a good enough "bleed" (you don't have to do a full bleed for the adjuster assemblies).

 

[Josef]

The bench bleed method with the glove stretched over the body works plenty well enough to work on these at home, worst case scenario being that you get a bit of air in there and have to do it again. They run very low internal pressures too, so it's very easy to hand-test them in your bench vice to see if it's a good bleed before you put them back on the bike.

You can't just substitute anything you want that says 10w on it for Fox Red either, you gotta look at the table! You want Silkolene Pro RSF 10w or something like it with a high VI and similar viscosity.

Perfect. Thanks for the table. I'll use that once I do a complete rebuild.

 

[MmmBones]

it's very easy to hand-test them in your bench vice to see if it's a good bleed before you put them back on the bike. look at the table!

advanced test method:

 

[Happymtb.fr]

According to some french rumors, Gwin is running his shock with a lower viscosity oil in order to minimise the effects temperature build up.
It's a nice move but not fairly accessible for the DIY monkey crowd since the compression and rebound circuits would need to be adjusted accordingly...

 

[Jm_]

According to some french rumors, Gwin is running his shock with a lower viscosity oil in order to minimise the effects temperature build up.
It's a nice move but not fairly accessible for the DIY monkey crowd since the compression and rebound circuits would need to be adjusted accordingly...

Damping=friction=heat, so he's running less damping to minimize heat buildup?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Does your coil shock not use oil in the damper?

My old shock probably did... but I ran it for 5 years without needing to find out.

 

[Happymtb.fr]

Damping=friction=heat, so he's running less damping to minimize heat buildup?

No, he is using a fluid that doesn't change its viscosity as much over a wider range of temperature. In other words he uses a fluid with higher VI
Here are the viscosity indexes for the original fluid in the DHX2 and X2 and some with lower viscosity :
Silkolene Pro RSF 10wt (original) : 303
Silkolene Pro RSF 7.5wt: 322
Silkolene Pro RSF 5wt: 372
Silkolene pro RSF 2.5wt: 464

As you can see a lower viscosity yields a higher viscosity index.

The question here is how low in viscosity one can go with the design of the damping circuitry in order to get the right amount of damping. I guess that changing for stiffer shims on the main piston and changing it's flow capacity, modifying the poppet valves etc is not a problem for a customer like Aaron...

 

[Kanye West]

Well I have a float x2 on my v10 that I wanted to replace with a dhx2. The dhx2 I bought was the performance version without the high speed adjustments. I just wanted to swap the adjuster assemblies. The more I looked into it the more I looked like I could do full rebuilds at home. I searched the interwebs and had found anyone talking about doing this at home. More or less just wanted to know how stupid it would be to crack one of these open at home.

Following fox's guide I swapped this assemblies tonight and good a good enough "bleed" (you don't have to do a full bleed for the adjuster assemblies).

How much did the parts cost for that out of curiosity?

You probably don't have to be as precise with IFP depths on these either since the fluid displacement is somewhat smaller than normal shocks.

Anyone gotten a syringe/fitting setup for these things to bleed like an Avid brake yet?

 

[Josef]

I had some of the fox red 10wt so I didn't need to buy anything. I swapped the adjustments from my float x2 factory elite to the dhx2 that only had the performance adjustments. I ordered the spinner wrench for the adjustments but cancelled the order because the cover to the ifp has a build in spammer wrench you can use. Didn't have to reset the ifp depth. Just let the air out and refilled it when all was done.