New Whip? New toys for the dependable steed?
- Thread starter mykel
- Start date
Had a Push coil kit kicking around, finally put it in a 170mm Fox 36.
Went up a spring rate from recommended ( to 50# green) and have 40 psi in the air bumper. Feels pretty solid on the trails, ran a rough one today with a few drops and jumps, still had 35mm of travel left.
I "re-gulped" the air bumper to pretty much max negative.
Can't even feel when it kicks in, nice an smooth.
Went up a spring rate from recommended ( to 50# green) and have 40 psi in the air bumper. Feels pretty solid on the trails, ran a rough one today with a few drops and jumps, still had 35mm of travel left.
I "re-gulped" the air bumper to pretty much max negative.
Can't even feel when it kicks in, nice an smooth.
I prefer coil shocks, but air forks. I went riding rough stuff today with my CC Helm Coil, and on drops and bigger hits, the linearity of the coil surprised me a few times when I was deep in the travel. The spring rate is perfect for 95% of the time as the next step up is oversprung, but it was a good reminder of why I prefer air forks in those situations. I remember bolting back my DVO Diamond last year after using the Helm and it felt like meeting my best friend that I haven't seen in a long time.
Agree with this--except I did have a progressive coil spring in my old boxxer and that was pretty great. If there were more options like this I would definitely consider. For folks riding really flat trails without many giant compressions I think coil is awesome for a fork. That said, my Ohlins air forks leave nothing to be desired..
3D printed the two biggest volume spacers for the rear shock. Fox wanted 25 US rubles for a set of 5 (of which I didn't have any use for the smaller 3) and had them printed for less than 3 bucks and some spare time.
Here is the link if anyone needs them:
Fox Float DPS Spacers/Tokens by Mr_SHME
Modeled after the 803-01-250 kit. Only modeled the 0.8inch3 and the 0.91inch3 spacers. Currently running the 0.91 spacer in my bike and it works great. Printed with 100% infill in PETG.
www.thingiverse.com
EDIT: Here are the Fox 34 volume spacers just in case:
Fox Fork Volume Spacer 34mm by Mathewgho
This is a volume spacer for 34mm fox Float suspension forks. Works with authentic fox 34mm volume spacer or without. Check with Fox to verify the number of these your fork can use. Enjoy. My fork can take up to 4 of these I believe some forks can take 6. Cheapest I could find them for sale was...
www.thingiverse.com
Last edited:
I have used a Vorsprung smashpot as well. It was good, HBO is a great feature, but the air assist in the PUSH kit is way more tunable. It also kicks in sooner. Depending on pressure, the air assist starts at around 100mm of travel for a 170mm fork. Never feel those unexpected oh-shit-there-goes-all-the travel moments.
I think the prefect combo would be both, a HBO + air assist to dial in the spring rate and for fine tuning when riding the bike park vs trails. Like what Avalanche does with the hybrid coil/air setup.
The other thing you lose with a coil setup is the lower leg ramp effect from the air spring side. The sealed volume is much larger, similar to the damper side, so there is no big ramp at the end.
This is why I love the coil kit. I just do not get along with the deep stroke ramp up. I find it kicks too much, but I guess this is the "pop" people like about air suspension. I was going to do the Avy hybrid, but the Lyrik chassis has limits on the coil weight Craig could install. I would have ended up using too much air assist, so I went Smashpot.
meh.
I got a Novya shock from Novy Parts to try out today. I hear good things so I’m looking forward to it.
I like the bolt straight into body threads approach
seems sound
seems sound
I also offer a upgrade lockout like thatI've heard Sickline suspension solves this by drilling through the threads and shock body then passing a longer bolt through it all.
/dodging @bullcrew 's oily drill bits
100% lockout..bolts are interchangeable.
Does every customer get its name engraved on the ifp cap?
I kind of wanted one but it doesn't fit my Ransom. The EXT storia is nevertheless doing fine so far. It just that servicing the EXT will be more costly in the long run...
Stripped the crown and stem. Got a silver spank hub and set of house rims on the way. Few more odds and ends and she’ll be done! But need to ride this weekend
@HeadMaster like the look of that...clean..
Zee cranks on my boy's Ransom. Not every day one sees bash guard... these come from far down my spare parts drawer. They will be perfect for this frame without iscg-tabs
Removing the previous dub cranks was easy thanks to the good advices gathered here. Cheers
Removing the previous dub cranks was easy thanks to the good advices gathered here. Cheers
No pics, but;
Future ideas to optimize further;
Just did a quick local hot lap. Mostly trail stuff, but a few good root filled sections with cambers. True test will be at the mountain, but huge difference in front wheel grip and turning through rocks/roots. Never realized how much the front tire would disconnect from the ground for a few milliseconds due to the 'platform' inherent in the cartridge.
- Dremeled the dish out of the piston of my Boxxer Select to remove the silly platform that RS for some reason builds into all their stuff
- Concocted a ~slightly higher cst cartridge oil by doing a 50:50 mix
- Added moar shims to the piston stack to actually attempt to have HSC
- Regreased all the sliding o rings
- Soaked the foam rings in and added SAE 32k way oil to the top side of the air piston
Future ideas to optimize further;
- See if the Charger 3 sealhead can be installed as there is a lot of drag
- Assess low friction o-rings or o-rings coatings to reduce IFP drag
- If time and patients permits, mill a high flow piston and needle valve LSC and futz around with Shim restacktor...
Just did a quick local hot lap. Mostly trail stuff, but a few good root filled sections with cambers. True test will be at the mountain, but huge difference in front wheel grip and turning through rocks/roots. Never realized how much the front tire would disconnect from the ground for a few milliseconds due to the 'platform' inherent in the cartridge.
Last edited:
I finally got my Zeb bushings sized and aligned. Yeah - gonna admit probably should have done that earlier... the difference in front wheel traction is crazy. I did rebuild the damper at the same time, so maybe that contributed but sheesh.
The damaged nerves in my hands really liked having the bushing done.
I'm a believer in bushing work as well. When my Ohlins 36 went in for it's annual rebuild, they sized the bushings (I did not request this and was not charged more than the rebuild fee). Obviously hard to parse out the impact of the service from the bushing work but to me it feels even better than it did when new. I'm also running substantially more air pressure now which to me suggests it's moving more freely.
I've bumped the pressure in my Zeb up too after getting it done. Only like 2-3 PSI, but one or two psi in that fork is a noticeable difference.
Do you guys have anyone you would 100% endorse sending a fork off to for burnishing?
A local place here in Oz did mine. You can buy the burnishing/sizing tools if you want to give it a crack, else I'd just check the suspension tuners near you.
*edit* just checked the tool pricing. You'd want to be rich to buy them yourself.
*edit* just checked the tool pricing. You'd want to be rich to buy them yourself.
Exactly. I *almost* still have a pro shop of tools, but not suspension tools. Way, way too specific to make sense, as we are riding bigger and bigger suspension platforms.
I've used Fluid Focus for this a couple of times with good results
You can resize the bushings 4 or 5 times with good results before needing to change out the bushings , imo. You’d also only need one for a 36 right? It could be justifiable with the amount you ride.
I would need 35 and 38, (Helm, Zeb, 38) as of today…which probably means 36, 37, and 39 next. 
Do you have access to a lathe?I would need 35 and 38, (Helm, Zeb, 38) as of today…which probably means 36, 37, and 39 next.
Ironically, there is one less than a few hundred feet from me. But it is in the workshop of our next door neighbor, who died this spring. Probably will be hauled off, and the property developed. The old man was awesome, a Navajo that bought the house and property in the 50’s. It’s the largest contiguous property left in East Jackson, probably worth over 10 million as dirt.
There is an amazing old barn, absolutely filled to the rafters with stuff. He was a welder, fabricator, small engine guy. Absolutely brilliant, with barely a high school education.
He would have built anything for me, we brought him over fresh sourdough, soup, and butter all through the pandemic.
There is an amazing old barn, absolutely filled to the rafters with stuff. He was a welder, fabricator, small engine guy. Absolutely brilliant, with barely a high school education.
He would have built anything for me, we brought him over fresh sourdough, soup, and butter all through the pandemic.
Not if you steal it first.
Yeah, a 1962 lathe and tooling is pretty portable without anyone noticing. (His daughter still lives there)
Goes what says the sticker on the top tube?