If anyone cares I sawed this thing in half a few weeks ago to see what was in it (running an Avy cart). Was suprised to find a simple spring-loaded washer covering the oil ports. I think this is similar or the same as a "cartidge fork emulator valve". It was once again an example of a very "high end" fork (888WC) with a super-crude damping system only slightly better than HSCV. To be more specific, normal rebound-check plate on top, on the bottom was a very heavy coil spring that pressed up against the oil ports on the compression piston. The piston itself actually looked CNCed. The RC3 "compression" adjuster simply adjusted the spring preload, or basically the force on the valve plate. No needle valve. No shims. No seperate low/high speed. I've already been through the Avalanche cart forwards and backwards due to revalving it for my (now) lighter weight, but the "RC3" was pretty dissapointing, not suprising I guess.
Old RC3 (2008-2009) 888 Cartridge Sawed Apart.
- Thread starter Jm_
- Start date
pics?
Mine went straight in the trash, replaced with an Evo cart. Instant, noticeable difference as I like a fair bit of low speed control and this resulted in harshness with the RC3 cart but much better "blowing off" with the Evo cart.
Naw, no pics this time. I agree about the "blowing off", you couldn't run the RC3 without making it feel like a jackhammer. It was kind of the classic "good at low speed/drops/jumps" and terrible at "high speed", which usually takes more complex valving to separate and give the proper high speed.
I like how you say a 2008 2009 is old....
first of all, props for tearing the thing apart.
now about my old '05. rc - after taking a very careful look at the base valve in the rebound cart i concluded that the thing is a real 6 port valve. the only problem is that the bastards only put a spring loaded shim on it and nothing else. it looks like the diameter is 16mm and i've been thinking about tearing it apart, getting another tube and shimming the thing but i can't get the shims in this size, nevermind the tube. (or any for that matter, living in croatia sucks, there's actually not a single suspension shop around here and any kind of diy is completely choked off).
it's really disappointing that they actually used a real valve in there but NO SHIMZ for years, i know this thing could be much much better than it is now...
now about my old '05. rc - after taking a very careful look at the base valve in the rebound cart i concluded that the thing is a real 6 port valve. the only problem is that the bastards only put a spring loaded shim on it and nothing else. it looks like the diameter is 16mm and i've been thinking about tearing it apart, getting another tube and shimming the thing but i can't get the shims in this size, nevermind the tube. (or any for that matter, living in croatia sucks, there's actually not a single suspension shop around here and any kind of diy is completely choked off).
it's really disappointing that they actually used a real valve in there but NO SHIMZ for years, i know this thing could be much much better than it is now...
in terms of their dampers, it is old