Are you trying to find out if you're getting full travel?
If so, put a zip tie around one of the stanchions and go do your best huck to flat fronj. Measure how far the zip tie moved in comparison to "expected" full travel. Then you'll know how much travel you're getting and how much sanchion is exposed.
well the thing is, the zip tie was hitting the dropout, so i was afraid the fork was getting too muich travel, and bottoming on the dropouts. tho last night i reassembled the fork and its not pushing the tie down as far as before. and i do believe i bottomed it out
how would putting too much oil in cause my fork to use too much travel?
what i think i did was when i reassembled the fork and to keep the piston from dropping back into the fork when i thread the top cap on, was i put too much on the preload. cause i barely put any on last night and i seems ok now
Hydrolocking is where you put so much oil in a leg that there is more oil volume than is normally displaced by the piston. This is also known as soft bottoming, as it basically introduces an air top out spring into the leg. Normally, there is a large amount of air volume in the top of the shock. If you put more oil than normal in, you are replacing that air with oil. Oil does not compress, and air does, so you now compress the remaining air at a faster rate. Shivers are only supposed to have 170 ml of oil in each leg, so putting like 300 in could be a huge problem.
no it is around 300cc's, that 170cc figure from the website is a typo. The correct oil height range is 60-80mm to the top the fork fully compressed. You want to adjust the fork so it rarely bottoms out, so going strictly by a set volume is the wrong way to go. 300cc is an approximate guideline.
i have the same CD. If the right height was 170cc and we were filling with 300cc, it'd be all over the floor. And like i said, measure by height anyways, 60-80mm depending on your weight/springs/aggression, just dont dump in a set volume, your fork wont be tuned properly.
when i added oil to my shiver i did it by the capfull. rode it to see if i could bottom it then added more until i couldnt. ideally you want it to ramp up on oil before it bottoms out. there is a very fine line between the perfect amount of oil and losing some of your travel. it took me 2 hrs. and a 4 foot drop to flat, tools and some patience to get it just right. 4 foot to flat is a good test because you will usually land w/tranny under most riding cond. and that height is equivalent to the stresses of a 10-15ft drop to tranny w/a somewhat smooth rider. dont be afraid to push your fork's limits while your dialing it in, you arent gonna hurt it. people who go WAY BIGGER THAN YOU cant hurt that fork. taking into consideration your weight,ability,type of riding you do, will afect your setup.
I agree fattyfat. I use a pump type oil can and add a little oil as required through the air bleed holes in the caps. If you start with your oil level a little low then you can easily tune it just right with this method.
If I'm going to open the fork up to add oil, does that mean I unscrew the large black caps at the top of the legs and pull the innards out? I unscrewed one and tried to pull it up but it only came about 1" out. Is that what I should expect, and then I just compress the fork a little to make room to dump a cap of oil in?
I think I may take a syringe and a cap of oil and squirt it through the bleed hole anyway, but I'd like to know a bit about this process either way.
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