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Possible? Sure. Worth the hassle? I don't think so.
Just Buy an Ohlins 38
The Super Deluxe Ultimate that came on my V3 Transition Sentinel blows through travel extremely easily, even while pedaling and pumping. Neither the HSC or LSC dials seem to mitigate this behavior, so I did some digging and found that the shock has a C26 compression tune (the lightest available), which seems like a strange choice for the relatively linear suspension design. I’ve also seen a few reviewers (blister, etc) note that the bike rides better with a shock that has more damping. I’m planning to have the shock changed to a higher compression tune, but I don’t know how much higher to go. For reference, I’m about 190 ready to ride, on a mix of flow/jump trails and natural rooty stuff.
I find transition almost always chooses very soft compression tunes, and always found the same feedback too. I recently tuned a rockshox for a V2 sentinel and settled on the C34 tune which is 2 steps up.
The other thing with the RS shocks is the main piston has a large effect at low speed but less change to the high speed rate, while the low speed adjuster works at relatively high speeds. So if you want to retain grip but have more support and big hit control I would suggest going no higher than the C34 and wind the low speed dial in further.
But if you prefer a more digressive feel then choose a stiffer tune with the dials open (which is kind of backwards to how most shocks are tuned but thats what I've noticed)
Okay, excellent feedback. I was leaning towards C34 anyway, so I’ll probably go that way. Thank you!!
Dunno if this is the correct forum for this but is it normal for the dust wipers to be puking oil after bottoming out the fork? I’ve bottomed out my fork a few times the past few rides at the park and the air spring side has been spitting out oil, damper side is fine. Wanted to check before I go through the effort of replacing the wipers since they’re brand new. I did use a seal driver to install them.
I should probably add a volume spacer too lol
Try to burp air from the lowers.
I pushed the bleeder buttons on the back of the lowers at the beginning of the day before it was leaking oil.
I tired it at the end of the day and air did come out but not an unusual amount of air. The fork did drop 3psi over the course of the day at the park so it’s possible it went into the lowers and when I bottomed out it built enough to bypass the seal
Yeah I'm leaning towards an air leak in to the lowers, there shouldn't be that much oil coming out. You shouldn't hear any air coming out of the bleeder if you had already pushed it at the start of the day
You're not using push low friction dust wipers are you? I had 2 sets for a 36 and 1 set for a zeb (38) that would weep oil both during rides, and also during storage (bikes are hung vertically on steady racks). I swapped to dual compound skf seals and have not had the problem since.
That’s exactly what these wipers are lol
Good to know, probably won’t buy these again.
Yeah, those weep oil and will not stop. I left them on for 6 months just dealing with it expecting it to stop at some point... it did not and I just replaced them. Oddly, I had previously used these with good results with no issues... only the sets I bought in the last 1.5 years did this.
what kind of oil are you using in the lowers? I've found WPL 20wt and super thick oils like supergliss 100k and fox 20wt can leak a lot easier than thinner oils
Just the Fox 20W on the air spring side (4W on the damper side). I've had a few Fox forks and I'm used to a little bit of oil on the stanchions the first few rides after a service but this is the first one I've seen leak this much. This is also the first one I've used non-Fox wipers on.
Could also be too much oil in the air spring lower, it reduces volume and increases the ramp that can "burp" the oil out when you bottom the fork.
But it would have to be a lot more oil than the standard 15/20cc for this to contribute.
It often only needs to be 10cc more than stock to start causing problems, also with the 38 you need to remove the air spring tube and drain the oil that gets trapped between the air spring and stanchion or that will add a huge amount too.
Since he was bottoming out I do think there is an air leak issue here
Thanks for mentioning that situation on the 38. I have yet to service a 38 air spring without finding nearly all of the bath oil trapped in that space between the air spring body and the stanchion. The interesting part of that for me, is that space is one of the things that helps the 38 air spring work so well. It makes me think that the 38 is going to feel very different as the lower leg/air spring service interval grows.
Regarding the push seals weeping oil... I concur that the stickier/thicker oils have more of a tendency of slipping past the dust wipers. In my case, they have done it with every oil I have tried in the lowers: Fox 20wt gold, Fox 4 wt, Fox teflon 5wt, Maxima 7 wt (I use this for smashpot hbo fluid), maxima plush dynamic 3wt and motorex supergliss. I think there is just a problem with those as designed... particularly the batches over the last 2 years.
The bottom outs have very much been deserved lmao but Im monitoring pressures now to see whats going on.
But til on the air spring, I definitely did not remove that when I serviced the fork and added like an extra 5cc of oil because I read somewhere the 38 has quite a bit of extra room in the lowers.
okie dokie, once the seals thing is resolved I would recommend investing in a volume spacer or some high speed compression damping in that case....The best number of full bottom outs is zero, so getting a few of them means something is not right, either in the set up or the function
Long story short I was impressed at how much high speed compression I could run with the Grip X2 so I was experimenting with high HSC setup with no volume spacers for my 160lb rider weight. That worked great until I started going bigger and faster lol. I just added a volume spacer so we’ll see how that works out. Thanks for your feedback in this thread, its been very helpful!
Yeah feedback on the new compression characteristics seem pretty positive - more high speed compression damping and less low speed makes it more useful for sure. I found in the old dampers people would be needing more damping but as soon as you added a few clicks on the dial it would be too harsh....
Thats been exactly my experience and specifically why I upgraded to the latest version of the Fox 38. I was running the Grip 2 almost all the way open and wanted more HSC but adding more just made it harsh. Im running the Grip X2 pretty much in the middle now and still have room to close it even more depending on the trail and how Im feeling that day. I like the new bushings too
Am I correct in thinking that Rockshox HBO-equipped air shocks can’t be travel adjusted without a new damper body? The 65mm stroke SDU coil I’m trying on the Sentinel feels great, so I’m leaning towards bumping the rear travel to 160 in addition to the new compression tune.
You’ll need a new damper body with the correct stroke/HBO needle, otherwise the HBO would engage at another point in the stroke than intended.
Damper bodies are pretty cheap, fortunately.
I got the right one for around 35€ new.
Works perfect…
Yeah air shocks have a different body, coil shocks use a different height piston bolt
Follow-up shock tuning question - if I’m going up two steps in compression tune on that shock (C26->C34) does it make sense to modify the R25 rebound tune at the same time? Aftermarket Vivids have a base tune of R25/C34, while aftermarket SDUs have a base tune of R55/C30 for the standard version, or R55/C34 or C30 for the Linear XL air can.
My 160mm Lyrik Ultimate has an audible rattle at top out. No bushing play that I can detect, but when it rebounds back to the top it sounds like something is loose/the lowers seem to flex. I haven't had this issue with the other two Charger 3.1 forks I've had. Any idea what could be the cause/solution?
That sounds odd - maybe a loose buttercup? Not really encountered that before
Re:rebound, I find all their rebound tunes quite slow so i would pribably leave it at R25 unless you fnd a limit of the adjustment range
Thanks, I'll probably leave rebound as is, then. That will put it at the same compression/rebound tune as the aftermarket Vivid that folks have been liking on it.
I may have to just open up the fork and see what's going on in there...I was thinking it could be just cause it's at max travel, but so is my Pike on the short travel bike, and it doesn't do that at all.
Update. I dropped the lowers and put new Fox wipers in. That fixed the oil leaking and interestingly reduced the amount of air buildup in the lowers, Im having significantly less air coming out of the bleeder valves whenever I push them.
Volume spacer also did the trick to help with how frequently I was bottoming out lol
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