I have a lyrik ultimate that came stock on my RocketMax I bought in 2021. It's done well to make it this far but it's now developed creak in the steerer.
I'd be keen to replace the lowers along with the CSU as I actually cross threaded one of the brake mounts a while ago - fortunately it holds but it's only a matter of time until it'll cause me issues.
I have found this fork below on fleabay - it's one of the newer lyriks with the updated lowers with pressure release valve. It's cheap with the RC damper, but this would be a bit of a downgrade from the Ultimate Charger 2.1 I have now. I believe this is the Select that was released when the ultimate with the Charger 3 damper came out
Does anybody know with any certainty if I could fit the damper in my current forks to the below fork to get the best of both worlds? Looking in to this, someone on Reddit says it works fine, which is promising, but just looking for some reassurance, or for someone to tell me if it won't work and why.
Failing that there is a suitable replacement on Merlin that I could take my damper out of to put in but it's more expensive and with the below fork I'd get the Debonair+ air spring.
Many thanks
I don't know the answer to your question but it's very likely, yes. If people can upgrade an old fork to the newer damper, which they did, then it should be backwards compatible.
However, what I came here to say is that both your issues are repairable. A helicoil will fix the brake mount and getting the CSU disassembled and rebonded is perfectly possible. I believe it's supposed to be better than new as the fretting causes space for the binding agent to exist.
Thanks for the encouragement with this, sounds like I should be ok then!
I've left the brake mount as is for 3 years now so I'd probably continue to leave it if the fork were to live on.
I did consider sending it off to get sorted but the problem is I'm off to the alps in 2 weeks and looking at lead times of the guys that can press in a new steerer it wouldn't be back in time for my trip. I looked at the recent thread about this as well and it seems the jury's out - I noted some people were saying the creak returned after a few months so there's a chance I might just be kicking the can down the road.
Failing that there is a suitable replacement on Merlin that I could take my damper out of to put in but it's more expensive and with the below fork I'd get the Debonair+ air spring.
Are those the 160mm Lyrik for £225ish as per the PSA on here?
I bought a set to swap the internals from my damaged Ultimates. I’ve not actually got round to doing the swap as I’m actually very happy with the fork as is.
I might swap the damper and 170mm airshaft next service if I can be arsed.
As for the newer fork, I’m not sure about the compatibility, they don’t do travel longer than 160mm on the later Lyrik. If that points to different design I don’t know.
“As for the newer fork, I’m not sure about the compatibility, they don’t do travel longer than 160mm on the later Lyrik. If that points to different design I don’t know.”
Different bushings and max damper travel I think. But it looks like the new damper will work with the old and therefore vice versa:
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/lyrik-ultimate-c2-and-charger-3-rc2.1208792/
Thanks for this, makes me feel better seeing more than one person has fitted the "wrong" damper to a fork and it seems to work. I'll be running a newer lyrik at 160mm so shouldn't come in to any issues. I've gone for this fix as if it works it's a fix for £293. If it doesn't, I can get Charger 3.1 for £270 - combined price of this is still cheaper than the 2 best whole fork deals I could find which is either a Helm from Winstanleys for £600 or a Fox factory 36 from Stif for £750.
@jamesoz - the lyrik on the PSA is now £350 and I'd have to change over both the damper and the airspring to bring the fork down to 160mm.
Just posting a follow up to this if anyone else is researching this in the future - it works! New fork arrived yesterday so I've spent the afternoon swapping the dampers over and built back up again. Creak disappeared and up and down the street I haven't had a damper fly out the fork in to my face, but I'll ride it in a bit more anger tonight when the weather cools down a bit
