 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Hi fox fans (and haters)
I have a set of 160mm 34 Talas CTD on my Nomad and for the majority of stuff so far they have been ok, however I'm struggling to get the air pressure set up right for riding DH in the descend setting. If I lower the pressure enough to handle rough roots and give me decent grip they seem to dive a lot under rider input - i.e. pumping lips and pushing in to berms (feels like too little low speed damping) and if I pump them up so they don't dive they are almost unrideably harsh over roots etc.
Anyone else here around the 12.5 stone mark that can let me know what pressures they run for comparison, and any other hints.
Not sure if its partially just because I'm used to riding these tracks on coil DH forks i.e. boxxers or 40's and just need to man up a bit.
Ta.
Put more float fluid in the air chamber start at and extra 5ml, to get the air spring to be more progressive I.E for support in the mid and end stroke.
have a look at the setup guide too: http://locotuning.co.uk/tech-info.html
There is also the 'trail' upgrade which give a harder threshold setting.
Looking at the spec there are the same as the 32's my missus has. What have you done with the Trail Adjust Low Speed knob? we had that up to full to stop the dive due to running lower pressure as she's not a heavy rider.
They can change some internals in a service to give more Low Speed C if thats not enough (simple job I'm told but we got hers dialled in)
I might have to look in to the additional fluid If I can't get it sorted through air / adjustments.
According to the online fox manual the Trail adjust dial only regulates low speed damping while in Trail mode.
Fair enough, she hardly ever gets out of Trail so may not be seeing it in D mode.
LOCO's method seems like a good idea (and I reckon he must know!!)
If your still in the UK try and get it done over there as it's not as easy over here.
as a slight hijack how do you find the 34's for stiffness? they could feature in my new bike plans. Not sure I'm ready to drop to 32's yet...
I had the same experience running my 2013 140mm Talas, they'd pack down under the slightest provocation and the fork would dive upon entering high speed corners or compressions and not return till i popped the front wheel.
Loco's tip up there ^ regarding an extra 5ml oil in the air chamber is a good place to start, I've ended up using an extra 10ml in the air chamber, an extra 35psi in the air spring and i've changed the fork oil to a mixture of Redline 10wt at 132ml and 15wt at 23ml (85% and 15% roughly) ratio in the oil chamber.
I realise that fox felt they ought to make the forks simpler for your average "joe" to use with the new CTD system but some of us are competent when it comes to suspension set-up and don't just blindly bugger about wi the set-up knobs, once set up correctly then they shouldn't need fiddling with at all.
Descent mode is terrible I'm afraid. Run my 32s full time in trail mode which will help with the diving on lower speed stuff but they still blow through on big highspeed hits.
Orange have given me a bigger volume spacer for the rear shock which I'm hoping will give some more ramp up on the aircan and I'm hoping Si can sort the fork 🙂
32 CTD 150mm travel here. 17st and have 20ml oil in the air chamber and around the recommended pressure for my weight. Never run in descend mode as it's like stepping back a decade in damping technology. With the largest volume spacer fitted to my LV CTD rear shock the front and rear suspension now feel well balanced when both in the same CTD setting. Taken quite a bit of fettling to achieve though.
Like others have mentioned. Start at 5ml and then keep going until your happy. Get the spacers for the rear to get everything nicely balanced.
Loco which fork are you adding more too the open bath or the fit?
It's Float Fluid on top of the air piston, the newer linear air spring system can be a little too, linear for some riders so a reduction of the air gap will make the spring 'ramp up' more.
OP how did you get on sorting your 34s?