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i am looking at removing spacers in my Fox 34 Performance Elite fork. It’s a 2017 120mm FIT. It has 5 spacers as supplied and I’m not getting full travel despite playing with air pressure. Have ordered a 26mm socket and wrench and watched the instructions on the Fox site and looks simple enough.
Question - am I best removing one at a time, or do I take them all out, try it, and add back in one at a time after a ride to tune ? Not sure how much effect one at a time has ?
thanks.
if you have all 5 in there, i'd take 2 out and see how it feels.
Make sure the socket is nice and "sharp". I did this by carefully filing the face of the socket flat, so the socket has more to grip the air chamber cap with.
Most sockets have the inner edges radiused slightly.
That's a good point, you don't want to risk rounding off the nut
good points, thanks, will take 2 out to start with
also, I hadn't thought about chamferred edge on socket, so you have saved me some money 🙂 I cancelled the torque wrench and socket from Amazon and ordered one of the EpicSolutions specific ones. No torque numbers so will go sensible hand tight with my 25nm calibrated right wrist....
http://www.epicbleedsolutions.com/products/tools/flat-socket-spanner-fox-rockshox-forks/
I took my cap off with a biggish adjustable spanner - carefully, but it went fine
<cancels stw account>
that was my first thought, but then I reckoned a £12 tool was a more sensible plan for me !
Just remember that it doesn't take much to overtighten.
so finger tight then bit more and guage from there maybe a slight little nip more.
thanks - the online stuff says 24.8 Nm, which is pretty darned tight...
Got the Epic spanner this morning and have taken 1 out for now and set pressure at 75 psi which is a good bit below the 85 psi which is the guide for my 12.5 stone out the shower, plus a bit for kit. Reviews and previous posts suggest the Fox fork pressure guides are a bit high if you want to get the right sag...
Will give it a go and remove another spacer at a time depending how it performs. Thanks for advice.
After a bit of playing around I have settled on 2 spacers (it came with 5) and 75 psi. Getting full travel and it feels a lot better. Thanks for advice.
From what I remember iainc we bought the same bike (Anthem 1 from Rutland Cycling) in the sales around the same time last year? I too was having issues getting full travel from the fork until I found out that the 34 has air tokens like my old RS Reba. I've just dropped one token out for the moment (I'm 70ish kg in riding gear) and will see how that goes for the moment.
Great fork. Miles ahead of anything I've owned before.
^^^^ yes, same bike, though I bought mine earlier in the year. I never really got the fork properly dialled in and was running pretty low pressures to compensate. Removal of 3 reducers has transformed it now though.
Glad you got it sorted, it's a piece of cake once you have the right tool
^^^^ yeah, I went to the xc trails at Cathkin, which is 20 mins a lap and a nice clean car park and took a rear wheel bike stand, the spanner, towels etc with me, so was easy to do a lap, wipe down, pop reducers out, pump up and go try for another lap, same with pressure fixes. A productive couple of hours. I will leave as is for a few weeks and then maybe take another one out.
5 spacers is loads, especially at 120mm.
I have the standard 2 in on a 130mm and it feels pretty much spot on, could maybe add another but no more.
5 is way too many.
A couple more rides in and considering going from 2 to 1 spacer as not often getting the last 10mm or ever bottoming it....
Anyone riding this fork with no tokens, or just one ?
no one ?
oh well, spanners out tonight and will pop another one out, leaving 1 in for now.
Can't add anything useful I'm afraid, but I am interested in what you find. I have the Factory 140s on the Orbea which I believe come with 2 spacers as standard and I thought I wasn't getting full travel or bottoming out despite running quite a bit lower pressures than recommended. I didn't realise though that Fox forks (140s at least) apparently have a stanchion length 10mm longer than their travel, so still playing around with pressures.
good to know - will report back ! Going down from 5 spacers to 2 made a big difference on mine. The stanchions on the 120mm 34 are a little longer than 120mm, but measuring the o ring is showing I'm getting around 110mm max travel. Was concerned that taking the last one or 2 out might make it bottom out on bigger hits.......
Took one out, left pressure at 75/78 and gave it a hard ride, bottomed a couple of times so popped it back in. 2 tokens and 75/78 psi seems to be my right place. Thanks for all the tips.
I’ve had similar problems with my Fox 34. Came with 3 tokens which was far too many for me. 2 improved matters but still nowhere near full travel. 1 was far too soft even for me, increasing air pressure helped at the expense of small bump compliance.
The answer for me was to invest in an MRP Ramp Control device. Very easy to fit but I will admit quite expensive. I can now run plenty of sag for that plush feeling on flatter trails but add clicks to give more support on the steeper or rougher trails. Apparently 4 clicks on the top dial equals 1 token. It feels really good to have this sort of easy adjustment to suit conditions.
To be honest I’m surprised one of the big companies hasn’t done a deal with MRP to offer this as an upgrade at point of sale.