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Hi all, I have the above forks on a stage 6. First proper ride today and I've found that it feels amazing on jumps, drops etc. But not so good on rough stuff. Doesn't seem to be too plush on rough ground. Question is, what can I change yo improve this, with out impacting on the feel elsewhere?
Pressure/tokens?
There's a decent thread on MTBR about Grip2 set ups. One of the issues is the number of HSC & LSC clicks on actual forks not matching what Fox say. Get that wrong and it'll feel shite. I do mine from fully closed.
FWIW, I'm 95kg all up, and all clicks from closed:
85psi
1 token
HSC 12
LSC 12
HSR 4
LSR 9
One of the issues is the number of HSC & LSC clicks on actual forks not matching what Fox say. Get that wrong and it’ll feel shite. I do mine from fully closed.
Clicks are counted from full closed, they will open a slightly variable amount, but its past changing flow at that point.
They are now but originally it was from open until fox changed it
If the fork isn't feeling brilliant on rough ground, it's the forks ability to get out of the way quickly that's not working well.
If it's your first ride, they could need breaking in still, 2 or 3 rides and the seals should have broken in. The stichion caused by new seals and wipers can easily hurt small bump compliance.
The next simple option, is that the foam rings inside the fork are dry, as they've been sat around for a while not used. To fix that, turn the bike upsided down for 5 minutes. Then go ride. Dry foam rings can add a considerable amount of friction to the fork, and again really be detrimental to small bump compliance.
Now... The more complex stuff.
Too much air pressure will be bad for small bump compliance, but so will not enough, as you can be sat in the highest ramp up part of the spring. Check your sag, it should be no less than 20% and no more than 30%. If that's all good... You're onto damping. Which is a bit of a minefield, but feeling what each adjuster does can help.
The simplest way to find out what's causing your poor small bump, is to max out the adjusters, one at a time and check how it feels. (And when I say 'max' I mean unwind them, so you have the least damping possible).
So, first find a bit of trail you can repeat. Then turn your low speed compression adjuster all the counter-clockwise, counting the clicks. Ride the trail. Did it feel better? Is yes, then you know low speed compression is a factor.
Then, wind the clicks you counted back onto the low speed. And wind the high speed all the way counter clockwise, count the clicks. Ride. As above.
Wind the high speed back to where it was, then wide the rebound all the way counter-clockwise (so it's unwinding), ride.
That'll give you an understanding of what adjuster you need to focus on.
Only play with tokens once youve got sag right, and you know what you like with your adjusters. Tokens are just to control bottom out and midstroke. They're no replacement for proper air pressure and damping though.
My Fit4s have taken a while to break in, they feel alot better than new now.
Cheers guys! It's first proper ride, but have already put probably 25 ish miles before today. It is only small bump, e erything else feels awesome. No tokens in yet, teeth grinder, I'm sane weight as you, think ill reset everything and start again, making a note of where I was in case it feels worse
he's not even a real geordie 🙄
Right, speaking from experience running the Fox 36 GRIP2 for a few months now, here's a few things to note...
1. It's a bloody awesome fork when it's setup right. But it's not easy to setup compared to most other forks. Consider hiring a Shockwiz to help speed your setup process up, but even then take its feedback with a pinch of salt as we all have our personal preferences.
2. They do take a few rides to bed in (same as any fork to be fair), so don't expect it to be absolutely amazing on its first ride.
3. Don't confuse the importance of "plush" and "control"... My Fox 36 isn't the most plush fork I've ridden, it's probably not even close actually! If you want "plush", buy a Rockshox Lyrik... If you want grade A hard hitting control and total confidence when you're ploughing through the kind of trails these forks were designed for, the 36 GRIP2 (when setup right) is simply a useful step up from all of its main competitors... Fact!
4. Most people run more damping than is required. This is normally easy to rectify by just winding out the rebound knob a click or two, riding it and seeing how it feels. However. It's CRUCIAL that you understand the difference between the High Speed and Low speed rebound circuits (far more crucial than the compression adjustment IMO), how they work, what they affect etc. If you can't grasp how/why/what the HSR and LSR rebound adjusters do, and why they're individually important, then you'd be far better off with a GRIP fork or perhaps the FIT4 instead as they're a much easier fork to setup, and will give 80-90% of the performance but without any of the confusion when setting it up.
5. People obsess about sag... Sag is a poor indicator IMO of how to setup a fork correctly for use. Sure, sag should be (as rickon stated) roughly somewhere in the 20-30% ballpark (even then that isn't a fixed goal but more of a suggestion), but you need to go and ride the thing and see how close you come not only to bottoming it out, but it helps to understand your riding style and the desired effect too, as you may or may not need to play about with volume tokens or not too. FWIW, I run a lot less sag than most, just one volume spacer in my 36's at 150mm travel, less than 25% sag and minimal compression damping as a result. It suits me, it may not suit you, but the key point is there is no hard and fast "one size fits all" setup. Understanding what each adjuster does to a decent extent will help speed up things no end.
Hope that helps somewhat...
Cheers, I think I have the basic understanding of it all. The thing is, I didn't understand how it feels so amazing on jumps, drops but not so much on bit hits from rocks etc I think I need yo re look at rebound, tas it does seem to ping around a bit. Will experiment anyway and see where I get. Either way, if already is a massive improvement vrr the 4 year old pikes they replaced
I can't pretend to know an awful lot about suspension setup, but a great setup for drops and jumps is not going to feel as good on small bump. They're just opposing objectives. Choose your poison.
I found that the Fox air chart was a big on the high side.
I run mine about 20psi below what fox recommend with two tokens in to make them more progressive.
I also found that for small repeated high speed bumps I needed to run a lot less high speed rebound than I have with other forks.
If it's good on single large hits, but poor on repeated impacts it could be packing down. This can be fixed with less rebound damping.
I've made some alterations. However, I've yet to try them after my last disastrous ride! Reverb blew its seals, fluid everywhere. Stick through the spokes taking two out. Remainder of spoke dropped down behind freehub jamming it, and damaging derailleur so gears shit. Couldn't have gone much worse
My 36 grip2 was harsh on small choppy stuff, giving me arm pump.
I played around with the settings and just could not get them plush on high speed rough stuff.
I gave them a full service and removed a load of grease from the air shaft. They now feel excellent. The best feeling fork I have ever ridden. I added more air in them after the service and backed off the low and high speed damping. They now have a supple top, stay up and have so much control on the bigger hits.
My advice is give them a service.