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unfortunately, i test rode some tasty bikes at the weekend.
all had pikes, and having done 50-odd km of downhill at passportes du soleil the day before, the Sektors just felt so shit in comparison.
annoying, cos i'd always felt they were plenty good enough for my skills and terrain.
seeing as a set of pikes is lots of money (maybe i'll get a bargain set off here one day) i'd like to try to at least improve the feel of my sektors.
so they're 2013 Sektors RLs. i've upgraded rebound damper to dual flow, MoCo DNA, which did make some difference. what else will make the biggest difference in your humble opinions?
is upgrading compression damper worthwhile? apparently makes less difference than upgrading rebound.
how about changing oil weight? they have fairly recent standard rockshox oil in, having had CSU replaced under Warranty.
perhaps i should just run them softer? i'm setting air pressure entirely on sag at the moment, and on guide table on forks.
always looks wrong to me when they sit 'too far' into their travel, but perhaps 'too far' is not necessarily too far?
and thanks in advance to everyone who says 'just get some pikes'.
i will, one day
Try to be a little more analytical BEFORE you spend your money.
You said "felt so shit in comparison" - why?
1) damping? (the speed at which the fork compresses or rebounds)
2) spring rate? (are they too stiff? don't compress easily enough?)
3) flexible? (steering feels vague and imprecise?)
IF you can get to this answer it will enable you to spend your money and maybe make some improvement.
Aren't Pikes just loads stiffer because of the fatter stanchions, so the action feels nicer?
i spect there's a bit of that going on yes. not that i feel it as flex, more as a kind of rattlyness. it also feels like they get a bit overwelmed by terrain at times.
i'm plenty analytical about it thanks JAG. and not about to splurge any money without convincing myself it's worthwhile.
'Hence-the-reason-why' i'm asking on here
so to answer your points
1) Damping, i just don't know. i do tinker with my rebound, a couple of click in either direction and end up coming back to the same setting, so i guess that's the best i can get it.
As for compression, they only have low-speed compression damping adjustment; 5 clicks to locked out. i vary this between 1 and 2 clicks but being low-speed, the difference it makes seems to be between me pitching forward over the bars at times or not, ie not to plushness.
maybe replacing the damper with one with more adjustabilty would allow me to analyse this more
2) Spring rate. possibly there is more adjusting to do with spring rate. i should perhaps try running a good notch more sag for a full ride and see how i get on. i never bottom them out at the moment, and i reckon i should be almost bottoming them out on the biggest thing i hit, say if get have a messy landing.
3) Flexibilty. yes, as i said above i reckon this is affecting the feel, but i'm not a heavy rider though my trails are rough, they're not mental, and i'm not going that fast. so i guess on paper 32mm stanchions should be ok, but maybe nevertheless, the 34mm pikes just inevitably feel plusher partly as a result of that.
I guess plushness best sums up what i'm really after.
btw wiper seals etc are done regularly
Coil conversion? I had a set of coil Sektor RLs that were very plush and I actually liked them which is rare for me with a Rockshox fork. Not up there with the best modern stuff in terms of damping quality though.
try a coil in them, a Uturn or 2 step just drops in, night and day and not much heavier.
edit what woodster sez!
aye, i would actually love if they were coil, but i'm pretty sure they're not convertible. looked into it a while ago.
anyone confirm? 2013 solo air RL.
AFAIK the chassis is the same, the only issues you can have is the spring length which is not a problem with the U-turn 😉 or needing a negative top out bumper spring if you cannot use the exixting one somehow.
I think there are some good treads on this on MTBR.
Take note that the spring will mark the inside of the stanction meaning that a air spring will probably leak if you try and reverse the procedure.
thanks iffoveload. i'm re-resarching it just now, on mtbr turns out
also, realised i've been mixing up terms, which is easy enough with rockshox. btu MoCo and DNA are compression damper terms i think...
MoCo DNA is just the latest Moco damper that cam out in 2012-ish.
I have a 2013 Sektor R Solo Air. It's got an RLT compression damper and dual-flow rebound, and, just recently, I've stuck a coil spring in it. Biggest difference in order of percieved change in performance were the rebound damper and the coil spring (I also experimented with bottomless tokens in the airspring, which made a good difference, but not coil-like). It's also set at 140mm, rather than the 150 it came as. It works for me and, having tried new Pikes and Foxes, I'm happy to live with it.
FAST do a compression damper with seperate high and low-speed circuits, which I've half-heartedly looked at.
The combination of dual-flow rebound and coil spring are definitely the sweetspot for me.
@warpcow I'm interested in upgrading the rebound and compression on my Sector TK Solo Air. Are yours a Steel Stanchion model too? If so where did you get the parts?
Afaik it's not possible on the steel-stanchioned ones, I'm afraid. The inner-diameter is different to the alu ones.
Cheers. Probably best I buy some new forks then 😉
This is interesting to me. I had a Nukeproof Mega TR for about a year and never got on with it - it was hard to ride and I fell off in corners a lot. Eventually I sold it and have since ridden way more techy, steeper, faster stuff on my hardtail. It bothered me that the mega was such a bad ride when it gets good reviews and shouldn't have been such hard work. I've attributed the difference to the forks - I had Sektor RLs on the Mega and have Revelation RTC3s on the Soul and am 100% sure this is the difference. The Sektors just couldn't cope with the demands I'd put on the (very capable) frame. In hindsight it was a good exercise in realising the difference that good kit makes - pays your money, gets better performance.
My experience has been different. My Sektor Solo Air 2013's feel amazing 140mm travel. They just seem to work really well without any faffing.
I've also got Fox 34 Factory Kashima 160mm jobbies 2013s and getting the Sektor's made me realise the Fox 34s weren't up to much as I had them setup anyway despite the high price tag (came on discounted bike so no loss to me).
I've since had the FIT4 cartridge fitted and put a Push Industries air tune (max volume spacer) in to "fix" the 34 to finally be perceptibly better than the Sektor was straight off eBay LOL. I'm really happy with my 34s now though. Cracking fork. Much better than it was stock.
I've ridden Pike's on Demo bikes many times. Never been blown away. Yes I'd have one if it came on a bike but I'm not rushing out to swap my Sektors. Dealt with a DH race and BPW although I tend to use it as a trail only bike and use the 160 for bigger stuff if I can.
I'm 73-75kg. Running around 60-65-70 PSI in the forks. I tweak it but it's around there.
I like the small stuff to be soaked up but the fork to not dive through it's travel and support me in the corners.
It's been a great fork. I fully intended replacing it instantly with a Pike but it doesn't seem to be necessary. It's a year later now.
yep so, assuming i [i]can[/i] put a coil in, i think that's the best way to go. i read somewhere it's not possible and i thought it was due to something to do with the circlip groove at bottom of air-spring upper. ring any bells? can't find it anymore.
warpcow, yours were Sektor Rs as opposed to RLs. but i can't see how that would really make the difference?
wish i had bought coil ones all along, they're a tiny bit heavier, which swayed me, but i always seem to prefer the feel.
but also consider RLT damper. i take it that means MoCo [i]DNA[/i]?
What does RLT have over the standard MoCo damper in my RLs?
i take it it's more than just threshold adjustment?
it's the DNA bit, right?
ah, found useful thread from before:
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/rock-shox-black-box-damper-where-from-cost
explains diff between RL/RLT and RCT3, but i think that's old RLT, not DNA
also, on this site which is a good place for parts:
http://www.mountainbikes.net/mtbikes/ersatzteile.cfm?gnr=13
it show different CSUs for coil and air forks, suggesting they are not the same.
also state on page of the coil spring, that it is NOT suitable to adapt revelations (older revelations became sektors i think)
ho hum.
I'm interested in this as i've got some 140mm Sektors too (which I happen to like at the moment though). My previous forks were Fox Floats and i've not really noticed that much difference (although i've not been able to compare them one straight after the other).
I run mine on the softest and quickest setting and like the ride.
I've heard of these 'tokens', what difference do they actually make? Does it just reduce internal travel or is less of the stanchion shown thus reducing the ride height too?
Tokens are for changing the spring-rate, making it more progressive. All-travel spacers reduce travel (and shorten the axle-to-crown length).