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Just took delivery of a "new" Lyrik RC3 170mm fork. Despite the listing, trailhead app and sticker saying it's 170mm, it looks like I only have 150mm of stanchion showing. My old RC2DH shows a full 170mm unsagged so I'm thinking something is off with the new one? It has the right amount of air in. Anything I need to check before asking for a refund?
Wot Mashr said.
Could be sucked down if you didn't inflate it and equilibriate the positive and negative air chambers in stages.
Just tried that, it goes up to about 155mm now.. anything else I need to do to check it's not just being sucked down by the negative spring?
Seems odd as, as you've shown, clearly labelled as 170mm. Can you pull the lowers down whilst supporting uppers to see if it'll expose further stanchion or whether it physically isnt possible?
@nuke I can pull the lowers down to show the 10% sag marker on the 170mm section but it's very hard and it goes right back to where it was.
I'd speak to the retailer before doing anything. If you try to fix it, then they may reject a return as used.
Bought off eBay unfortunately so I guess I'm at the mercy of the seller and if they're feeling helpful!
@_tom_ I'd still try them first.
However, the good news is that if they muck you around, as others have said it's likely to either be an airspring inflation problem (fairly easily sorted), or due to too much grease during assembly (more complicated, but fixable).
Bought off eBay unfortunately so I guess I’m at the mercy of the seller and if they’re feeling helpful!
is it TriSports (AKA Wiggle) by any chance?
No it's a private seller. Going to see if they'll refund as I'm not sure I want to mess around with diagnosing a problem. Shame as otherwise the fork is in great condition, it barely looks used.
If it's sat into its travel (you said pulling down exposes the 10% marker) then I'd agree with others it's almost certainly the negative air spring pulling them down into the travel.
Once solution may be to pump the forks up to high pressure (for a very large rider), compress and extend them as much as possible (by hand to pull them back to zero-travel), and with a little luck anything blocking the port between the air springs will shift and they'll be fine. Release the air and go back to your normal pressure.
Returning them is a complete pain for both of you, and I'd avoid that if there's a resolution available. You'll basically both incur a charge or the seller will incur a bigger charge for what is probably a serviceable fork that needs a tweak to get it back running again.
Yeah a lot of googling says it could be a blocked air port, the seller said it has been sat in storage for a while so maybe just needs moving around a bit? Is the airport easy to access or is it something that requires a full rebuild if the above doesn't work?
I've had success sorting the same issue by letting all the air out, stand on the axel and then pull the crown up (or handle bar if attached to the bike) as hard as you can. It forces the air back to where it should be and cleans the transfer port out.
It does sound like it’s sucked down. Any idea which airspring is in it? If it’s a B1 Debonair spring they were more susceptible to sucking down just under the weight of the bike without even having a rider on it.
Alternatively it could have started life as 170mm travel but had a 160mm or 150mm air shaft put innit at some point.
The only way to tell 100% is pop the air shaft out for a look. That means letting the air out, taking off the air side top cap, removing the lowers and then undoing the circlip that holds the air shaft in. Then giving it a sharp pull to pop it out. I don’t know if the air shaft has any numbers on it that mean anything in terms of length or if you’d need to measure something. It’s not a terrible job but you’d need new grease and lower leg lube to reassemble afterwards.
In the meantime you could try a couple of things:
Let all the air out and cycle the fork up and down. Then pump it to 50psi, then cycle again, then another 50 psi, cycle again etc and see if the fork then stands up mor
If that doesn’t do anything you could try slipping a very thin zip tie down inside the seals on the lowers to see if there is air trapped in the lowers.
Tried all the above and still sucking down. No idea which air spring it is, the specs say A1
A1 isn’t debonair - B1 replaced it - then C1 was the most current in the Lyrik before the 2023 one.
So either you have an issue with trapped air in the negative spring (possibly too much grease) or it’s got a different air spring in it compared to new.
If it’s going to be a pain all round to send it back (and you got a good deal on the form) you could suggest to the seller they refund enough money to you to get a lowers service at a bike shop / suspension specialist. It sounds air spring related rather than anything else to me.
Airspring has maybe been swapped in past and seller is just unaware.
I guess it was shipped in the compressed position ?
If so, you are just not pulling hard enough 🙂 Foot on maxle and pull hard.…...
Had this with my A1 Yari, although not 20mm worth.
Takes an awful lot of force to pull up and you also need to hold it al the equalisation point. I found it worked best with the air side open, either by taking off the top cap or taking the valve core out. If it is a blocked port, it’s fairly noisy when it goes and easily noticeable. May still happen again though until it’s had a lower service and fresh grease.
binman
Full Member
I guess it was shipped in the compressed position ?If so, you are just not pulling hard enough 🙂 Foot on maxle and pull hard.……
It arrived at the sucked down 150mm, it's not budging. I'm going to be pushing for a refund, I know it's a hassle but so is spending a lot of money (for me) on forks that don't work as they should.
2nd hand forks, would need a service anyway or were you just planning on sticking them on bike?
Don’t think anyone expects a second hand fork to be way short on travel bruneep. Service would be nice but working would be expected.
A service will resolve the sucked down air spring.
Yea the plan was to put them straight on the bike and ride, sending off for a service some time over the winter or something if they felt a bit ropey. Not really confident enough to do a full strip down and service myself, I'll only cock it up somehow.
There's also the chance that the air shaft has been converted to 150mm which would mean buying more parts to get it running as advertised in the first place.
The airshaft hasn't been swapped to 150.
If it had you wouldn't be able to have got it up to 155 then also been able to pull it up another 10mm.
If it was a 150 airshaft it'd be 150 max no matter how hard you pulled it.
It just air trapped in the negative side of the spring.
Put the axle in. Put a stem and bars on the steerer.
Pump it up to max pressure.
Stand on the axle them pull it up as hard as you can.
Hold it there until you hear a slurping noise.
Measure it then and it'll be as close to 170 as it can get.
Yea the plan was to put them straight on the bike and ride,
I wouldn't even do that with new out of box forks. Always factor in at least a lower leg service,, it isnt difficult plenty videos how to do.
Good luck
@singlespeedstu I've just tried that (and every other burp fix online!) and none of them are working so it will have to come apart I guess.
So if I were to keep and rebuild, would it be worth upgrading to a Debonair air spring whilst I've got it apart?
Solo air and 160mm post mount makes them 2017 or earlier, 2018 was debonair with 180mm post mount, you could buy a debonair c1 spring that'll solve any sucking down issues and see about a partial refund.
2nd hand forks, would need a service anyway or were you just planning on sticking them on bike?
I wouldn’t even do that with new out of box forks. Always factor in at least a lower leg service,, it isnt difficult plenty videos how to do.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So if I were to keep and rebuild, would it be worth upgrading to a Debonair air spring whilst I’ve got it apart?
Depends what you want out of them... fixing the blocked port is just some oil and grease and 2 crush washers though I'd personally swap the foam rings whilst at it. You might not even need grease... sometimes they put so much on the sealhead its enough for the whole service if its clean.
Either way if you pull it out you can check the airshaft length and check the transfer port.
A1 lyrik is a bit special... there isn't a corresponding Yari... (A1 Yari is effectively B1 lyrik) not that is a bad thing just make sure the airshaft is the right one from trailhead.
Solo air and 160mm post mount makes them 2017 or earlier
Wow. Six year old “new” forks. I hope you got them for an absolute steal OP, because you’d need to be factoring in the cost of a full service anyway.
Wow. Six year old “new” forks. I hope you got them for an absolute steal OP, because you’d need to be factoring in the cost of a full service anyway.
I'm still running 2015 A1 Pike's... regular services and they still work great.
Probably spent << £100 on each in the last 8 years (including the charger bleed adapter).
I'm still currently running 2010 Lyriks, these are pretty new and nice in comparison 🙂 can't afford the latest and greatest so I've always tended to buy good older stuff. I would have just serviced the older ones but they're 26" and I know I'll have to eventually go up to 27.5" so thought I'd get the appropriate fork with the money from selling some other bits rather than sinking more into old forks.
I’m not criticising you for buying them, more hoping that you knew exactly what you were getting from the seller? At six years old, it’s quite likely that all the grease and oil is getting past it’s best, and is probably what’s caused this problem.
Most modern stuff is about marginal gains anyway, and as long as the old version wasn’t duff, most of us aren’t riding close enough to the limit to notice the difference IMV.
Geometry and fit make much more of a difference I think.
Most modern stuff is about marginal gains anyway, and as long as the old version wasn’t duff, most of us aren’t riding close enough to the limit to notice the difference IMV.
A decent, well maintained fork feels a lot better than a 3wk old new 'bottom of the range' one to me.
I've not ridden a charger 3 yet (or even taken one apart) but it would take a huge performance gain to convince me it's better than a 2.1 in terms of cost to own. Specifically the IFP is a potential failure and sticking holes in the top to bleed excess oil just seems like a dirt ingress port to me.