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I'm not getting full travel on some newish Rockshox SID 35mm select 120mm travel forks. I think I'm getting about 100mm. I am running them with about 25% sag so could drop the pressures a bit more I suppose, though I've read in reviews that they a designed to be run with less. I've dropped the lowers and added the right amount of oil (there wasn't much) which I though might make them a bit more supple and easier to get the pressure/sag right. I've also checked to see if they came with a token and they didn't. I'm average weight (~80Kg) and height (5'10") and have them on a hardtail that I ride 'enthusiastically' on the Chase.
Is anyone else struggling to get full travel from 35mm SID ultimate, select + or select forks? Any possible solutions apart from running more sag? I suppose I could drop the air pressures and add some compression damping. The select forks don't have the on-off compression damping that the ultimate's have, but the compression adjuster is still designed as a lockout rather than compression damping adjustment. I did ask TF tuned if there were any improvements that they could make but they said not.
Any thoughts?
How do they look with no air in? My older SIDs were exactly the same and apparently it is a "design feature" to ride how people expect a SID to ride or some BS. I'm not sure on the 35mm SIDs but there is probably a bump stop in the legs to help at full compression. Mine was very long and even with no air in I was getting around 85mm on a 100mm SID. Trimming it helped a bit but didn't make too much difference. There were no bottomless tokens in BTW either.
I've got the SID Ultimate and yep, can't get full travel. Looking at the dust marks I've had about 110mm. Rockshox made the SID more progressive than the Pike and other forks in their lineup so it feels more racy. Also so most riders shouldn't need any volume spacers, which add weight. Dunno about the lower models but some fairly extreme measures employed on the Ultimate to get the weight down for a 35mm fork. They wouldn't want to squander that effort on volume spacers, seriously. Think it's best set up for feel rather than worrying too much about getting full travel.
Supposedly it's also meant to ride higher so maybe the amount of useable travel from sag height hasn't really changed that much?
I did notice with my last Pike that it's impossible to get the claimed travel. Hard top out to hard bottom out measures up slightly short. Haven't checked this on the SID.
It's not a lockout on the compression adjuster like you said, it's low speed compression on the damper at least on my Pike Select that what it does. Putting it full to the right firms up the small bump sensitivity but doesn't lock the fork at all.
riders shouldn’t need any volume spacers, which add weight
Aww come on, what's a spacer weigh? You'd save more weight clipping ya toenails! 😀
I've not tried to see if they compress fully without air so will see if they do.
Yes, mine don't fully lockout but they are very firm. I think I just meant that it was designed as a lockout rather than being a compression adjuster with multiple positions of adjustment. It could do the latter I just think it would be rubbish.
I'm sure you're right in that I just need to set them up for feel and forget about full travel.
All 35mm Sids are just a simple on-off open or pretty much full lock out, with no in between compression adjust. Select+ and Ultimate are for sure super firm when in the "locked" position.
I've been on a Select+ Sid on my Spur for 7 months now and I don't recall ever getting more than 100-110mm or so out of them but honestly they still feel great and I never feel short changed. They're supple when they should be and give support when I want it and even though I use most of the travel on the Sidluxe shock on most rides (in theory using slightly more travel), the bike doesn't feel unbalanced. I would set them so you're happy with small bump response and the rest should be good from experience!
I think I’m getting about 100mm.
Don't "think", just measure them - and then take out all the air and measure again.
And more importantly, how do they ride - if they feel great, then ignore the 'travel'. And once you get them riding great, still ignore the 'travel'.
Just had a look and without air they have 115mm of travel before the bump stop is compressed.
And to be clear I'd definitely rather have a fork that is smooth, supportive and well controlled even if it means not all the travel is used. They do feel pretty good. I love how stiff and light (even my select forks) they are and the support and control is there.
But I'm not sure why forks can't use nearly all travel and still be supportive and well controlled. I've had fox 36 forks, RS rev, lyrik and boxxers and several X-fusion forks. The SIDs are really very good but none of the other air forks I've used have ramped up as much. Of course that's partly due to the travel, most of the above have been 140mm or above but I think I probably get about 50-60% of travel before they start ramping up very quickly. It's virtually impossible to get more than 100mm with 75 psi and about 20-25% sag.
I'm not mincing around on an over-forked bike wondering why I can't get more travel on every descent. The ramp up is such that I can't get close to full travel at any time in any situation with appropriate sag.
I don't really mind I was just wondering if other people have had the same experience as me. For the weight of a couple of small plastic tokens it seems strange that Rockshox have chosen to make the air volume so low. But maybe the machining around the hollow lowers has reduced weight and improved stiffness compared with a larger air volume.
Just had a look and without air they have 115mm of travel before the bump stop is compressed.
So the real issue is actually a marketing one - they're not 120mm, they're 115mm.
They can probably claim there is 120mm travel available but it would take a monster hit. The stops at the end of the travel are probably pretty robust like that so when riding the fork feels "bottomless" and there are no clunks (plus points for interwebz reviews).
I feel like there has been a lot of focus (from reviews mainly which drives people's perception) on forks needing to "sit high in their travel" and feel "racey" as @mudeverywhere mentioned so they are designed with that in mind.
I get 70mm travel out of my 100mm SIDs on a good day. If I drop the air pressure then they are just more mushy to the point where they go no more (~70mm). So I think the advice with the SIDs above to get the start of the fork travel feeling how you want is the way to go because you ain't changing the end of the travel!