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I felt my rebound wasn't quick enough afterwards, so when they were due a proper service I asked TFTuned to swap it to the lighter rebound shim stack. However, once they'd got the fork they said the bushings were binding a bit and that once they'd resized them it would probably be fine. They were right!
Mine's at about 80psi, no tokens, 160mm 27.5 Pike.
hmm. Mine are at 55 psi! Not getting more than 130mm travel either. Maybe I should pull them apart at the weekend.
When i reinstalled circlip, I pushed comp rod completely in, letting trapped air out as I compressed it, just to avoid damaging rod. Would this cause any issue? I noticed I had no top out or equalizing to do afters..
Superfi shouldn't have done, did you fully extend them before tightening the footnuts
Are v they sucking down?
Sounds dodgy if not getting full travel, pushing compression tid shouldn't matter, I did same to mine.
I'm not sure if they were fully extended when doing up for nuts. I get full travel when no air inside, so it's available.
I'll pull them apart
@superfli: I'm running 1 click slower rebound, which compensates for/matches the 7psi increase and 2 token's worth of ramp up towards the end stroke.
140mm Pike. Rider weight: 225lbs/102.6kg
Pre-Luftkappe: 105psi with 2 tokens, 2 clicks LSC, 4 clicks rebound from full fast
Post-Luftkappe: 112psi with 0 tokens, 1 click LSC, 5 clicks rebound from full fast
I've run it at the recommended 10% increase, at 115psi with 0 clicks LSC, and had to run 6 clicks of rebound to control it. I figured that dropping the pressure a tiny bit would let me run at least 1 click of LSC to slow down the brake dive, and faster rebound, which I like for the rooty trails I ride.
Just installed a Luftkappe on my 160 Yari. Seemed easy enough although the luftcappe needed a little more wiggle to get it in than the normal spring and I was worried about clamping the rod too hard in the vice - I just kept tightening until the rod would not spin when undoing with the hex
What I have noticed is there appeared to be a suckdown of 8mm. My Yari have always not returned by a few mm, but lift the bike up by the bars and the rest of the travel would appear, so that was not suck down. I also noticed the video installation instructions are slightly different to the written instructions which include warnings and answers as to why they forks suck down after installation. I definitely had the rods extended when putting the lowers back on but may have put too much grease in or did not put the seal head against the negative chamber on installation into the uppers. I did all the suggested tricks to check for vacuum in the lowers and air spring in balance with no change. In the end I stripped it down, cleaned out excess grease and started again. This time the luftkappe went in very easy (there where thin bits of white shard in the upper recess from the first installation).
Things seem more back to normal. There is a 5% drop going on the stanchion markings (8mm) when the forks are bounced a bit, but now lift the bike up by the bars and the rest of the travel is appearing. What I have noticed though, is a few more pulls on the bars and it tops out even further but this seems to give more than 160mm of travel.
Just got one of these that I’m going to fit to my 2015 160mm Pikes. Planning to fit it next week along with replacing the fluid in the Charger damper for the first time. Hopefully it will all go okay.
Fitted mine and well chuffed after the first ride. 160 Yari and around the local trail centre I usually run 2 clicks on the ramp control and 3-4 clicks of LSC, 5-10 clicks from fast of rebound. As a base ride I turned the ramp control and LSC `off' and set rebound at 10 clicks. At 30% sag I run 80-85psi and this increased to 95psi at the same sag, perhaps a bit less.
On the flat pebble/stone sections the forks now track much better, with no fidgeting. On the downhill sections this translates into increased stability and confidence and already feel as if I can push things more. Much the same off piste but here also much more mid travel support on slow steeper bits - much less dive. Just need to experiment with the fork settings - think a little more rebound is needed on choppy trails and the odd click of LSC.
Week ago TFTuned (UK) installed Luftkappe on my Lyrik'16 and changed travel from 160 to 170mm (new shaft), and left 2 tokens inside.
Few days ago i had a first ride with new setup and i saw that Lyrik sucked down 1-2cm of travel, to pull it fully (and hear bang) i need to use a lot of force, like 10kgf ? (my pressure - 60psi)
This evening i've pressurized it to 100psi, however nothing changed (still missing >1cm of travel),removed bottom bolts a bit - keeping lowers, knocked them with rubber hammer to detach rods from lowers (in case there was negative pressure in lowers).
I've removed all the air cycled forked few times (extended it using force and compress), pressurized to 20psi, cycled, pressurized to 40psi, cycled, and finally presurrized to 60fps.
Looked good, measured stanchions - was about 170mm.
however two hours later (bike not used during that time), i've cycled it few times and i saw that i have only 160mm - fork sucked down 1-1.5cm of travel again.
Did you experience loosing travel ?
With the luftkappe, there is no mechanical top out bumper, the noise you hear is the luftkappe piston hitting the seal head in the stanchion, perfectly normal. It relies on pneumatic top out.
Losing travel is normal, in our riding group, everyone that has a luftkappe loses around 10mm of travel, some more, some less. I have a 140mm pike 29er and it sits at 134mm
No travel lost on my Pikes.
mine neither.
I haven't measured the travel since I extended my Lyrik from 150 to 160mm and added a Luftkappe, but it feels like it's riding noticeably higher (even though I dropped the bar to compensate).
On a side note, shouldn't you be starting with no tokens at that fork length and with the Luftkappe?
My mate installed mine*, he's a team mech on EWS team, Masters in Mech Eng and general suspension guru, I wouldn't be surprised if he has some wee trick to stop it sucking down, I'll ask.
Agree Chaka, sits higher in travel whilst riding.
* Well, I installed originally, but last time I saw him, he decided to rip my forks apart and give em a full service, along with my shock, so it was him who did it last!.
This is dealt with on the FAQ part of the Luftkappe website. My 160 Yari, although they feel as if they are riding higher in the travel have lost approx. 5mm of travel. This is due to the weight of the bike and gravity acting down on the forks. As explained to me, when on the trail as your forks rebound the missing travel will resurface. As an example, If you push your sag O ring down to the bottom and pull up on the bars, the chances are most of the missing travel will reappear as the forks extend. In fact on my Yari, if I pull on the lower brace, I can extend the forks another 5mm on top of the `missing' 5mm until you feel the forks topping out as explained above.
I've also go the MRP ramp control previously installed on my Yari. In its lowest setting which I now run, it is equivalent of 1 token. I may experiment and replace the unit with the original seal head but run no tokens.
i didn't ask about the noise 🙂 i know there is no rubber bumper anymore, and i can even overextend it to 180mm.
i was asking about loosing travel.
yesterday i've removed tokens, however i can see similar behavior, after cycling it few times, i can see stanchions extended only for 160mm. (was 170mm just after airing).
ok, so apart that stanchions are not fully extended, you read/fell that fork will ride higher (less dynamic sag) ?
They ride higher I presume as you should be increasing the psi - I've gone from about 80-85 psi to 95psi.
Does anyone else's Pike knock a bit after a Luftkappe mod?
Or have I got something else wrong?
Mine had a top out knock pre-luftkappe, but not since tbh, maybe worth stripping and checking again.
No top-out knock on Pike or Lyrik here.
The Pike was knocking like crazy before, but badly needed a service.
https://vorsprungsuspension.com/pages/luftkappe-installation-setup
In the toubleshooting section they talk about the weight of the bike should compress the fork a little. Mine does by a few mm but mines only a 130mm Pike.