2 jobs to do this morning.

1) service the new-ish to me Lyric forks, the damper pisses oil out the rebound adjuster so needs topping up ever once in a while, about the same frequency as a lowers service, so did that too. Couldn’t find a thin spanner that SRAM say is needed, but the adjuster comes off with an Allen key so i reckon this is just to make it seem difficult and drive money to the service centers, took longer than it should but got inside eventually. Then while putting the rebound hollow bolt in the lower it sheared off, it’s hollow and alloy so presumably not too tolerant of all this on/off business. Swapped it for the spring side nut off some other forks, added bonus it cant leak like this, but it’s not adjustable without a full set of allen keys to remove the bolt and another to turn the adjuster. Issue number 3, the oil volume charts appear to be wrong. Unless you’ve got a post 2008 mission control damper it’s ~112ml, it’s only ~190ml if its a later mission control with the full bore rebound damper, not the sleeved down one that appears on older forks.

2) replace the mech and hanger as the chains skipping, presuming one or the other is bent. Turned out it was a duff chain link, wasted money on new mechs/hangers + extortion of buying a SRAM quick link at RRP in the LBS.

Everything feels good

Quick test ride before packing the car for a week away and………….
Thud-clunk
Thud-clunk
Thud-clunk
Thud-clunk

Hmmmmmm rebound feels quick on the shock

Wind it all in

Better, but still feels wrong, now more tttttd-ck tttttd-ck tttttd-ck tttttd-ck.

The shocks barely a few rides old since it came back from MOJO after the damper blew up last time! Admittedly the few rides it does go on tend to be at the harsh end of the scale (big days out in the Lakes, Peaks etc and Downhill) but surely air shocks should be reliable enough to deal with this? Would a coil be any better? On the one hand it wouldn’t generate/retain as much heat which might help, but the dampers are similar enough so have I just been unlucky and blown the damper twice in quick succession?

So question, are coil shocks any more reliable than this?

Ohh, and does warranty work have a warranty? i.e should mojo repair the shock for a second time as it’s gone in a similar way? Or is the shock now out of warranty as it’s out of it’s original warranty?

Air might have nearly caught up in the performance stakes, but as far as I can tell, coil still wins out in reliability. Tho if you’re running Fox forks, you need to watch the stanchions for wear whatever forks they are.

So question, are coil shocks any more reliable than this?

yes.

I’m not so fussed about performance, the RP2 is good enough for 95% of the time, it’s got it’s shortcomings like most air shocks it gets worse at the end of long rough descents, and the damping could do with a tweak if I decide to keep it. Just wondering whether in the reliability stakes it would be any different. AFAIK both failures have been in the damper, which would seem to be bad luck rather than anything inherently wrong with air shocks?

Anyone else ride air shocks in the Peaks/Lakes/Warncliffe with this much trouble?

MOJO just got in touch and said they warranty stuff for 90 days so it’s out of warranty. Seems fair enough I suppose (although it does seem a similar failure to the one they fixed last time).

I ride a Hemlock with an RP23 in the Peaks / Lakes / Wharncliffe / whatever and I’ve noticed nothing untoward with it… I do ride like a bit of a fanny though!

I do ride like a bit of a fanny though

*hesitates to ask which bit*

thisisnotaspoon – Member

AFAIK both failures have been in the damper, which would seem to be bad luck rather than anything inherently wrong with air shocks?

Yup. If you were blowing springs then changing to coil could make sense, but not so much with damping issues.

That’s what I reckon.

What do people think,

a) unlucky twice in a row, just get it serviced ~£130 inc postage and a custom tune.
b) not unlucky, there’s some fault in the shock making it blow up regularly. Get a new shock.

If b, CCDBair? RP23? I’d like a DSP Dueler but they’re not available in 200×57 yet.

CCDB Air is, by all accounts, incredible. Might not be worth the initial outlay though, unless you can find one second hand, new RP23 has very good reports though.

£440 isn’t too bad, an RP23 from TFT or Mojo is £370, I know there are cheaper elsewhere but if I’m spending £300+ it may as well be set up properly for my weight/bike/riding. And 2nd hand dampers seem to be ~£100-£150 less than RRP at most, so the cost of a service and tune!

Anyone know if the CCDBair fits a Pitch?

Seems reasonably likely that there’s something actually wrong with your shock, could be TF just missed it (not a criticism this). I’d get that checked out, personally, before doing anything else.

“unlucky and blown the damper twice in quick succession?”
What shock? you know, so I don’t buy one as I’m thinking of replacing my monarch RT3 (not for damping blowing up)

“should mojo repair the shock for a second time as it’s gone in a similar way?”
Did you buy the shock new from mojo?
Subject to being serviced within the sheduled, it should last the full warranty period?
It’d harly be right if you bought something with eg a 2year warrannty, it break in month 1, and replacement break in month 3 and it not be warrantied?

Not that relevcant but I’ve had a 2nd warrany set of spesh shoes after they broke around the cleat twice. Not the same but had a shock/brain, front triangle and rockers (reluctant) inside 3 years on a ‘lifetime’ spesh SJer FSR. Every time had the shock/brain serviced they sent a bag back with waht looked like all the internals ..

“air shocks in the Peaks/Lakes/Warncliffe with this much trouble?”
Not damping failures. I’ve got a leaking shock and fork atm though (both RS) which are annoying me

3 month warranty on Mojo work so you will be ok to get in touch and they will arrange/pay for collection.

Oh, apologies, not sure where I got TF from!

What shock? you know, so I don’t buy one as I’m thinking of replacing my monarch RT3 (not for damping blowing up)

It’s an RP2 so nothing exotic and I’m sure most people have better luck than me.

Shock came new on my Pitch in May ’11, blew up in April ’12, repaired under warranty by Mojo in May (I was lazy in getting it sent off). Annoyingly not used much in between due to a broken arm and working away!

What’s the warranty with loco/tftuned/jtech?

Fwiw – had two rp23s now – peaks wales etc with no worries

Had air shocks on all my bikes for the last 6 years, riding peaks,lakes, trail centres, fort William , sierra nevada etc ,no issues with reliability.

Just swapped from fox rp23 to CCdb air , seems pretty good so far

Only pretty good? For the money I’d be expecting f******* fantastic!

I’m not one for hyperbole, and I cant say i’ve tested every air shock out there, so I tone my language down a bit

the ccdb air is a lot better than the rp23 it replaced in terms of small bump sensitivity, so it gives a much smoother feeling ride. big hits seem well controlled, with no harsh bottom out. pedalling efficiency seems similar to the rp23.

The larger air/oil volumes in the ccdb air do actually seem to translate into less damping fade on long bumpy downhills, although I suspect a really fast rider would experience some fade on long runs still (probably still no substitute for coil)

The damping adjustments are second to none, although I can see that if there isnt a base tune available for your bike on the cane creek website that it could take ages (and maybe they’d never get there) for a non expert/experienced user to dial it in properly.

It comes with tuning bands for the air chamber to make the shock more progressive if required, but some people are complaining that its difficult to get full travel out of the shock, ie its too progressive, I’m not finding that, It seems perfect in that regard for me/my bike. But cane creek have just released an alternative air chamber for those that find the default one too progressive.

It probably is one of the best (if not the best) air shocks you can buy, but its not for the inexperienced just because of the amount of options you have to tune it, you can really really make your bike far worse than with the crappiest air shock if you use the wrong settings.

It should come as default (or at least be an option) on all high end AM frames that use an air shock, but to make the most of it you need to understand how the various adjustments work and influence your ride, or have a base tune available and just stick to that.

IN terms of reliability I think its too early for me to comment (only had it a couple of months), but I havent read any stories of failures.

I’ve just got back from 4 days riding around malaga and the sierra nevada,which consisted of 2 days of cable car uplifted downhill (not the most gnarly by any stretch) in benalmadina, a day of van assisted uplift with switchbacks AM in bubion, and another day of car assisted uplift on our own. I didnt experience any issues, but neither did my mates with their airshocks ( a mixture of rockshox and fox).

Cheers, I think I’ll try getting it serviced once more at a different tuners with instructions to look carefully at why it keeps blowing up and maybe get a custom tune done. Then if that doesn’t work get a CCDBair.

Do you have any links for the chairlifted trails in bellemadena? I went there with Switchbacks last year an noticed a lot of the locals using the chairlifts, but they seemed to all need a fair ride to get to the tops of the tracks then again at the bottom to get back to the lift.

Theres only one cable car in benalmadina, see below:-

Inicio

once you’re up there, there no further riding uphill, theres various paths back down , they all finish before the motorway, and then involve a mile or so (mainly downhill) ride back to the cable car start.

The paths are all signposted, we found the ‘route 1’ path the most fun (but also the shortest). From the cable car, take the concrete road down the hill until you come to a chain across the road, just after the chain theres a path off to the right signposted Route 1, this traverses along the side of a valley for a few hundred meters, before a path dives off to the left, take the path down a couple of switchbacks, until you reach the valley floor, continue along the valley floor path where you’ll find various size jumps (4 foot through to 1 foot), which eventually pops you back out on the road you were riding down, follow down the road a short while and you’ll see a path to the right going steeply up a bank, fly up this, along for a while (more small jumps), until you go back down onto the road and then straight over the other side into some woode for some berms, small jumps, roots etc, [part way down theres a medium sized gap jump (that I chickened out of), before you come back to the road for the ride back to the cable car start.

I took a video of it below, the video starts when you’re in the valley floor at the beginning of the fast swoopy jumpy section.

Theres probably enough riding off the cable car for a day or maybe two at most.

200 x 57 Dueler will be in stock very soon, one in the post to test at present.

Has the RP2 leaked out of the adjusters?