Looking at fork options, and now Avalanche have a UK-base at Sprung Suspension adds an extra option to the mix. It’s boiling down to a Lyrik, or a Yari (with the option to add in the Avalanche at a later date). I’ve been riding a few years, usually around 2/3 down the pack in Enduros and XC races so not the quickest, but not quite the slowest.

I’m sure the Lyrik will feel great, but is it going to feel £250 better than the Charger damper? And then following that, is someone at my ability really going to notice the difference going from the updated MoCo to the Ava? It’s looking like the Yari with the Ava will work out around £150 more than the Lyrik with the same air spring and chassis.

Has anyone on here ridden one recently? Or am I just “drinking the kool-aid”? Will the MoCo actually be pretty damn decent at least for the time being I wonder?

Yari plus avalanche would be same price as lyric.

Yari plus avalanche would be same price as lyric

I spoke to Sprung yesterday and they reckoned it’s around £400 fitted which puts it a bit more expensive, unless I’m missing something?
Very interested in the Yari with an Avalanche if it’s the same price as the Lyrik though!

Having just taken a Lyrik off my bike cos it felt crap (though I suspect throwing £200 for the Andreani piston kit at it or even more for the FAST damper upgrade would fix that) I can wholeheartedly recommend considering the MRP Ribbon fork.

Everything that the modifications to the charger damper that the other mods profess to do, the MRP already does straight out the box.

If you’re anywhere near me, you’re welcome to come and give mine a go if you like…

Just get a Yari. Most people who’ve ridden one (including me) are hard pushed to tell difference over the Charger forks. Certainly not a difference worth a couple of hundred quid.

[/quote]Just get a Yari.

I think that’s kinda where I’m at at the minute. I’m pretty curious to see what the difference between the dampers are so maybe get some use out of the forks this season, then after winter, get them serviced and the Ava fitted.

If you’re anywhere near me, you’re welcome to come and give mine a go if you like…

Appreciate the offer – I’ve a slight weird thing about mixing fork/shock brands (don’t ask!) but it’s another option I’d not considered that’s worth looking at

it’s around £400 fitted

**** that shit – luftkappe with fast damper cheaper.

Mbow, the FAST piston kit (without tge adjusters) is 160 quid including a 90 quid service thrown in.

The single biggest upgrade you can do to a Lyrik or Pike is run a coil with a bit less sag than you normally would run – 21/22 instead of say 25.

I spoke to Sprung yesterday

I’m still awaiting a response to my email of many weeks ago….yet they found the time to add me to their spam email list 🙄

I’m still awaiting a response to my email of many weeks ago….yet they found the time to add me to their spam email list

Yeah I admit I’m still awaiting an email back from them. Tried to phone and went to answerphone, tried to message on FB and got a ‘we’re very busy at the minute’ message, but it had a different phone number on, managed to get through to someone and in fairness they were very helpful. Just gotta get in touch with them first!

I wouldnt bother. The FAST damper is great, if you want a custom damper and more adjustibility.

FAST are involved with WRC, have telemetry gear etc and a decent R&D budget. Avalanche is a one crazy man outfit from what Ive heard – I’m not sure Id take a punt on that considering the cost.

Yet you took a punt on a man making coil springs in a garage 😉

That because the spring is almost 4 times cheaper and springs are a bit easier to knock up than a good damper – which takes a lot of riding data and a great deal of ubderstanding of fluid physics/engineering.

Theres someone here knocking up their own spring kit, seen anyone knock up their own damper yet? I thought not.

But even thhe crazy french dude posts up pictures of his data gear etc….not seen that from Avy yet. Not that Id buy a CRconception damper.

My avalanche modified dhx air is great, paid £250 for that with tax etc including the price of a blown dhx from eBay!, don’t think I’d pay 400 tho, can you luftkappe a yari? Made a big difference to my Pikes

It was surprisingly easy to knock up a coil spring for the Pike if you have the relevant parts from donor forks. Whether it works or not, I’ll find out tomorrow.

I would say that the fork moves up and down as well as the air spring from riding around the garden – it’s more to do with whether or not the spring weight is right.

I know nothing about dampers, so I’ll leave that side alone except for oil changes and bleeds. For now.

teethgrinder – Member

It was surprisingly easy to knock up a coil spring for the Pike if you have the relevant parts from donor forks. Whether it works or not, I’ll find out tomorrow.

Making anything is easy til you test it 😆

Northwind – Member
Making anything is easy til you test it

Reassembling the fork and fitting it back onto the bike is the hardest part 😉

I find riding round the garden the hardest part

Avalanche is a one crazy man outfit from what Ive heard – I’m not sure Id take a punt on that considering the cost.

I’d say their 20 years of history as a company makes them a relatively safe punt. They’ve been in the suspension tuning game way before any of the others out there.

Appreciate the offer – I’ve a slight weird thing about mixing fork/shock brands (don’t ask!) but it’s another option I’d not considered that’s worth looking at

No worries

I was kinda the same, but realised to keep RA both ends, I was gonna have to spend £200-250 on each end getting them properly tuned to possibly meet my expectations… Having spent a year on the MRP Stage before, I knew how good that was out of the box, so I figured the Ribbon would be a safe bet too.

Besides I got offered a killer deal on a Fox Float X2 just before Christmas, so my collar had already stopped matching my cuffs! Get me… Fox shock, MRP fork, RockShox Reverb, SRAM eagle groupset but with Raceface cranks, Schwalbe front tyre and Maxxis rear… Only thing that matches is my Burgtec bar and stem! My old self would be having OCD induced nightmares!

But seriously though… Give the MRP a go if you’re passing… It sits WAY higher in its travel than any RS fork I’ve tried (including tuned ones), but doesn’t have the super harsh HSC that the Fox 36RC2 has if you’re anything under about 16st…

I’m still awaiting a response to my email of many weeks ago….yet they found the time to add me to their spam email list

To be fair to the lad at spring he’s probably just fed up of enquiries about avalanche , back in august I enquiries and every month after that and the poor guy was just not getting any stock ( he said) or firm date by January I had a pretty good convo with him and looked at making my own coil conversion and damper or he said I’ll supply you an online, I feel for him as I’ve been through that shit where suppliers or people you relying on pull the rug it has knock ons and your just exasperated by the end …..I dunno if he did eventually get anything from avalanche in the USA but hope it’s going ok and he might just be cracking on making money doing what he can with the suppliers available….the last bit could just be conjecture but…

he might just be cracking on making money doing what he can with the suppliers available….the last bit could just be conjecture but…

Don’t know for sure, but given he’s just bought RedHill, and he’s hired a couple of people at Sprung, I’d say he’s busy enough without all the issues of lack of supply that Avalanche were giving him… When I enquired months ago, the Pike carts were 4 months late already, and he refused to take any kind of a deposit saying he wasn’t holding his breath on receiving them any time soon! He’s since become an authorised service centre and reseller for Ohlins, and he has a lot of experience with all the main brands too and comes highly recommended by many I’ve spoken to.

So I’d say on balance, you’re probably correct! 😉

To be fair to the lad at spring he’s probably just fed up of enquiries about avalanche

Thats as maybe but it takes seconds to add a standard email reply or add something to the web page. But to ignore 2 emails then add me to their spam list means they’ll never see my CC details

Theres someone here knocking up their own spring kit, seen anyone knock up their own damper yet? I thought not.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/Millyard-racing-bike-2007.html

Yup.

@bruneep its not for anyone to disagree or agree it’s not my firm I’ve missed emails in my own firm yet believe me from experience even a note to say sorry is never enough there…..I’m curious how you find out how you would even find out your on a spam lis (seriously curious for my own benefit)

It was interesting the other day and a bit of a thread deviation a lad from superstar was getting some grief for not recommending a competitors product I think he had no stock of discs or pads and for some reason pointed out google was an option to find an alternative …. I think it was meant as google who’s good as opposed to go look for another supplier though again it’s conjecture as I was skim reading it

..anyway I have no idea wtf I even meant by carrying on writing … ah that was it my post might have been to intimate he’s probably moved on generally from AVA though not defend or detract from your post, if that makes sense if he can’t be bothered then all you can do is vote feet first

By spam list I mean unwanted marketing emails that I never signed up to.

Only contact I made was by two emails, neither were answered yet I get sprung marketing emails in return. I don’t now as they are filtered to the bin

Ben

The Millyards oleo damper is something I don’t really get, soft and mushy at low speeds – hardens up on high speed hits.

Great.

Oleos were used on motocycles in the 1930s – don’t see any being used by works MX teams these days.

Ah gotcha

Tom_W1987 – Member

Theres someone here knocking up their own spring kit, seen anyone knock up their own damper yet? I thought not.

TBH, I could make an open bath damper, it’d be just within my cottage industry manufacturing capability. Would it be any better than a quality stock one? Well it’s possible. Would people buy the Northwind Race Damper? Probably. Probably more people would buy it if I sold it for £250 than £100. I’ve a feeling more would buy it if I called it a NordWind Renndampfer…

(I couldn’t make a spring though!)

😀

I’ve had no problems with Jake at Sprung. He answered my calls and my Avy shock was turned around pretty quickly so I’ll happily keep using him.

Two emails and a post on Facebook got no replies. Not really difficult to post up a price. Shitty service

I’ve had no problems with Jake at Sprung. He answered my calls and my Avy shock was turned around pretty quickly so I’ll happily keep using him.

If I could get this sort of service, my decision would be made on what I’m doing, but as yet still no reply even after a chase-up. Can you drop him a nudge from me haha

I’m also quite suprised – I thought I was going to get an outpour of love for Avalanche but quite surprisingly, not so much!

I’m also quite surprised – I thought I was going to get an outpour of love for Avalanche but quite surprisingly, not so much!

I have an avvy damper in my lyrics that I bought direct before the days of sprung. For me it was money well spent but whether it is better than the fast( or any other damper ) I cannot say,
Is it worth your money ? – only one way to find out 😉

Jake upgraded my monarch on the Capra with the Avalanche damper, made a huge difference – went from wallowy with epic pedal strikes to lovely mid stroke support and poppy instantly. Comms were great, and I was really pleased with the service I received.

I can only assume that he maybe has some issues with his email addy or something in his personal life that is distracting him, as he was great with me.

Best of luck to him.

He usually travels with Katy when she is racing so might have been at crankworx

Jake was pretty good with me, serviced my avvy dhx – was long overdue! turnaround was less than a week, took a couple of days to answer a follow up question, but overall very pleased

I got the avvy mod done 3 years ago, the monarch it came with was always compromised on really big stuff, my avvy dhx was a genuine step up.

With something like an x2 that you’ve set up properly the difference may not be so great

only one way to find out

And herein lies the problem…

Not saying it’s anyone’s fault. It’s hard enough for a mag like Singletrack to organise a group test of all the current high end off the shelf forks as it is, without worrying about taking them to the next level!

I’d love to see someone like Steve Jones and the DIRT boys do a back to back on say a stock Pike vs Lyrik, vs FAST tuned versions, vs Andreani Modded versions, versus Avalanche modded versions, vs stock Fox 36RC2 (and its PUSH tuned variant, vs… etc etc… you get the point.

Problem is, it ain’t ever gonna happen! In the meantime we have tonnes of heresay and conjecture. I know for one that whilst a stock Lyrik is good enough for riders way better than me, it doesn’t suit my riding style and I prefer something that sits up in its travel more. Yet at the same time, the fork I prefer that sits up in its travel more may also yield the better rider a similar benefit too, but then we’ll never know until we get everyone in the same place at the same time, for a double blind test, against the clocks, with various different forks in various different tunes, and… and… etc…

In the meantime, we’ll just have to carry on finding our own research, and forming our own opinions I guess…

I’d love to see someone like Steve Jones

And a team of neuroscientists and linguistic experts to decipher what Steves getting at – I like the interviews he does with companies – and he is great fun to listen to – but Dirts reviews are just off.

Enduro mag are the best at the moment for trying to add a little bit of rigour to their review process, German magazines in general actually.