google comes up with nowt for me?

do they have a uk base or is it just the states?

Avy’s are still built and tuned to order I believe, so it’s USA only

Try Stendec, I have seen a few in his workshop 😉

genuinely what would you suggest instead then 5spot?
ive heard nowt but goodness about them?

Stendec did seem to be involved with becoming Avy UK a few years back, don’t think much really came of it though (might be wrong)

Why not just buy from the states? The service is awesome (from experience) assuming you know what you want your shock/fork to do

looking at keeping my 36 float r that i have for sale and just fitting an ava damper in to improve it…
the FIT upgrade is the same price from mojo (ok includes a service) and a bit cheaper from loco again for the rc2 cart but the ava cart seems a good choice for what it does…

I’m very interested in this too! What money are we talking for floats?

Avalanche are direct from USA, with specific tunes, I had asked a out uk supply but they don’t do trade prices so no point for us, happy to fit/tune any kits ordered though.

*Long winded geeky response alert*

I bought mine direct from Avy in the states.
Linky to old thread

Speaking to Craig about what you want is part of the process as they really are custom tuned. There is also a wait involved as some of the kits get built in batches so you might have to wait a few weeks; and the same again for postage. Avy will not mark down the cost for customs purposes as Craig doesn’t fancy jail time; so expect to pay import duty (as I did on both of mine). Your spending a lot of money on what might now be quite an old fork… more on that later.

The big question I guess is are they worth it? It’s a lot of money to spend on something the results of which will be unclear until you do it… and it’s all conjecture and personal preference anyway. As I said on the other thread it’s really about geekyness and getting the feeling you want, or getting rid of a feeling you don’t rather than any performance gain.

Of the stuff I’ve bought from Avy the DHX Air rear shock is absolutely bonkers amazing. It is better than the CCDBcoil it replaced. There is a livelyness to the Avy that was missing from the CCDB and there is none of the wallow which I didn’t like; yet at speed it performs similarly with amazing levels of control. I did try a few setting changes but once the shock bedded in I’ve taken it back to how Craig set it up and it’s better. I see CCDB are now doing a “Climb-Switch” … but my Avy doesn’t need one as when climbing it tends to only use part of the stroke, the rest of the stroke only gets used when I need it on the doonhalls. How the shock performs in this way is amazing , the Avalanche Speed-Sensitive-damping (SSD) does what it says, the only other shock I’ve felt do similar is a Bos VIPr. But the Avy feels much better at speed than the rather firm feeling Bos did.

The Avy kit in my Marz 55 RC3 Ti is similarly amazing. Again the wallow and brake dive I disliked are controlled by the SSD and the bike handles the low speed techy stuff really well without blowing through the travel (this is what I really disliked the Marz for), and at speed the Marz plushness is still there using all the travel and the fork feels brilliant which matches the back end.

The Fox 36 Float fork has been a bit of a disappointment… I never found the love for them at 160mm travel on my big bike as they never felt especially smooth. It was still better with the Avy kit than with the RC2 kit it replaced and I was able to get closer to my ideal sag settings without the fork getting all wallowy. With the Marz now on the big bike the 36’s have been reduced to 130mm (which they were at before) and are now on my hardtail where they work really well… they feel like a different fork but I can’t help feeling they are a little wasted at 130mm; although I can run them a little softer than I did before without wallow which feels great. Not sure if my reason for not loving these is because is a problem with the Fox’s at 160mm (because they have been run at 130mm for a while) or if I just prefer the feeling of the coil 55’s? Either way they are quite an old fork that has had a hammering from me and could do with new stansions at some point so maybe that will fix them? So beware spending this on an old fork which may have other issues! Hindsight – I should have bought the 55 kit first but I fancied the 250g weight saving of the Float fork; unfortunatley going from RC2 to Avy the fork gained nearly 200g so no saving.

For what I’ve paid I could have bought new forks and shocks. But I didn’t want Fox’s latest CTD bollox or the other companies one-size-fits-all-ki t (although I liked the Bos stuff I’ve used my habit of requiring warranty stuff really put me off with the current support situation… and the Deville was not as stiff as the 36/55). I also rode with some guys in the USA a while back who were using Avy stuff and what they said about its performance and reliability had me very interested. I knew how I wanted my kit to feel and after a few emails and phone calls with Craig at Avalanche I was sure he would be able to make my kit perform how I wanted. What I also like is that in theory it’s all user serviceable and even tuneable if you want to get really geeky. Being open bath it’s a little heavier but changing the oil and a few seals is easy and much preferable to sending it all away (I know the DHX will still have to go away). The instructions on the Avy site are very clear as to how to install the fork cartridges and it’s a fun little workshop job.

I’m very happy with the performance of my shock and fork kits and would buy them again (over new kit).

The new Pike with the Avalanche SSD like Mid-valve technology is tempting… but I could probably buy a Fox 34 and get an Avy kit for it… if I thought I could be happy with a 34mm fork; but I’m going to stick with the Avy 55’s as I love how they ride.

Thanks for that messiah, can you tell me what the float damper cost including postage and import tax please?

$427 + $51 postage = $478. Which converts to £316. Assuming the import duty was 20% thats £63 so a total of £379 or thereabouts – I think the import duty is a little above 20% as someone else takes a slice too.

Which is actually more than I paid for either of the forks in first place 😯 (Both my forks have the much unloved 1.5″ steerer… ).

I had two at the same time. I think they worked out at over £400 each all in.

Yikes! Will have to save for that then!

Sounds about right Onzadog. It did work out a little more than I thought it would because of the import duty thing.

Bagstard – You’ve got to really want it to spend that much on it. For me it was either try this or buy new forks… and hope the new forks were better than the old forks which I didn’t think they would be. It was also an itch I wanted to scratch after speaking to the guys in Phoenix.

I thought that all fork chassis would be similar and actually, the fox one was pretty stiff. It was just the da.ping I wanted to sort, also I really like open bath just for the hastle free nature of it.

Damper is also tuneable at home which is a massive plus. Expensive I agree, but I’ve got pretty much everything else I want for the bike.