One bike ride and everything goes wrong! My forks were sucking down more than I’d like. I tried the ziptie down the seal trick, but it doesn’t go in very far, and even with no pressure in the fork, I can’t extend them back to full length. Can pull them apart about half and that’s it. Grey import so no warranty joy (blame the UK supplier for not bringing 120mm QR Rebas ; )

Sale of goods? Surely they need to work for reasonable time!

Who did you buy them off? Surely there’s some sort of warranty attached to them.

Japanese Ebay… 🙁

PayPal?

Anyone got any suggestions that don’t involve an Ebay claim and trying to retract a 6 month old paypal payment? I’d love to hear it!

If there’s no way of warranty service then you’ll need to service them yourself or get a bike shop / suspension company like Loco or Mojo to do it for you.

unscrew the nut at the bottom of the air leg about half way out. Tap it (or an allen key in it depending on the age of your rebas) until it moves, this will break the air seal in the lower, if that was the issue at all…

Sounds like a blocked port between the +ve and -ve chamber. Strip and clean the spring side.

Yes. I’ve has the same thing. Quick fix is to undo the bottom bolt on the non drive side (solo air side), remove the bolt and insert a small (terminal) screwdriver and depress the valve that lurks in there, this should release the internally burped air & you’ll have instant return to full travel. On mine i rode them a few times after, but eventually the same thing happened again. I reasoned that as air was being forced past the air piston then i’d replace the air piston O ring with the one that came in the seal kit supplied with my forks. This has so far worked. I did have another issue with the fork being harsh, but i think i used too much grease on rebuild blocking some of the “indents” that don’t wanna be blocked. Hope that helps.

https://www.sram.com/rockshox/products/reba-rl#service

To be honest, I’m not sure what’s wrong – or even if there us something wrong at all. All I know is the forks wouldn’t fully extend. I think I did the best I could with the ziptie trick, but I still can’t get them longer than 110mm – and that’s with a solid ‘stop’ at that point, not the negative spring. I used to be good, and patient with bikes. Now I’m just reckless 😯

Sounds like the little transfer port is blocked, either try the lower valve trick above to empty the -ve chamber and try again, or take apart and check it. Sounds like it might be worth taking a look inside anyway, might be a hatchet job and they’ve put a spacer in there to reduce travel or something. The zip tie down the seal trick only releases air that has escaped into the lower leg, this is not the same as the negative air chamber.

Thanks everyone. I’m exhausted tonight, so gonna leave it til tomorrow when I’ll hopefully be a bit sharper. Will read the SRAM guidance and surf youtube! Cheers

So, seems I can’t help myself. Let the air out of the negative spring by removing the screw in the solo air lower, and depressing the valve with a round-end Allen key, reassembled with the forks fully compressed, inflated. Forks now full extended to 120mm, though feel quite harsh at recommended pressure. A good ride this weekend should show if it’s sorted!

So they have a positive and negative air chambers? I thought that was dual air, not solo…?

RS suggested pressures are a bit random so best to set by sag.

With the solo air once you compress the fork for the first time after pumping up the pressure should drop a little as the -ve chamber equalises, if the transfer port is still blocked this won’t happen and you’ll have no -ve spring and the fork will feel harsh with no supple movement at the start of the stroke

So they have a positive and negative air chambers? I thought that was dual air, not solo…?

Yes otherwise there would be no progressive start to the stroke unless they used a spring or something instead. Dual air had separate valve inputs for each spring, solo air uses a little dimple inside the stanchion to allow air to enter the -ve chamber from the +ve and equalize the pressures as the seal head moves over it.

Had a go over some bumps just now and doesn’t feel too bad. Noticed when I first got them they lost tons of pressure, but wonder if this was the chambers equalising. And that dimple! Tiny, no wonder it blocks.