No matter how much I try, I can’t make the poploc on my Rebas unlock the fork. I’ve got a crown lever which I will fit on, but need to know how to disable the internal spring in the cartridge. It looks like I just need to unhook it from its stop. Is that all I need to do, or am I missing something?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1AoGIWBz4H1YWNhYWRkODYtNzRiNi00YTA1LTlmMjctNmQzOWQwMDdiZGFl/edit?hl=en&pli=1

Good god. It that still there?

I wrote that, BTW. 🙂

It looks like I just need to unhook it from its stop

Basically, yes. 🙂

You might need an O ring of some sort under your crown lever to stop it rattling as well, too, but that’s it.

Thanks! So the spring stays in place then. Good stuff.

I’ve been thinking about having a go at taking the whole assembly apart to remove the spring completely. If they put it together chances are I can get it apart, though it may be bonded with some sort of adhesive which would make it pointless to attempt. I won’t know until I take it apart as I’m only going on the Exploded View PDF from their website.

And yeah – thanks PP.

Job done. Experimented with a couple of O rings, and fought with the spiders under the workbench after suffering a grub screw pingphuckitt but otherwise pretty straightforward. Thanks PP, great instructions. Except my cartridge isn’t red, and it’s the other sort of gate adjuaster, 😀

I’ve been thinking about having a go at taking the whole assembly apart to remove the spring completely. If they put it together chances are I can get it apart, though it may be bonded with some sort of adhesive which would make it pointless to attempt. I won’t know until I take it apart as I’m only going on the Exploded View PDF from their website.

You can take out the entire MoCo damper if you’re never going to use it. I saved 110g on a Reba World Cup back in the day!

There’s no obvious way to split the cartridge assembly as far as I can see.

Yeah, that’s what PP reckons in that PDF guide. I’m still going to have a prod and pull when I get around to doing it.

You can take out the entire MoCo damper

Good tip, Njee. I’ll probably use the lock-out as much as I use it on my current bike i.e. never…

There’s no obvious way to split the cartridge assembly as far as I can see.

I think it can be done. I think I’ve done it on a newer fork (That guide is 2005!) and it’s a left hand thread somewhere……

I should update that guide really, the principal is the same but the newer forks look different inside

Yeah, slacker; update the bloody thing!

Sheesh…

OK. Lend me your new forks then! 😉

Have spent an hour or two researching this today, found out peterpoddy had written a guide and was about to post a request for it, only for this thread to appear at the top of the bike forum 🙂

Thanks Peter!

Lend me your new forks then!

I can do better than that. I’ll take photos when I do it and send them to you, making a note of anything that’s different to your original guide.

Ahh. That might work! 🙂

To be fair I’ve got a brand new pair of Revelations in the garage that need this doing to them. I’m not sure if or when it’ll happen though.

I’ve got a spare cartridge in the garage. I’ll have a go and report back. Left hand thread? It can only be to remove the top threaded part from the plastic barrel. I’ll see what I can do…..

Success. Using a 24mm spanner and a bar through the slots in the plastic barrel for leverage the top unscrews, left threaded. The top part comes away, and the shaft pulls up out of the barrel. It’s a push fit into the closing mechanism at the bottom of the cartridge.

Presumably a poploc version would be the same just with the spring which could be removed and the cartridge reassembled.

You’ll be pleased to hear that disassembly is exactly the same for the poploc cartridge. The spring simply unhooks from the peg and stop on the shaft.

Weight weenies will be thrilled to hear this saves another 3.5g unnecessary weight. 😀

Just to see if I got this right; could you remove the whole unit pictured above, save for the top cap thingy to screw into the upper, without losing any performance beside the adjustability that compression lever/poploc usually offers? If so then surely you wouldn’t have to remove the spring in the cartridge either (in the case of poploc) which should actually make it easier to get the MoCo working again if one should have a change of hearts down the road (screwing it together sounds more straight forward than messing with that godawful spring to me)?

I don’t think you could, as the locking shaft is held in place by the plastic barrel.

Just to see if I got this right; could you remove the whole unit pictured above, save for the top cap thingy to screw into the upper, without losing any performance beside the adjustability that compression lever/poploc usually offers? If so then surely you wouldn’t have to remove the spring in the cartridge either (in the case of poploc) which should actually make it easier to get the MoCo working again if one should have a change of hearts down the road (screwing it together sounds more straight forward than messing with that godawful spring to me)?

Sort of, you need a different top cap, both times I’ve done it I’ve just got one to match the positive air one on the LH leg (although it does nothing). You lose the adjustable compression damping, but I never had the Poploc fitted, so can’t say it bothered me. IIRC on Black Box MoCo it saved about 70g, and as I said up there 110g on ‘standard’ MoCo.

Like this:

If you change your mind it takes 30 seconds to put the MoCo back in with a splash of oil.

Brilliant, cheers.

Sorry, but I assume the same would be true for the pushloc versions?

Good work, Scapegoat. Nice piccies, too.

top cap…to match the positive air one on the LH leg

Another good tip, Nick – very aesthetically pleasing. Where did you obtain that cap ? Can’t seem to track it down…

Njee, so you’re not running a compression damper? so the dual flow rebound assembly is doing all you compression and rebound duties along with the air gap, isn’t the control on rougher stuff a little lacking?

Having had the demoralising experience of riding with him I can quite honestly say that if it’s a little lacking in the control stakes, you wouldn’t notice.

Probably because you can’t actually keep him in sight…

🙂

Why would you remove a compression damper all together??

I’m kind of assuming it’s because poplocs work as either on, or off, with blowoff controlled by the gate adjuster. If your riding style is such that you never lock the fork, then at first a compressiin damper looks superfluous.

I’m looking forward to trying different “halway” or gradual settings on mine. ON my old chattery XC bike I ran the fork at 100mm, never locked it and ran it fairly plush. Now the fork’s at 120mm on my Cotic I want to see whether I can fine tune starting stroke to work on different surfaces. More so now I’ve just fitted some 150 Revs to the bouncer instead of the Float 140. In many ways I think the poploc failure has done me a favour.

I’ve fitted a fatter O ring under the crown adjuster, which gives a more controlled “friction lock” effect, so you can dial in finer adjustments. Just need some of thsnow to go so I can get out and play.

It may turn out to be all oxbolls anyway!

Why would you remove a compression damper all together??

Because I didn’t have the lockout lever fitted, so I couldn’t adjust it, and I didn’t notice any detrimental performance from removing it, heathen that I am! Not saying there wasn’t any, but I never play with any of my settings anyway, it felt fine to me!

Won a NPS race like that.

Tim Flooks had similar histrionics to LoCo when I sent my Rebas for a service, but no one’s ever been able to actually tell me what I should have noticed? Rebound damping still worked fine.

No histrionics here 😉 If you’re happy with it that’s all that matters 😀

The compression damper should give a bit more control of the compression damping and allow adjustment of the low speed compression to reduce drive on the brakes,cornering etc.

If you’re running them pretty stiff and only to absorb really big hits, as some pretty fast XC racers do, this will be less of an issue.
Like I said if it works for you that’s all that matters.

Fairly irrelevant now, current bike came has Fox forks, can’t do it with them!

Wasn’t running them hugely firm, but I guess with a short travel fork any ‘misbehaving’ will be less pronounced. Like I say I never noticed any difference!

I’m contemplating getting rid of the poploc on my 2012 rev RLT’s and replacing with a normal crown adjust. The main reason being I’d like to add a bit of compression damping to help with brake dive.

I can’t work out if it will be worth it though. Holding the poploc lever in a midway position seems to have no effect, leading me to think that the compression adjust is only on or off???

The damper units are different I believe. Poploc is only made as a toggle, while the ones with the lever on the crown are fully adjustable.

In which case I won’t be able to play with the compression damping?

OK, next question. The spare cartridge I split open was from a SID. It’s 15mm shorter than the MoCO in my Reba.

It doesn’t work in the Reba, because it’s too short. Could I raise the oil level in the Reba damping leg to 15mm higher in order to make the shorter cartridge work in it?

If so, how much oil do I need to put in to raise the level by 15mm?

In which case I won’t be able to play with the compression damping?

Not without swapping the damper unit for one with crown adjust AFAIK.

As far as I can make out, the damping comes from the speed at which oil can pass through the opening at the bottom of the MoCo damper. This varies with the size of the opening, I assume.

Here’s a pic of the SID mechanism, first all the way open, then half way, then closed. There aren’t any other internals in either cartridge, so no reason why the damping effect should differ.

Poploc was originally designed to run with forks like Dart etc, where it was a simple on-off. They don’t actually belong on Motion Control forks I don’t think, although they must have been a good selling point. Pushloc is the proper way forward for forks with compression damping.

I think I’ll just pop the damper out of my RLT’s and take a look when I get a chance. It’s annoying if I can’t adjust the compression damping.

Some Poplocs had adjustable compression, so one assumes the cartridge supported said adjustment. Certainly Poploc was available on SIDs and Rebas in 2005, long before Pushloc came along.

The plot thickens. These pics are off my Reba 2009/10 (formerly) poploc, now with spring removed.

The inlet at the bottom doesn’t close completely. I’ve got to assume this is the blow-off gate. The slot exposed as the metal cover is turned is graduated, like a slope, which gets deeper the further you turn the valve to open. Again, I’ve got to assume that this will create a gradual damping effect.
I’ll post these then go and check my 2010 Revs to see whether the unit is any different.
“Open”

Halfway

“Locked”

Bizarrely, there appears to be a bigger space when the switch is turned to “locked.”

Right, I’m off to open up the Revs.