Just arrived in Les Gets, bike out of car and on first run the forks are making a right old clunk. The forks are Float R’s, less than a year old, and have done very few miles.

On further inspection the fork is tearing through the first 25-50mm of the rebound stroke with no damping, the rebound then cuts in, which is causing the ‘clunk’. The fork understandably doesn’t track the ground.

The bike has in a car on its side, so I’m thinking that there is air in the damper (not FIT but old school), but despite whipping the air out and having a good mess around, I can’t sort it. The Les Gets LBS has swapped the oil this afternoon, but to no avail. ‘

Totally gutted as the bike was built for trips like this and it rides like a sack of crash inducing crap. I’m sure its air or something minor in the damper – the fork was fine in the UK, but after travel is screwed.

Any ideas? Is there a procedure for reseting the damper?

The buys in the local shop have been a help, but I get the impression that anything beyond an oil change ain’t their bag, so failing any awesome tech tips, if anyone can recommend a good Fox dealer in the Portes Du Soleil I’d be chuffed. I’d be happy just to replace the entire damper, but I doubt anyone here will have them in stock. The shop I’m dealing with here don’t (although they are happy to sell me a new set of 36’s LOL

Buy the new 36s and enjoy your riding. Sell the old ones on ebay when you get back.

Pretty sure Torico shop in Morzine hired forks out by the day for a reasonable price, so that might be an option if your trip is fairly short?

If noone in Les Gets can fix them try Morzine. Torico or Dert service forks.

A set of “new” 36RC’s are 1000 Euros, they are down from 1300 Euros, but they have been in the shop a few years or are OEM, as they are not 2011 forks – want to sort mine if possible.

I’m sure whatever is wrong with them is minor, they’ve done next to no miles from new either. Have some Fox 32 Van’s which have done thousands and thousands of miles fault free. Boooo!

Torico looks like a top tip, the “Keep you rollin” service looks awesome keep you rollin.

Arse! My Floats went in France too. I landed a small drop heavy on the brakes (heading towards a switchback) and something went “clunk”. After that I rode the rest of the day, albeit tentatively. I bought a 2nd hand set of forks (Vans) out there and used them. Paid over the odds (£400) but better than hiring and knew I could sell them on getting my Floats fixed.

Fox will make a clunk like that if rebound is wound full on.

Russell,

Thanks for that, I didn’t know that. With rebound on full there is no damping through the start of the rebound stroke, but it kicks in about half way through the travel. I’ll try a bit less rebound, but it was screwed throughout the range this afternoon.

The noise (and feeling through the bar) is a pain, but its the initial lack of rebound damping which is the problem. Damn scary, the fork doesn’t go where I expect it which is not good!

N

Check to see if any of the shops can strip and check the cart. one of them must have a set of suitable shaft clamps and a mechanic that know’s what they’re doing as they’re isn’t that much going on inside the O/B dampers.

Fox will make a clunk like that if rebound is wound full on.

Ive had similar issues wth various forks/brands. The best way I found is to set all the damping circuits to stock (middle) and pump the fork through the travel. Could take 20 strokes or more. Its easier with an air fork as you can let some air out to enable you to get to the whole travel.

Good luck whatever is th problem.

To bleed the air out of the O/B carts. it’s best to set the rebound full slow and cycle the forks 10/20 times, if this doesn’t fix it which TBH it sounds like it’s not the issue, the cart. needs to be stripped and see what the problem is, most likely something has come loose and is causing the strange damping.

LoCo

Yeah they’ve had more than 20 cycles – with air out before it went into the shop – think I’m bollox’d to be fair. I agreed something might have come loose, but it’s finding someone with the right kit and expertise to sort it out. The bike shop seem decent guys, but despite having tones of Fox on sale, they don’t seem to be that confident doing more than popping the top caps out and changing the oil. They hadn’t managed to work out it was the damper. Once we popped the top caps you can feel the lack of damping on the damper rod, but I had to point them in that direction as they’d been looking in the other leg for the noise. Weird pushing down on the bars you can feel the screwed damping.

I’m sure I’ll sort something tomorrow. Not impressed that forks with so few miles on are causing hassle. Not cheap kit at the end of the day, how hard can it be to QA it properly. Grump grump grump 🙂

N

On a plus point I’ve been pinging down the Pleney downhill on an old hardtail this afternoon and I’m still alive 🙂 My trusty old SC Chameleon hasn’t let me down despite its six year old Pace forks and a LOT of miles under the wheels.

Fork is now sorted, a little circlip had bent open.

Local bike shop ordered in part from Fox France. Fitted it and problem sorted. Fox knew what was wrong the moment the shop called, so I’m guessing this happens a fair bit.

Great service from Nevada Sports in Les Gets, they’d noticed some play in the rear suspension mounts and tightened all this up as well. Dead impressed!

LoCo got back to me (hello Simon!) and the cartridge of the fork is a write-off. Ho hum. Apparantly I’m getting an RC2 FIT cartridge fitted instead and while I don’t know what that does, I’m impressed.

pyro9n, result 😀

saxabar, different carts. pyro9n’s is an open bath and your one is an old style FIT R cart.
The new RC2 unit that is being fitted is alot better than the old style FIT ones performance wise and also has high and low speed compression adjustment 😀