Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)
  • Fox 36 spring in Marzocchi 55 RC3 forks?
  • Andy-R
    Full Member

    Has anyone any experience of doing this – ie shortening the Fox spring to suit the free length needed to use in the 55 RC3 Ti Evo2 forks, as it’s impossible to find a lighter spring than the standard item, which is over sprung for me.
    The actual shortening isn’t an issue but are the OD’s of the springs near enough the same and, after shortening, will I get full travel before the spring is coil bound?
    Obviously if I had a spring to check it would be easy to find out one way or the other but I’d rather not spend £25 only to find it won’t work.

    Thanks guys…

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    Oh well, there’s only one way to find out, I suppose – just ordered a spring to play around with.

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    So just an update on this, in case it’s of any use to anyone. I got the spring today, the soft (black) one which is apparently 35 lb/in or as near as damn it 4Nm. (£25 plus postage from TF Tuning)
    OD of both springs is 29mm, so that’s all good – weight is about 195gms, the Ti spring is 145gms.
    Compared to the Ti spring the free length is 310mm as opposed to 305mm so I tried it as it is, without shortening.

    For me, at around 67kgs in riding gear, I reckon it’s pretty much perfect straight out of the box, running no mechanical preload and no air preload. With the original spring, although I really liked the forks, I had to run negative air preload – ie. compress the forks and then bleed air from the preload valve in order to get anywhere near 20-25% sag. Hardly surprising, as the standard spring is, as far as I’m aware, 6.9Nm or about 61 lb/in.

    Anyway, I’ll have a better idea after a decent run out, not just a quick razz around but so far it’s all looking good and has cheered me up on yet another dark, wet day.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Just so you’re not talking to yourself, I’ll say well done mate.

    Envious of you being able to enjoy such an awesome fork. Wish it’d been made in larger wheel formats.

    zero-cool
    Free Member

    Good to know if I ever loose 25kg. Or put on weight and need a stiffer Spring. I’ve seen lots of people asking about lighter springs online and no one has ever mentioned swapping the spring out for a Fox 36 Spring.

    Keep us posted on whether it actually works in the long run or catastrophically fails.

    Tom KP

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    I’m often guilty of talking to myself, I’m afraid – must be an age thing……

    I reckon from the feel of it on a short ride around with a few drops and steps that it’ll be just the job – I wouldn’t have ever forked out £170 for the lighter Ti one, that’s for certain, even if I could have tracked one down.

    zero-cool
    Free Member

    Lighter springs for that fork do appear to be as rare as rocking horse shit.

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    Going none-Ti is probably the answer – weight gain will be smallest if you are fitting the soft spring, higher rates will weigh a little more but then you could just use the Ti spring and play around with a little air assistance if you were after a higher spring rate.
    I did experiment with the spring from my 55 TST2 forks but that was too soft really and definitely needed a bit of air assist.

    Craggyjim
    Free Member

    Just remember if you do need to chop a spring it will increase the rating.

    BlobOnAStick
    Full Member

    Glad you sorted it!

    seanodav
    Free Member

    What Fox spring was it Andy, from 160 or180? Presumably 180?

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    The spring is a 2011 160mm one – this one. http://www.tftuned.com/fox-36/c132 , the soft one.

    And yes, if you shorten any spring the increase in rate is directly proportional to the amount that you shorten it by,
    Fortunately, although I’d been told that the Fox spring would need shortening, the difference in free length was minimal (5mm) so I’ve just got slightly more preload but I can live with that -it wouldn’t be easy to shorten a spring that size by only 5mm anyway.

    seanodav
    Free Member

    Cheers Andy, will try that.

    crashtestmonkey
    Free Member

    as another 67kg owner of a RC3Ti, thanks to the OP for this. I also use the negative air spring trick, and love the forks despite not getting full travel, so I’ll probably do the same. The extra weight is inconsequential on my bike (Alpine 160 with lots of hufty bits on it).

    Just to clarify you said you got the black (soft) one, but they refer to the black as extra soft? So did you buy the black, or the soft?

    seanodav
    Free Member

    What he said ^^^^ can you confirm this Andy? Cheers

    fuzzhead
    Free Member

    FWIW, I snapped the Ti spring in my 55s and TFTuned replaced it with a slightly machined spring from a Lyrik coil. Was cheaper and way easier than trying to get hold of a Marzo Ti Spring.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    OP not replying?

    We can only conclude that the spring has somehow killed him, I’m afraid.

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    Sorry, sorry guys – I’m not dead and the fork situation is all good. The spring I bought was the extra soft (black colour code) not soft, as I mistakenly said earlier. After a few longer rides all seems pretty near perfect and has made the forks (which I already thought were the dog’s bollocks) even better, in that I don’t have to faff around with negative air to get a reasonable amount of sag and small bump compliance seems even better than before.
    Well worth £25, I would say.

Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)

The topic ‘Fox 36 spring in Marzocchi 55 RC3 forks?’ is closed to new replies.