I’ve a set of 2016 36’s that feel very harsh, almost “wooden”. I’m running both LSC and HSC wide open yet I still feel very beaten up. They also have horrendous stiction, which is worse if the forks have been sitting for a while. They have been regularly serviced. Cold weather further exacerbates the problem.

Any thoughts or fixes for this problem?

MRP ramp control setup works well with the separate positive and negative air chambers.

Try the LSC in a few turns and drop the pressure a little?

Rebound almost fully open

Edit – alternatively send em to mojo who’ll fettle em

Edit – alternatively send em to mojo who’ll fettle em

Not any more! Silverfish from 1st November.

…ah yeah 😀

I’d leave it then!!!

Edit – alternatively send em to mojo who’ll fettle em
Not any more! Silverfish from 1st November.

Mojo will still fettle them for you.
Email Paul@mojo and describe your problem.
He can do a reshim on them that makes a huge difference and totaly gets ride of the being beaten up feeling.

Dropping the air pressure by c 10-15 psi and adding and extra volume reducer and a couple of clicks of lsc worked for me

Paul did same reshim for me… ace job.

Out of interest, how much is the re-shim job? Ta.

Mine have never been that supple, but I kind of consider it a balance with the superb overall control and grip in deep, and general ****-up management they have- compared to my Pikes which were a little smoother but not as controlled. I’m pretty sure I could improve that first little bump but I really don’t want to risk changing anything else about them so I’ve just left it.

But mine are not sticky, they’re just I guess you could say resistant.

Yup, mine have always felt like this. Are you quite light, if you don’t mind me asking?
I’m a scrawny whatnot, just over 60kg, and my 2016s have always felt a bit harsh off the top. It was improved with one extra blue token and dropping the pressure a bit (I think I’m on about 53PSI now, running only a few clicks of rebound, and usually run the HSC wide open and about 4 clicks of LSC, but still nothing like as plush as Pikes or Lyriks. However, as Northwind says, it’s like it’s a trade off – as soon as I hit rough stuff the amount of control, support, and lateral stiffness I get out of them more than makes up for it!
They are overdue a service (but they’ve felt like that from the start) and when they do I’m going to try and get them revalved to a more appropriate setup for my weight, they just feel a bit overdamped off the top.
On the plus side, it balances out the dead feeling Monarch on the rear!

submarined – Member

they just feel a bit overdamped off the top.

“Overdamped” is the exact word Paul at Mojo used when I spoke to him on the phone. The shim mod moved me from 0 HSC to right in the middle of the adjustment, and has definitely made the forks plusher with no ill effects or compromises elsewhere that I can detect.

Yeah, I think ultimately with me it’s that they have to set the forks up for a window of weights, and I fall outside that window due to my malnourished physique.
A reshim changes that window and gives me usable adjustment range.

The only time I ever add HSC is about 4 clicks when I’m hitting jump lines.

Yeah, I think ultimately with me it’s that they have to set the forks up for a window of weights, and I fall outside that window due to my malnourished physique.

It’s widely accepted that Fox do over damp their forks from the factory, particularly the RC2 models. Whether you want to blame this on “obese Americans” or that their target market might think they’re Ritchie Rude, I don’t know. But that’s the way they come out of the box.

Have a few friends that have had the shim stack mod done that SSStu mentions above and they all say it has transformed the fork. These aren’t scrawny 10st guys either! At 12.5st the couple of Fox 36’s I’ve tried in last year have both felt way over damped, and I literally couldn’t be more 50th percentile if I tried in terms of body shape and size.

He can do a reshim on them that makes a huge difference and totaly gets ride of the being beaten up feeling.

Interesting. Same experience here. My RC2s are set at 140mm, with a single blue token. Air pressure to give nearly 30% sag, get near full travel very occasionally. 3 or 4 click of HSC, No LSC. 5 clicks of Rebound

They feel good at slow speed/rocky climbs. Cope with big hits really well. Don’t dive through the mid strokke so cope really well well it gets steep. However, at high speed on rough ground while control is good they feel harsh and leave me feeling more beaten up than I’d expect.

Doesn’t dropping the pressure end up with them sitting too far into their travel?

Rick Draper – Member 
MRP ramp control setup works well with the separate positive and negative air chambers.

this……its amazing, it feels so plush, I got rid of my 2015/16 36’s for the exact same reason as you as they felt so harsh and wooden

I swapped them for some lyriks, which felt much nicer

however I’m now back on the 2017 36’s with + / – mrp air cartridge, and its night and day, not only that even after long term use they still feel totally plush all the time, very impressed with it.

I think the newer stock 2018 EVOL 36 ones are suppose to combat this wooden/dead feel from stock if you can get hold of a new air cartridge?

wl – Member
Out of interest, how much is the re-shim job? Ta.

It was £40 extra on top of a standard service.

Paul@Mojo also sorted my for with the same problem. so much better now

#savePaul

If your anywhere near Shrewsbury J-Tech will do services and custom tunes for fox forks. My 32s are so much better since they tuned them for me.

Edit: just looked at your profile and south coast is a bit of a trek or you’d have to courier them.

i think I have a simular problem with my 34’s (FIT4 factory). if they’ve been sitting a while they “stick” before commencing with the travel. Had the lowers serviced yesterday and while they feel plusher that intial sticking is still there. Is this whats decribed above??

WHat’s the rebound set at?

If the rebound is too slow, they’ll pack down and feel harsh on repeated hits.

Edit – probably not this alone, but could be a factor.

Honour – thanks for that.
What’s this MRP mod people talk about? Where from and how much?
I agree with much of the above. Mine don’t feel as plush as the Pikes I’ve had but they defo feel more controlled when it’s rough or steep. Leaving my bike upside down before a ride seems to help a bit (cupid stunt will be along in a mo to take the piss). Seems odd that a £1k fork isn’t shit-hot on everything, but that’s life. Part costs are as high as rider standards nowadays, I guess.

This is the MRP cart – pretty much plugs right in, just make sure you get the right one

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/mrp-ramp-control-cartridge/rp-prod157230

Honour – cheers again. Much appreciated.

Get Pikes

No worries 🙂

submarined – Member

However, as Northwind says, it’s like it’s a trade off

TBH I wouldn’t really say that, I think it’s a bit of a failing rather than a side effect of the good parts. It’s just that I don’t want to change the best parts, at all, and I’d rather live with the slight shortfall rather than risk changing the stuff I really like

If you don’t mind spending the money, the Push coil conversion makes them ridiculously sensitive – my 2018s have ended up feeling more sensitive than a set of coil 200mm Mazocchis – they really are something to behold in that department. It improved even the EVOL model quite considerably. The new seals, stanchion coating, PTFE infused damper oil and coil all come together to make a pretty special fork. The thing with air forks is that the air shafts are really sensitive to maintenance as well, you have to stay on top of regular lower maintenance to get the most out of them – coils are easier to forget in that regard, they don’t drop off nearly as badly in terms of performance.

So if it’s stiction and vibration on small chunder that’s giving you grief, I’d go with the coil conversion. A lot of other people commented that it did more for them than work done to the damping.

It’s going to cost, what…close 200 for a service and a damper tune yeah? I’d definitely be considering the coil at that kind of price, especially if the FIT damper doesn’t need a service. I’d do the lower service myself.

Thanks for all the updates, I’m 11stone, maybe 12 with all the clothing and a full camelbak. Rebound is probably about stock but it’s not pack down, from a pre ride bounce you have to exert a hefty push to break the initial stiction and then they just feel wooden.

If empty the air and take the lh cap off as if you were changing the “tokens” then they are buttery smooth, as soon as air is added, stiction returns. Air pressure wise I’m running what Fox recommend for my weight.

Those are bloody expensive solutions to modify a fork that retails at >£1100 in the first place – £150+ for the MRP, £375 for the Push coil (and those are unfitted prices).

Puzzled by the MRP recommendation. The cartridge is mainly an externally adjustable volume spacer so it’s bottom out it’s going to affect. That’s not the area where people are complaining – on big hits the forks work really well. The change to a separate negative air spring (running at a positive pressure) makes some sense for small bump plushness but again thats not really the issue.
If the main problem is that the forks are over-damped (which seems likely given the advice is generally to run them without next to no compression damping or rebound) the MRP mod’s don’t affect that at all do they?

[edit] A damper tune is only about £40 on top of a service (£100) which you’ll need at some point anyway – seems like the first thing to try with them. [Mojo’s servicing pages are now offline]

Puzzled by the MRP recommendation. The cartridge is mainly an externally adjustable volume spacer so it’s bottom out it’s going to affect. That’s not the area where people are complaining – on big hits the forks work really well. The change to a separate negative air spring (running at a positive pressure) makes some sense for small bump plushness but again thats not really the issue.
If the main problem is that the forks are over-damped (which seems likely given the advice is generally to run them without next to no compression damping or rebound) the MRP mod’s don’t affect that at all do they?

The MRP mod on a 2015-17 36 makes the air spring adjustable for both positive and negative air pressure.

Simmons, 2016 fork…. A damper tune wont help with the stiction, a service will… for about 40 hours.

Anyway, I think the coil would be cheaper than upgrading to a Lyrik or 2018 Fox 36 to get the sensitivity.

old weather further exacerbates the problem.

Using Foxs green bath oil is supposed to help with this – the gold is more sensitive to the cold from what I have read.

Those are bloody expensive solutions to modify a fork that retails at >£1100 in the first place – £150+ for the MRP, £375 for the Push coil (and those are unfitted prices).

Over the last year or so, this has increasingly become my feelings about both Fox and RockShox forks… Fox seem to go with the approach of making it work for Richie Rude or Aaron Gwin on the worlds lairiest race tracks, but then don’t bother putting enough external adjustment into the fork for the average Joe. By contrast RockShox are only concerned with how “plush” the fork feels on the shop floor, and though the Pike/Yari/Lyrik family chassis is a good one to build on, making a box stock fork (after you’ve done a lower leg service on it from brand new, to make sure there’s actually some lower leg oil in there!) work well out on the trails doesn’t seem to have been a concern of theirs. Sure you can send to Mojo/TF/Sprung/J-Tech etc. But that’s ON TOP of buying a bloody expensive fork in the first place!

By contrast, both my MRP Ribbon and Stage forks can be setup to work pretty bloody well for most riders out of the box, and though perhaps not quite as “plush” as a Lyrik or as totally supportive as a 36RC2 on the very biggest hits, they seem to occupy a fantastic middle ground where they “just work”… Been so impressed with mine, I’ve taken the plunge and pre-ordered a Ribbon Coil, so I’ll have one of the very first few coil spring Ribbons in the country! Given how much hype this fork was getting at Eurobike, from an otherwise relatively unknown manufacturer, I can’t wait to get my hands on it and give it a whirl!

To be honest, Fox seem to have nailed the damper tune for 2018 – they’re softer initially than my Pikes ever were. It’d be pretty simple to replicate the tune in a Pike or Lyrik really – the HSC feels lighter to begin with but much more progressive – the Pikes/Lyriks feel either less progressive or outright regressive.

Doesn’t the MRP coil fork only come with the choice of around 3-5 spring weights?

Will turning the rebound down (slower) help with the plushness as I have it set quite high. Running 83psi and weigh 210lbs with gear

To be honest, Fox seem to have nailed the damper tune for 2018

According to Paul at Mojo the damper tune is exactly the same in the 18 fork as the 17 fork…
The new air spring setup makes it feel a bit softer on the initail stoke though.
There’s a 17 and 2 18 36’s in our garage and they’ve all had the same shim stack mod because they were all harsh in the initial stroke.

As a slight point of note, I suspect the reason people are suggesting the MRP setup isn’t actually for the ramp control part, is due to the fact that the 36 version comes with an assembly that lets you independently adjust the negative air spring pressure. It’s a part that’s also available separately for about 50 quid if you aren’t bothered about buying the full caboodle.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The coil conversion looks nice but a “mojo” fix looks a bit more wallet friendly. Decisions, decisions.