Anyone ran their forks at both travels?

Notice any difference? Anything worth mentioning?

I’ve just booked a holiday to Morzine so considering dropping a 180mm air shaft in to replace my 170 one for the summer, not sure if it’s really going to make any difference though?

Thoughts?

I’d doubt it would make that much a difference, all depends on how gnarr you are.

Might slacken the HA and lengthen the wheelbase which could help at Morzine.

How much do the airshafts cost to do this?

I’d sooner be fitting 2.5″ wide dh tyres than another 10mm more travel up front. Rode my old Reign in the alps with 170 up front, never wanted for more.

At 180mm it will ramp up a bit more through the travel than at 170mm, assuming you use the same number of volume spacers etc.

I’ve got big tyres already, it won’t be a choice between the two.

Think they are £30. I fitted one the other week to make them 170mm from 160mm thinking we were going to Pila, then the accommodation fell through and now it’s Morzine I’m wishing I’d gone 180mm!

At 180mm it will ramp up a bit more through the travel than at 170mm, assuming you use the same number of volume spacers etc.

What I’ve finally worked out happens with air forks with self charging negative springs, is that for a given fork the spring curve is the same for each mm of travel, and they all start off a bit firm, then get softer, then firm up and then ramp more and more. The difference with the longer travel versions is you get more of the ramping up phase.

So if you have a Pike at 120mm and a Pike at 160mm, and put the same air pressure into both, they’ll feel the same (ignoring the geometry change) for the first 120mm of travel. The final 40mm on the 160 will ramp up more.

So with a 170 and 180 Lyrik, run the same psi and the 180 will ride 10mm higher and at the point the 170 bottoms out the 180 has 10mm more travel with increasing spring rate. Run the same % sag on both (lower psi in 180) and the 180 will still be harder to bottom because you have more travel and a bit more progression.

In other works, you’re sticking the extra travel on the end of the shorter fork’s travel.

Not worth it.

Just run 2 tokens or maybe 3 depending on how aggressive you’re feeling and how heavy you still are. Lyriks dive quite a lot in a linear fashion without tokens.

If anything get the german sounding new air shaft fitted from tf or similar as that’ll keep the fork more in its mid stroke and help with the diving whilst keeping a slightly lower air pressure to allow more suppleness.

Short answer – dont bother I rode everything on my capra all summer with lyriks with no dramas – they feel a bit rougher than fox40s but track well and keep you composed (if they aint too soft). No weird arm pump or anything like that.

Give us a shout if you’re out. It’ll be good to ride together again!

Alex

*Edit – also not sure what your Pila logic was – thats well more rough on the hands with all the hidden rocks under the golden pow.. and that rooty descent to Aosta is an arm killer.

*Edit 2 – you cant.. it only fits for 160mm lyriks.. i’d say 160 would ride even better than 170mm with this kit:
https://www.tftuned.com/luftkappe-upgraded-piston-kit-for-solo-air-pike-yari-lyrik/p3288

You could also fit the MRP which may actually have more on trail use.. essentially the same as adding tokens but you can do it on the fly externally with a twist of the hand.. that way you can soften and firm up the forks as you go though out the day.. track dependant . Might have a bit more real world mileage with that.

Or just dont bother – lyriks are fine

Hi Al, cheers for that. It was the braking bumps I remember most from 10 years ago.

Thanks for the advice

Braking bumps are still there but not as bad I dont think. Maybe because more people are on pedally bikes than ever. Still better than the forks we were running 10 years ago 😉

Give us a shout I’ll show you some laps around les gets and morzine that have no braking bumps and loam for days!