At bang on 13 stone in kit, what setup tips do you have for my (new to me) thors?

There’s some key info you need to know about Thors:

1. The listed pressures are a bit low – go by sag.
2. When adjusting air pressure, you have to manually balance positive and negative by twisting the travel adjust knob (this connects positive & negative chambers). You need to do this each time you change the positive air pressure.
3. Twisting the travel adjust knob allows a little oil to move from positive to negative, which over time depletes the oil reserve on top of the air piston, leaving you with a notchy fork. It also decreases the negative air volume, which gives a weak negative and exaggerates any top out tendency. To fix this, invert the fork, twist the travel adjust and cycle a few times. I actually leave mine upside down occasionally with the travel adjust clamped open. This little gem is from the Magura technical forum – they’re not exactly going out of their way to broadcast it.

I weigh 154lbs, and I’m running 70psi, if that helps.

They’re a good fork and worth persevering with – I’m very pleased with mine, and it was one of the very first ones (I’ve been running it just under a year).

cheers 🙂

how easy are they to work on – servicing/oil change etc?

Dropping the lowers and changing the lube oil is a doddle – just undo the footnuts and slide off the lowers. Seals and foam rings are as per Fox, just pry out the seals carefully and slide the new foam rings and seals onto the stanchions to install. I’ve not done a damping oil change, might get to that soon. Magura aren’t very free with service data, they really don’t want Joe Public playing around in there.

Be aware that the internal lube oil volumes are very small. There’s a chart somewhere on the Magura site (it’s quite well hidden).

any links are welcome. what are there service charges like?

Try here for the Magura technical forum for the Thor – lots of useful info direct from the horses mouth:

http://www.support-english.magura.com/index.php?s=a79769904a7c93d7f076c9df91dbd88d&showforum=48

The oil volume table is here:

http://www.magura.com/uploads/media/downloads/_lmengen_Gabeln_09_english.pdf

Told you it wasn’t much (2.5cc!) I actually run a whole 5cc.

I’d agree, after a shaky start I’m happy with mine now. mttm’s advice is spot on.

I’ve just sent mine away with a load of complaints, and basically got a free service. Very impressed, but will see how they perform when they come back… Not been overly impressed, but my benchmark was my old Fox 36 Van RC2’s!

any ideas where i can get their suspension blood from?

Not been overly impressed, but my benchmark was my old Fox 36 Van RC2’s!

Performance aint as good as the fox’, but at least the seals wont let the shite in. Just serviced the boss’ durins, oils as clean as new, thats with a year off daily use (commuting) and atleast two proper rides per week, reused the old seals aswell!

Racing_ralph – anyone that deals with magura can get you ” suspension Blood” but i find using “Sram Red Rum” is better for the lowers, and the “RSP” shock oil that you can get from “TFtuned”.

but at least the seals wont let the shite in.

Er, that was one of my complaints to Magura, that after less than once-weekly riding over the last year there’s bubbling noises and crap performance when the forks even get a whiff of moisture. Didn’t have that issue with the Fox’s.

If it was the first batch of Thors youll find that the seals were too good and didnt allow the lower lubrication oil to pass up through the bushes and into the seals.

Also theres a small amount of oil in the air chamber which (as has been stated above) can migrate down into the negative chamber. This can make them feel sticky.

Just reading that fox need an oil replenish every 15 hours, how often do these require maintenance?

bump – anyone?

haven’t touched mine in 6 months, but then I’m not a fan of pulling forks apart unnecessarily

has anyone found a good replacement to the travel adjust lever and the one on my wotans is stupidly easy to break

nickc – Member

haven’t touched mine in 6 months, but then I’m not a fan of pulling forks apart unnecessarily

How is maintenance unnecessary?

Well if the seals do there job (and keep the crap out) and the oil can move around and lubricate the internals correctly then weekly (or even daily in the case of Fox’s and long races/rides) *maintenance* shouldn’t be necessary. You don’t see motor crossers stripping their forks down once a week, so why should anyone else be expected to.

Send them off once every 12/18 months and they should be fine.

Wot he said.

I clean them, make sure they work, pulling them apart seems like inviting trouble.

I think there was a thread on the magura forum requesting a service manual, with an answer along the lines of “send them to a magura service centre” – i.e. not intended (at least by magura) for end user service.

I run mine with about 90 PSI( 12.7 stone). Faff to set up because of the need to equalize the chambers, but once set up they’re great. No issues with the seals here.

I don’t like the travel adjuster and avoid using it to be honest. The with the AS+ switch locks the compression enough for climbing and I don’t have a problem with front end lift.

Don’t panic if they don’t inflate :). I had this and thought I’d bust them. It’s back to the pressure eq again.

The travel adjuster lever thing is a pain to move without the lever when equalizing pressure and putting upside down thats all.

Its a shame you can’t get a nice lever made up so you don’t need the cable/etc.

Travel adjuster has been sat in my tool box for months now. Everything else is cool (apart from my back, but thats not got a service manual either!)