I'm struggling abit with them. Basically they ruin me on a downhill. Any tips? Ive tried the psi on the legs. Should I be putting more in one of them? I.e. more in the positive?

What is the problem? are they blowing through the travel? not moving, what?

I have found that there is a fine balance between pos and negative air.

I run mine with lower pressure (pos) than recommended with lots (but not quite the same psi) of neg air. They are ace then.

How much do you weigh and what are the pressures?

Rebounds set right (Ive even adjusted this to check) by down rocky bits I feel like Im going to be shaken off the bars still. It seems like the forks are being 'overwhelmed'.

When i was having trouble with my Pikes i spoke to the very nice people at TF Tuned and they recommended running 10 psi more in the negative to the positive and that has worked brilliantly for me. I now run my Reba's set up the same and they are just so smooth. I weigh about 70'ish maybe 72Kg and i was running 100 top 110 bottom. My Pikes have just come back from being Pushed and the paperwork states 105 top 115 bottom, can't say how they ride as yet as only refitted last night.

Hope that helps.

Lower your front tyre pressure a bit maybe?

Thank you- will try slightly more in the neg.

so far I have tried the following-
– top end of each recommended (equal) for my weight (current).
– Positive at top of recommended scale with minus at bottom of my weight recommended scale.

**cracks fingers**

Okayyyyyy…..in this order…. 🙂

Firstly ingnore the pressures on the fork and in the maual. Well, start at the lowest pressure given for your weight at least. RS are generally a bit optimistic with the numbers.
Also, ignore what everyone else is using. Find your own setting, copying someone elses is the road to misery and confusion, and cheap forks apperaring on the classifides.

NEXT – CHECK THE STATIC SAG! As in with you on the bike in your normal pedalling position, with both feet on the pedals.

You're looking for around 25%, so 30-35mm is about right for a 130mm fork, maybe a tad more….

Adjust the pressures until you get the correct sag. Do this bit-by bit. Making a huge adjustment can confuse things.

How to adjust pressures –
If you're not careful you can end up with an inbalance in the -ve chamber which drags the fork down. To avoid this, let the -ve air out, set the +ve to your chosen psi, and then reset the -ve.
Do this every time you make an adjustment.
It's a faff, but it works. End of story.

Some people do use a bit more -ve then +ve and if that works, that's great.
But be aware that it might just be dragging the fork down a few mm which then eqaulizes the pressures in the 2 chambers, rendering this largely a waste of time.
Personally, I'd say only run more -ve if you are light. Start with them both the same, see how it goes.
Again, personally, I find that being a bit heavier, using a bit LESS -ve pressure is better for me, especially downhill. It stops the fork diving too much and it feels a bit more 'coil like' or 'progressive' if you like.
Whichever you choose, I'd say 10psi either was is enough really.

Then set your rebound.
As a bit of a rule of thumb, if you're heavier you'll need LESS rebound as your weight stops the fork rebounding too fast, if you're lighter, maybe a bit more rebound.
Personally, if a fork feels harsh, I increse the rebound (Slow it down), if it feels soggy or vague, take some off (Speed it up)

I think that's about it.
🙂

top end of each recommended (equal) for my weight (current).
– Positive at top of recommended scale with minus at bottom of my weight recommended scale

Oh fek. Jusr read that again. No wonder they feel bad……….

CHECK THE SAG, IGNORE THE MANUAL!!!!!!!!
😀

Im 210 lb. Will do and report back! As woody said on a mtbr forum/find someone did mention that slightly more neg gave a more coil-like feel. Although he did add he was 150lb- so ties in with Sir PeterPoddy.

Oh fek. Jusr read that again. No wonder they feel bad……….

CHECK THE SAG, IGNORE THE MANUAL!!!!!!!!

Thank ****. See my other thread on grips for sore hands- the pressures wont have helped!:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/different-grips-aching-hands-do-i-need-narrower-or-fatter-grips

I run Pikes but basically the same. Exactly as PP said. Get the sag right and that will determine the +ve pressure. I am about 82kg with all the kit including Camelback and run 125 +ve, 130 -ve, but that's only giving about 20-25% sag.

Disagree about a bit more -ve sucking the fork down – lots of -ve yes, but anything up to 10PSI over your +ve should be fine.

Also get the rebound set slower – makes a big difference to harshness feel at the bars

Right let me get this straight:

1.bleed out all of the -Neg.
2.Set +tve to bottom of recommended weight
3. Feed in neg pressure until you acheive c25% sag whilst sat/feet on pedals?

Firstly ingnore the pressures on the fork and in the maual. Well, start at the lowest pressure given for your weight at least. RS are generally a bit optimistic with the numbers.

i thoght this at first, but while the front was nice and active on the flat and climbing, i wasnt able to use the joys of having a bouncy rear end, cause the front was dropping into the travel too much.

im 73kg, 100psi in my revs.

sag to about… 100mm travel, from 125 when im off the bike.

i rarely get full travel, only when ive nosed it off a drop, but it feels much more comfortable with some support up front.

a mate of mine did the same with his lyriks at the weekend too, found he was hooning through the travel too quick and getting arm pump.

more pressure solved it and allowed him to ride much harder and faster.

Right let me get this straight:

1.bleed out all of the -Neg.
2.Set +tve to bottom of recommended weight
3. Feed in neg pressure until you acheive c25% sag whilst sat/feet on pedals?

**bangs head on wall**

No.

Set BOTH pressures to the same psi (For a start) Use the lower end of the RS scale for your weight, generally.

Check sag.

If sag incorrect, adjust air by letting -ve out, adjusting +ve, then resetting -ve to same as +ve

Recheck sag.

Simples?

Are the forks new? If so I pretty much gurantee RS will not have put NEAR enough oil in the lower legs, or bothered to oil/grease the foams and wiper seals.

Bought some new Rebas recently and they were almost bone dry inside and VERY sticky. Some Prep-M in the seals and 20ml of 15 wt oil in each lower and they felt completely different (very good in fact).

I recently got some Pike 454 Airs and can safely say that the recommended psi figures are even less useful than those in Fox manuals. Total and utter nonsense.

After getting the sag right with both chambers set to the same psi I ended up squeezing a few more PSI into the negative chamber. Seemed to get things feeling a bit more supple even if i did lose a mm or two of travel….

To echo someone else's comment, i also wouldn't be afraid to make the rebound fairly slow. If in doubt slow it down more. The number one issue I've had with tuning air shocks has been having the rebound far too quick.

After all, how fast a fork rebounds in the carpark squidge test is rarely how it responds when its really getting battered deep into its travel by chuffing great big rocks…..

PP, as usual on the subject of forks, speaks much sense.

badfink, I think you may have that the wrong way round. When the fork is going through a series of hits you want to ensure that it's returning to it's static position sooner rather than later, else it will pack down, and you're just about riding a rigid fork.
The typical symptoms of too little rebound damping are washing out/too little grip in corners- too much rebound damping will leave the fork packing down.

what I do with mine is..

let all the air out both chambers
set +ve until desired amount of sag (25% of travel or thereabouts)
set -ve until just before the fork begins to lose travel

surely the pressure readings are irrelevant, but following the above I find that the -ve ends up about 10psi less than the +ve. Using slightly more -ve makes the fork smoother but loses about 5 or more mm of travel.

adjust rebound to suit.

works for me… pretty much what PP says I think ?

Kev

I read somewhere once that a good way to adjust the rebound is to lay a ladder on the floor and ride along it. If the forks start to pack down by the end you probably need faster rebound, if it feels a bit bouncy try less. I've never tried but it sounds like it'd work.

Kev

Jonedwards- yes. I actually took a line from a bikeradar review literally 'when the going gets ragged they run out of steam'

Set BOTH pressures to the same psi (For a start) Use the lower end of the RS scale for your weight, generally.

Check sag.

If sag incorrect, adjust air by letting -ve out, adjusting +ve, then resetting -ve to same as +ve

Recheck sag.

Simples?

Perfectly. I had to double-check. Will do in the morning first thing whilst my bacon is cooking 😀

I have the 140mm revelations and found if I had 10 psi more negative pressure the rebound was far to slow even when fully open! Different strokes for different folks, literally. I run 100+, 90/95- psi @ 25% and weigh around the same as you, I like to get all the travel.

Ok-looking like 120+ 125- gives me 25% (measured properly) with neg drained then re-entered. I also think I need a new pump as when I went right upto 150 pos/150neg to experiment with the sag- reinserted the pump again on the neg and it now read 110.

Don

w

ve added air.
You lose air when you reconnect the pump.More noticeable on the neg chamber as the air volume is very small.

Pretty sure your pump is fine Hora as you always get a lower reading after you re-attach the pump. It's because when you attach the pump the air in the air chamber of your forks fills the hose on your pump which in turn empties the air chamber a little. And because the Neg air chamber is only small it's quite a big drop.

Something like that anyway.

I've been playing around with the settings on my 130-150mm 2010 Revs and over the course of a week tried several different settings/pressures.

What I did find was that both the neg and pos chambers lost around 20psi each time I re-connected the pump. So weather the neg chamber is small or not the volume of the pump is the same so the drop should be equal surely??.

Got it sorted yet Hora? 🙂

No 🙁 120 with 120 psi set afterwards on the neg (lowers contracted up when released air in them!) 25% sag whilst sat on the bike. Out on the trail I was getting ALL of the travel way too easily. Back to the drawing board. I need more psi? On the rebound it was either a pogo stick or too slow. I am starting to think there isnt enough factory oil in the legs etc? as mentioned on a post earlier..

Out on the trail I was getting ALL of the travel way too easily. Back to the drawing board. I need more psi? On the rebound it was either a pogo stick or too slow.

stick more air in then and adjust the rebound to suit. Take the pump with you when you go out so you can adjust them on the hop until you get it right.

hora, from your earlier post you are a bit heavier than me but running 5psi less and you've got for higher -ve than +ve which will contribute to the fork going through the travel to easily.

Try 125+ve 130-ve. For rebound 1/2 turn towards slow from the "mid" point

Hora, i have some OE Float 150 RL QR15's for good money if you are interested?

Sorry to resurect an old thread. But…..
Reba teams. Working fine but needed a touch more air so had a wee tinker with them this morning and on releasing air from either end there appears to be green goo coming out of the air valves (only when releasing air mind) assuming a ghostbuster hasn't trapped the slimer in my forks should I be worried? I've never noticed the goo before and they seem to work fine it just seems a little concerning.
Ta

its fine just a bit of oil from the chambers

Cool
cheers

rock shox are to faffy with there positive and negative chambers and take an age to set up right- i ditched my 09 revs for some fox and they are a breeze to setup, get full travel and smoothness once sorting rebound. I aint looked back since! Not much help but i feel your pain, nothing i tried seemed to get them right!

rock shox are to faffy with there positive and negative chambers and take an age to set up right- i ditched my 09 revs for some fox and they are a breeze to setup, get full travel and smoothness once sorting rebound. I aint looked back since! Not much help but i feel your pain, nothing i tried seemed to get them right!

It's no faff at all, and it allows you to do the equivalent of changing the preload on a coil fork – changing the ride height without affecting the overall spring rate.

Since I bought my reba teams a few months ago, I've been running them with 10psi less in the neg chamber than positive, but after reading this thread I decided to try the suggestion of going 10 over, and wow – so much more traction! There is definitely a little more bob and dive – the fork is a lot more active, but when hammering downhill it's working so much harder for me, and it's still really well controlled. My frame is pretty slack so I run quite far into the travel, maybe 30% sag, and I've backed off the compression damping quite a bit since making the adjustments.

interesting thread.

i’n a Fox man but have inherited a pair of Revelation Dual Air teams.

they are lovely and controlled in the mid stroke, not too harsh at all, but i CANNOT get all the travel, even with the correct sag.

1’m 180lbs, and have them set at 145psi / 145psi as per the leg recommendations.

i tried dropping the pressures, but then the mid stroke control disappeared……………

HELP !!

TIA

Did you make small adjustments each time as PP advises? Based on what I run 145 seems a bit high for your weight.

I’ve had Revs and Pike dual air forks and I think they are a good advert for ……………… FOX FORKS. The good Pikes and revs were the coil versions.

RS market the dual airs as infinitely adjustable……..Yes…. and you never get a satisfactory result.

The best compromise was by following TF Tuned’s advice and putting more in the -chamber…but no more than 10psi or the travel will suck down. My own experience suggests you should go for 30/40 psi less than RS recommend for your weight and set the rebound close to the tortoise.