Anyone out there with a Rock lobester recommend best travel for fork ? The merlin site appears to have two builds one with a 100mm fork and the other with 120mm.

Cheers.

ahhh, forget it.. used Google and finaly found it, spent days looking..must have had a brain wave in the last 3 mins !

“1st), have spacer and fox fluid ‘pillow pack’ ready, some 7 or 7.5 fork oil and new crush washer if you’re anal like that. (fox fluid seals air, and you *can* reuse the fluid you collect in step 2 if you forget to get it as mentioned in step 1 ;^)

2nd) release air from chamber, and remove the air cap (28 or 32mm socket depending if you have a 32 or 36 fork), drain blue thick fluid.

3rd) remove nut and crush washer from bottom of same fork leg, and with fork lying flat, tap bolt thru with plastic mallet, drain small amount of oil, which also can be reused in a pinch. (fork oil should be readily available at most LBS and any M/C shop. 7.5 wt. for this fork leg is good, as this small amount of oil is just for lubing bushing, and doesn’t change damping.)

4th) push air rod you just tapped from the bottom the rest of the way out, and clip spacer on shaft just above the negative coil spring.

5th) reinstall air-rod and add 7wt. fork oil in bolt-hole with fork on its side. (i forget the exact amount, but it’s about two capfuls) feed bolt back thru hole and reinstall lower nut and crush washer and tighten. no idea of torque value, just don’t kill it. also, this step can be fiddly sometimes getting the rod back thru the hole on lower leg, just be patient and have long screwdriver or allen wrench to guide rod back thru.

6th) add fox fluid on top of air piston rod, reinstall air cap and pump up fork to desired pressure and you’re ready to put the fork back on and ride…..”

oops answered my own wrong thread ! Back to the correct question, what fork travel feels best on a Rock Lobster ?

Cheers.

Im running 85-115mm air u-turn rebas on mine which feel great at 115mm but I’ve never adjusted them to see what it’s like with any less. The ride position is nice and relaxed on the Lobster without feeling like the angles are too slack, if that makes sense. I think 120mm would be just a bit too much for my little 15in frame.

more pictures for everyone to groan at :

Kev

Thanks for the pics Kev 🙂 Actually very usefull to me as I;ve also got a 15″ and wondering how it will look built. The 115 looks perfect, strangley looks slacker than the written angles suggest.

Cheers.

Where is the build with a 120mm fork? As far as I’m aware its designed fro 100mm but have been curious about this myself. I’m thinking about trying mine out with 120 cos my fork is due a service, so I’ll adjust the travel then.

Rode one with U -turn cant say I noticed much difference problems whether up or down 85 – 130 mm. I suspect you can use whatever but it was 100mm on all the ones I have seen Ring Merlin and ask

Bought an RL Tig Team SL to go with the 100mm Reba’s that Merlin were selling for silly money a few months ago. AFAIK the 100mm Reba’s that I bought are 100mm and can be shortened in travel to 80mm (got the spacers with them) but can’t be lengthened to 120mm. Not bothered, as the frame works well at 100mm!

ran mine with some revs at 130mm and steering was too slow, twitchy on steep uphill stuff. changed them to 115mm and now its spot on, up and down

great bike though, love it

When I asked, the 853 was designed for a 100mm fork. I’m going to run mine with 130-85mm u-turns, eventually, probably 100mm fixed for a while.