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  • Secondhand Toras not getting full travel
  • continuity
    Free Member

    Bought my sister a used Spec Rockhopper that, aside from this seemed in pretty great condition for the price. Forks (rs tora la femme 302 – 100mm?) are only giving about 40mm travel though with the preload dial (which seems super stiff and hard to turn, maybe stuck?).

    AFAIK they’re coil over oil, so I don’t know what could/should be impeding them. How easy are they do take apart? Do I need any special needle pins e.t.c? Does anyone have any old manuals in pdf that might be worth a look?

    I’m happy to buy a pair of recons secondhand on here or somewhere to replace, but I thought I’d try my hand first.

    Kind regards,
    Conti

    smokey_jo
    Full Member

    Not difficult to take apart but you will need some snap ring pliers. It could be the o-rings in the damping leg. A common enough problem and solved by replacing a couple of o-rings.

    Plenty of service manuals on the SRAM site.

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    agentdagnamit
    Free Member

    Shocking forks IMO.

    Sad story about Ms AD’s Rockhopper and Toras…we were forced to get an insurance Rockhopper replacement from Halfords, which took weeks as they insisted on building the bike up before allowing her to have it. During their “build” they obviously wound all of the travel out of the forks and then shortened the front hose as much as possible for some reason. She tried to extend the travel adjust and found that the hose pulled off the caliper as soon as she rode it – hilarious…..if it wasnt so potentially dangerous.

    But that’s not the reason I dont like the forks – seen 2 sets with travel issues, they look cheap, dials are very stiff and have canti mounts. If the bike wasnt restricted to commuting duty I’d change the forks straight away.

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    It could be the o-rings in the damping leg. A common enough problem and solved by replacing a couple of o-rings

    My money would be on that.

    Do they have any sort of lockout?

    As a diagnosis – it’s easy enough to take the spring out with just a big socket on the top of the left leg. Then see if you still cant get full travel. If not its probably a damper problem.

    Only special tools to fix really are half decent circlip pliers, and the 2 oils.

    uwe-r
    Free Member

    My 08 Toras are running fine, with no service. I am waiting for them to fail in some minor way to justify an upgrade but I cant fault them at the minute. Bit heavy though!

    continuity
    Free Member

    They are 08 or 07, not sure. Replacing would be fine as the whole bike was just under two hundred with a whole brand new xt/slx drive train.

    They have lockout and preload – does that change anything?

    I’ll try taking the spring out, cleaning with iso, greasing and putting back.

    If it’s the damping side; it’s outside of the scope of my tools and knowledge, though shouldn’t be impossible!

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Take the lowers off and chcek the oil -= loads in the bottom of the leg on the damping side is the usual reason for loss of traveladn if so its leaked fromt he damper – empty the lowers out and refill the damper will work for abit – renew the seals is the only cure tho

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    I’ll try taking the spring out, cleaning with iso, greasing and putting back.

    I only mentioned taking the spring out as a simple test. TJs suggestion about taking the lowers off and seeing how much oil pours is probably better (needs no special tools apart from rubber mallet) and gives to the chance to do a lowers clean and service too.

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