I’ve persevered with some Rs Sid 100’s 2012 RLT ti.

I just cant get them to be small bump sensitive. I’ve tried all the websites, setup sites with regard to positive and negative pressures and the Threshold setting to no avail – they just don’t compare to my supple f120’s on the other bike. It’s come to a head riding HONC and getting only 60% travel at 80psi in both chambers, 13/st rider with kit on an HT. They are back to thier normal 70psi pos and 85psi neg.

Before I get rid/swap – has anyone got any left field advice – I’m reluctant to send them to TFT/loco etc as I’m not sure if this is just a characteristic of the fork or not.

Help?

The Sid is a race fork. Efficiency and low weight are the priorities. Racers don’t want plush…

The Reba is more of a trail fork.

Have you checked the oil level? If you let all the air out and lean on them do you get 100mm travel from the seals to the o-ring?

Those SIDS and the Rebas are exactly the same inside with the moco damper. They should work better than they seem to be.

Gee – yep 100mm available.

It’s as though the HC Threshold is set high – but I’ve ridden the fork with it backed right of to no avail. JoeG’s description rings true and this is what I’m asking – am I expecting too much plush from it – I’ve never had a fork this harsh over small bumps, but for racing I could understand why it’s set this way.

Having the same issue with my rebas, just feel so harsh no amount of playing with pressures helps they are 100mm travel but never get that on the biggest hits 80mm of harsh crap at best.
My 80mm fox floats on my hardtail feel amazing in comparison.

You’ve got fluid in your lowers of some sort. Take them off and clean them out.

Steve_b77 – the lowers are supposed to have some volume of oil in right? In which case, are we talking just removal of the lowers, tip out old fluid and clean, and replace with appropriate volumes?

According to the service manual that bit I could do myself but removing all the damper assembly etc makes me nervous as I am a DIY hazard zone.

Take look on YouTube for guide how to do it. Remarkably simple job.

Got that mooman – I just want to be sure “which” job I’m doing.

Sold my Sids for this very reason – fox always felt much more plush…

They are Race forks….

Do they feel sticky – i.e. stiction rather than ‘firm’ from the springs/damper?

I’ve had several RockShox forks with this problem, I think it either is the bushings not being adjusted properly or sticky seals in the air spring – IMHO grease is not sufficient to lubricate them & they work better with thick oil eg Float Fluid.

Saying that a ‘race’ fork should not be plush is true in a way, but it doesn’t mean it should be sticky through friction as all this will achieve is reducing traction.

It’s not sticky in use at all. One issue I’ve had since new – if left for a day or two there is a bit of stiction when you first press the fork down – as if you are “freeing” the sliders from tight bushes. Once you’ve done that though the move freely.

I find my 100mm SIDs pretty good all round. Not as good as Fox 120s as you say but they’re a somewhat different beast and cost.

I’ve got an arthritic wrist and can do 8hr of rutted Ridgeway on my SID dual air fine – they don’t go up and down much on hard hoof prints etc but they are OK. My Rebas are slightly worse if anything.

I find my SID RCT3 2012 Much better with small bumb compliance than the fox FL100RL they replaced.
I also get full travel..

Did find though that you have to keep an eye on lower oil levels. They started to loose small bumb compliance and felt sticky.
So I wiped the lowers off and found hardly any oil left.
Cleaned it all up replaced seals and put new oil in, nice and smooth again.

SIDs have always been very sensitive to servicing. Take some time with the set-up and they’re excellent forks, mine were always faultless but they needed regular servicing to stay that way.

The one (early) pair I had that were crap had been overfilled with oil out of the factory – just slightly rubbish quality control.

I always used TF Tuned for mine, in fact I was one of Tim’s first ever customers when he set up TFT. By that point, I knew what I wanted out of a set of forks and Tim always custom tuned mine. Unlike most XC racers I always liked really plush forks and I also took the lockout off mine, turned it into more of a damper rather than an on-off.

I know you’ve read all of the guides and from what I recall, you have the compression halfway and the threshold fully off, yes?

I have my Reba set up as per the afore mentioned guide and it’s a little lacking in the small bump sensitivity area. I have the compression fully clockwise and the threshold about two to two and half turns clockwise. It’s definitely the set up if you want very little brake dive and pedal bob when standing but it isn’t really that comfy for smaller stuff. I prefer this set up to anything even remotely softer unless I’m scragging some rough stuff where I want a little more traction – and I think that’s the key – switch when you really feel you need it. I honestly don’t believe there’s a middle ground with those particular internals. Having written that, if you have the Ti compression tube thingy (Black Box) then that’s probably not helping – from what I understand it isn’t as good as the plastic tube for the above set up, a lack of movement being the issue, I believe.

If you want me to have a look at the internals, you know where I am, though I suspect it’d be cheaper to pay your LBS to do so rather than travel to the back woods…

Got SIDs on both of my hardtails – RLT and a World Cup.

The RLT came new rock-solid and was replaced immediately under warranty. Other than that they’ve performed perfectly.