I’ve just got a set of new 2007 Lyriks fairly cheap from a shop.

They’re a bit battered out of the box which is disappointing, but more worryingly they seem to have a lot of stiction past about the first 30mm of travel. So, the first 30 mm of travel are smooth, then they feel really rough for about 25mm, especially when rebounding. I’m wondering whether they just need breaking in or whether this is a fault.

Does anyone have any experience of this with a lyrik? If it were grabby seals, I’d have thought it would be obvious throughout the stroke, and this isn’t. Could it be a bushing problem?

give TF Tuned a call, they might know what the problem is.

They do need to bed in, and takes a few rides (20-30 hours) before they are smooth

“a few rides (20-30 hours)”

a few!

that’s nearly a year 😉

Just spoke to TF, very helpful as always. They reckon it is probably a tight bushing problem as I thought – apparently bushings on lyriks are a bit of a lottery. Other alternative is that it could be a bone dry bushing as the forks have probably been sitting for a couple of years. I’ll leave them inverted for a while to see if that helps, and maybe whip the lower legs off to inspect the bushes.

Not sure whether to:

1. take them back (I can imagine this will be a pain, trying to report a fault on a brand new fork, although I may be able to exchange on the basis that there is a moderate scratch on the lowers and the disc hose guide has been slightly ground off)

2. relube and attempt to ride them in (which won’t work if it is a bushing problem according to TF)

3. cut my losses and send them to TF for a busing resize/tune (for £80).

ask the shop if they’ll get them sorted for you.

If you bought new, get them returned to Fishers for warranty now, or ride and see if it improves- if not, send to Fishers.

I’d be inclined to do the second unless it was obvioussly wrong.

They were new (£449, an absolute bargain). It’s annoying, as I could confirm it was a bushing issue by cropping the lowers off, but if I did that I can imagine the shop kicking up a fuss…

£449 doesn’t seem that much of a bargain for a broken fork.

Compared to £850 rrp for an internally identical new one, it seems like a bargain to me! Even with an £80 service should that be necessary, which I doubt, as I’m pretty sure Fishers will warranty it.

It seems that everybody has QC issues these days – bushing problems with rockshox, stanchion wear with Fox, general crapness with Marzocchi since 2007 (I say that as a long term Marz fan, too).