[Closed] BOS Deville set up - anyone got any setting tips/recommendations?

but it is proper harsh over a rock garden section.

It has more midstroke compression support, this will stop it from diving as much but may also cause this.

The fork feels a bit like the race setups Elites used in the NPS series when my brother used to race it. It definately had a stiffer racier feel than plush the time I demo'd a mates.

Cheers bwaarp. Thankfully I'm not looking for plush, it was just a bit extreme yesterday. I let a bit of air out tonight and that made it less harsh, not plush. I'm using 150mm of the travel now compared to 140mm on the same run yesterday, and that seems more appropriate for this run. However, I felt I lost some of the feel today. I might try playing with the rebound tomorrow to speed that up a touch. I think I'll leave slow and high speed compression alone for now. At least until I've read about what they actually do! I'm enjoying the learning. Cotic Rocket with Bos Deville is a dream to play on. I feel like superman coming down the hill and I'm also able to ride straight back up it. Its perfect.

First thing to do is let all the air out of them and see if they suck down before you do any setup etc. This will prove if the neg air chamber is working properly. Mine was not and I ran them for months like that and they still felt good. With it sorted they are very good.

Don't get the harsh comments - mine a V plush through fast stuff if that is how you want to set them.

cheers mrplow. Ive read about setting the negative chamber, I'll do that now to make sure. Do you know what settings you have ended up with in terms of number of clicks?

This is why you have to check the neg chamber first as you will end up with very different settings if it is not equalizing. About to give the bike a quick wash so can check the clicks but everyone likes different things. My setup would be like a spongy sofa to bwaarp yet it still does not blow through travel which I love. 🙂

Use the settings in the manual. There's a note in the dh forks manual which pretty much says, try these settings, no really try these settings.

letting a bit of air out is a good plan, they do have a lot of mid stroke support. I run between 30 and 35% sag on mine but still don't achieve full travel often. I couldn't tell you how many clicks i have on hi and low speed compression, i just set it up how i wanted it and left it alone.

Super fork, but it is a bit worrying about r53. luckily I just had mine serviced last month so they're good for a while. anyone know of anyone else in the uk who would service them?

Have a read through here!

http://forums.mtbr.com/nicolai/bos-suspension-671338.html

My settings which were last messed with in the Alps are:
Rider Weight 80ish KG with all gear on
83-85psi achieving 26/27% sag
Rebound messed with and has ended up back at factory recommendation of 15clicks from fully closed.
Low speed 11 clicks from fully closed.
High speed 21 clicks from fully closed.

Your fork will only feel like mine if your negative air chamber works correctly. It feels soft in the car park test but works a treat on rough trails and most other stuff with no upsetting diving. 🙂

A company called Jtech are doing servicing as well look like reasonable pricing to.

http://www.j-techsuspension.co.uk/

Bats.

Cheers MrPlow, its kind of you to do that. I've definitely got the air set up right now, totally emptied it, then refilled a bar at a time and worked the suspension by 10mm at each stage. I'll try your settings and see how I like them, might speed the process up a bit for me.

batman11, that is good to know, thanks for sharing the link. They use fox seals, so for a plain service it doesn't matter whether Bos send them parts or not. Its just if you need more than just seals and oil that you may be in trouble.

and as you say, relatively cheap, £101 with postage. Not bad every 2 years.

Did the fork suck down? I spent ages filling, working the fork but there was an internal fault and I am guessing there was a bad batch. No amount of care will fix it, you have to prove the fork sucks down to know it is working according to R53. Mine did not suck down until sorted. The damper settings and performance will be off if it is not right so worth verifying.
A difference you feel if it is equalizing is when you do the very slow strokes. At first it feels a little sticky on the first couple of small 10mm strokes then it is suddenly buttery(tm) smooth and very easy to do slowly as the neg chamber equalizes.

They use fox seals, so for a plain service it doesn't matter whether Bos send them parts or not. Its just if you need more than just seals and oil that you may be in trouble.

It's not quite that simple with BOS (never is!).

They use a very specific oil that's more like an engine oil than a normal suspension oil, in that it has a cold & warm operating temperature.

TF tuned, from working on them before suggest it's 'like' a 7.5wt suspension oil, but it will feel a little different to a factory oil.

However yes, the Fox 34 SKF seals fit them so you can do the most basic oil & seal changes at home if you are prepared to experiment a bit with oils & weights 🙂

No it didn't suck down! I totally emptied it and it just stood tall. However, when I was refilling, I noticed that the pressure dropped slightly on the shock pump at each stage after the 10mm strokes. This made me think the air was passing to the other chamber.

just emptied them and refilled again, this time they sucked down a bit, about 30mm. A tap on the headset sent them a little lower. I'm hoping its just sticking on the seals.

Sweet, all good going on what R53 told me. Now you need to pump them up again all carefully 😆

emptied and refilled several times, now they suck up a lot. Just refilled in a highly neurotic manner, got quite a sweat on! No way can the chambers not be equalized! Bring on tomorrow evening so I can ride once more!

[i]I think I'll leave slow and high speed compression alone for now. At least until I've read about what they actually do! [/i]

Slow - you pushing down
High - wheel pushing up

If anything like my RC2 36's, getting these right made the difference between a fork that worked, and one that didn't.

Hia T E I N,
I've been running Devilles for almost a year. I had the 2011 then received a 2012 as part of my original purchase deal. I think it's a really fab fork and I hope you'll love yours.
As the service interval is over 1 year perhaps we'll be lucky and someone will step in as UK agent. Even if they don't I feel it's not a nightmare to send suspension to Toulouse for a service, as long, that is, as they don't take ages to do the work and send it back.

Settings -
When I got the 2012 one it felt awful and that scared me as I was leaving for Inners the next day, however, I got this instruction to set equalisation from R53 and it then really came to life:

[i][u]TRC in the OFF position during these steps.[/u]

1- connect your shock pump and leave connected for entire procedure

2- drop all the air out. not entirely necessary but at least you'll know where you are. you'll notice as you dump the air out the top chamber it will then start rising again as the pressure bleeds through from the bottom chamber. keep dumping the air till flat

3- pump up to 2 or 3 bar

4- slowly compress the fork 10-15mm a few times. this allows air to move between the chambers. monitor the pump pressure. you should see it drop a bit as the chambers equalise

5- repeat above 3 or 4 times till you get up to @ 9bar. equalizing every time you put in more air.

6- finally, set the pressure for your weight and equalize again[/i]

AND

At first the original Deville I had on test felt too "springy" to me on climbing. And I messed it up over a couple of rides by trying to make it feel like my old Van 36, thinking back now, WHY did I ever do that?

Then I spoke to Shinny who sold me it and has looked after me ever since.
So, next, I swallowed the BOS pill.

Run the settings are factory defaults and learn to like them, ONLY THEN consider adjustments, keep at 15 out on all three adjusters for quite a few rides. DO NOT test it in the carpark. Get a fast run over some rough ground with those std. settings.
I suggest you ride a lot like this before you move away from those settings.
I have found this to be true of the BOS Idylle SC and the S**Toy too. BOS sure seem to know what they are doing.
I think we'll be fine with servicing, J-Tech seem a like a nice setup and they can do it, although I suppose they might get stuck if special BOS parts are needed.
enjoy
neil

50 psi hamster in each leg should do it!

I'm not sure I understand what is meant by "suck down". I have tried letting all the air out of mine, but it doesn't seem to sink, if that's what meant. Basically just feels a little softer, but always extends fully.

Do I have a defect fork, or will I just have to pump it back up, and empty it a few times, have te desired effect?

Best regards from a Deville (and suspension) noob.

Also, I can't seem to hit 25% "sag". If I pump the fork to 5 bar, as the manual indicates for a rider of my weight, the o-ring barely moves.
If I really lean on the handlebars, I can get like 10 mm of sag.

The advice I've heard from mates who've got Devilles is set them soft, with rebound fairly fast.

Did the fork suck down? I spent ages filling, working the fork but there was an internal fault and I am guessing there was a bad batch. No amount of care will fix it, you have to prove the fork sucks down to know it is working according to R53. Mine did not suck down until sorted.

If its brand new then the new seals might be stopping it from sucking down. That's what i found. Try lubing the seals and then letting the air out.

Sent them in and R53 sorted them. I bought them at the start of the year.

@theendisnigh: I'll try that this afternoon.
If I let ALL the air out, should I be able to compress the fork the full length of the travel?

When you empty the air, your should see the fork compress down on its own.

Also take the suggested BOS air pressures with a pinch of salt. They are pretty far out.

Has anyone checked what J-Tech are actually doing service wise? I was under the impression it was nothing official - i.e using Fox seals & normal oil? (no BOS AMX oil, which is a wierd blend of oils).

To be fair I got shot of mine anyway, so not really concerned. Lesson learnt for the second time sadly.

It doesn't compress down. At all. Only goes a little softer, but still stays fully extended.

That happened to mine as well. I got a little zip tie and very gently slid the point of it between the seal and the stantion...only a tiny bit. That released some air and the next time I let all the air out the forks went down. It's what someone else suggested I tried Also I let the air out directly from the valve, not via the shock pump.

@blur it rider: Awesome if that works. I'll try it tomorrow. On my way to Bikepark Hahnenklee for the weekend, so if it works, I'll owe u one.
Between seal and stanchion on left or right leg? Sorry if that's a stupid question, but I'm new at this.

Otherwise, the fork is going back to YT industries, and I'll probably not be biking for weeks.

@kennethjohnsen - I did it between seal and stanchion on both legs. After doing that I let all the air out via the valve. The forks went right down. You may need to repeat this by pumping them up and releasing air again. Once the forks had "sucked down" I did the pump up to 3 bar, cycle the fork 5 times to about 15mm, then repeated for 5,7 and 9 bar. I then let a little out at a time, cycled them 15mm 5 times, and kept repeating this until I got them back down to 4 bar. They wok a treat now.
Good luck and hope you have a bike for the w/e.

I will let you know how it works out. If it doesn't, I'll rent a Bergamont in Hahnenklee. If it does, you are my new hero 😉

Didn't do the trick for me.

I sent the Deville to YT, who sent it to BOS, and it's coming back this week. Whole process took about 2 weeks, which is OK, I guess.

First thing I'll check is if the air can be let out of the fork 😀
Fingers crossed.

what bike was this from Kenneth?

YT Wicked 160 LTD perchance?

Yes Wicked 160 LTD.

Apologies for the thread hijack but what Do you think of it?

How has communicating with YT been?

Likewise - what is the 160 like? Quite fancy one myself.

I really like the bike. But it's only my second MTB, so I only have my old Cube hardtail to compare with.

I was looking for a bike that i could use for XC as well as in bikeparks, and sofar, it works really well for both (even with the fork-problem).

The X0 components are really nice, as are all the other components, except maybe for the saddle.

I also bought a pair of Nukeproof Proton pedal to put on, instead of the Wellgo ones that came with the bike.

Communicating with YT has been pleasant (I emailed them, in English), and the repair of the fork has taken the time they said it would.

Only problem with YT is that the delivery-dates are only approximate. I ordered mine in may, and there was a 6 week wait. I received a mail that it would take 3 weeks more, which was a bit of a bummer, as I had already booked my vacation, where I expected to bring the bike. But, as they can't know if they get 1 order or 1000, I can certainly understand the reason.

So, all in all, if you can live with the wait, it's a great bike at about half the price of a similarly spec'ed bike if I had to buy it from a dealer here in Denmark.

If you aren't specifically interested in getting BOS suspension, go for the non-LTD version, which has a RockShox Lyrik. As I understand, those can be serviced by normal bikeshops, whereas the BOS has to be sent to BOS, since they won't sell spare-parts to dealers.

I went for the LTD because I'd heard the BOS was really nice, and I suppose it is, if it works. Should arrive tomorrow, so I'll throw it on the bike, and write an update here.

Will look forward to the update - Thanks.

Fork came back today. I immediately let all the air out, and it sank right down 🙂

Pumped it back up gradually, equalizing for each 1-1.5 bar, until it reached 5.5 bar. Feels very good now.

Didn't have time to ride it today, but tomorrow afternoon, I'm putting the Nukeproof pedals on, and hitting some trails, and then on the 19'th of oct., I'll have another go at a bikepark.

Pretty happy, as the fork is now doing what mr plow described earlier in this thread.

Rode the Deville yesterday, feels awesome now!

Unfortunately I think a lot of people are riding duff Devilles as I think there was a big batch of oversized internals which cause the issue. The fork still felt slightly better than my Lyrik when duff but amazing once sorted. Plusher than a plush thing which is not always the reviews you hear.

Yup. Definitely rideable even when it was not working correctly.

Had I not started investigating how forks work (I'm an engineer, so I can't stand when I don't know how stuff works), and then found this forum, I think I would have happily kept riding with the BOS the way it was.

Thinking about making a video to put on Youtube about this issue. Not much info about the Devilles are available online.

However, super-satistfied with the result, and the service from YT and BOS.

Btw. Regarding the original topic of this thread, I talked to a riding-buddy today, who told me that the Devilles are basically awesome at the standard settings, so he told me to set slow and fast compression at 15 click (right in the middle), and then just adjust the rebound to my liking. At least while I'm getting to know the forks (my last bike had Rockshox Dart, so this is a pretty big upgrade for me).

Had the Devilles not come back in working order, I'd have bought some Marzocchi 55R anyways. Adjusting rebound is something I can relate to 🙂

Maybe I'll get a bit more picky with the settings later, but it's good to know you don't go completely wrong with the standard-settings.

My Deville after it came back from repair:

Aha, the thread I've been looking for.

Wish I''d seen this thread sooner.

I had a bad deville, returned to Bos, first ride out felt amazing, then towards end of the ride went back to feeling like a pogo stick.

let the air out and it sinks down, but, the rebound damping does NOTHING to feel of the fork. Tried another Deville in LBS and rebound damping and a massive effect.

Anyone else had that issue ?

FYI - these guys are an authorised BOS warranty/service dealer in Dublin

http://www.madelkcycles.com/brands.html

Has anyone else noticed a funny dead feeling in the first 25mm of travel on their Devilles?

Its feels very undampened, still smooth, just a bit springy

As soon as you go past the 25mm, they are perfect and work like a dream

Interested in other peoples thoughts before i mess with my settings

Thanks

Anyone else had that issue ?

Yes, the third set(that's right, the third set!) had this problem.

At that point I got a refund.

Had a good read of that Madelkcycles site. Something very foreign about the text. Does anyone know about them, do they have a track record? All looks a little odd?

Regards the issues above, luckily not had any of them so can not comment.

Yes, the third set(that's right, the third set!) had this problem.

At that point I got a refund.

mmmm, think I may stick with the refund and go back to good ol safe work well revs.

My fork seems fine after it came back from repair. Real test will be next weekend, where I'm going on my last bikepark-trip this year.
However, I will be seriously considering a Marzocchi or Rockshox next time, as those can be serviced locally here in Denmark. But right now, very happy with the BOS.

Despite the importer issues I bought a set of Deville's that arrived last week, having read a couple of forums I knew about the issue with some neg chambers and had the shop let all the air out and hooray, they sucked down immediately. Pumped them back up to 4.5 bar and went for a ride.

I decided today that I'd set them up properly so let all the air out again, when I re-inflated the chambers I noticed that not enough stanchion was showing, made a couple of calls and apparently there was too much air trapped in the neg chamber and the forks weren't equalising.

After much filling and deflating (10x I pumped em up to 8-9 bar in 1 bar increments and back down again), I finally fixed the problem by pumping them to 9 bar in 1 bar increments then dropping them back down to 2 bar in 1 bar increments, when back at 2 bar I put my foot on the wheel and heaved on the bars, pulling the stuck stanchion out of the lowers, let me tell you, it made a very disconcerting clank.

Now it appears that there's too much air trapped in the positive chamber and they're not equalising, now when I inflate in 1 bar increments, the forks are absolutely rock solid by the time I get to 5 bar (I weigh about 78k) and have the same suspension characteristics as a pogo stick! When I drop all the air out of them they no longer suck down.

Does anybody know if there's an at home solution to this or should I send them back to the frenchies?

Back to bos I would think...

mr plow - Member
Had a good read of that Madelkcycles site. Something very foreign about the text. Does anyone know about them, do they have a track record? All looks a little odd?

They're Polish lads as far as I know, just got set up in Dublin, they're friends of a friend who rides with them a good bit, very nice chaps according to him. They've been to Toulouse to train with BOS, I can't vouch for them beyond that.

I'll be giving them a go when my fork/shock need fettling, but can't really give you anything first hand on them.

thered - I had the same problem, has your left hand dust seal popped off yet? Mine went from that (the clunking thing) to too much air in the neg chamber giving them 70mm of rock hard travel. They went to R53 (when they were around) and then went to France.

I've had 2 sets of Devilles now, & a couple of mates have them, & none of us have experienced any issues whatsoever by following the instructions [u]TO THE LETTER.[/u] I've just read about all your faffing about going up by 1 bar increments & part of me was confused & the other part was incredulous.

All this sinking into their travel... What? It's a very crude measure of whether they're working properly. Let all the air out. Take off the pump. Cycle te fork up and down and then let more out. Pump them up the correct pressure then put the stanchion o-ring to 1cm. Gently and slowly pump the forks to the o-ring about 15 times.

Go & ride your bike, your forks are set. By all means, check the -air after a few ride by letting the air out, but remember when you pump them back up, cycle the fork 1cm for about 15 times. To [i]homogenize[/i] the air chambers. All this 1 bar at a time is totally unnecessary. Also remember - 8 bar max or you'll break them..!

I greatly appreciate your condescension Mildred.

Having followed the setup instructions TO THE LETTER and finding that they're not working, what do you suggest then o' learned one?

All air let out, check. Forks cycled, check. Pump to correct pressure, check. Cycle forks, check. Your process appears to have failed in this instance, it appears I have a faulty fork.

Not working how ? You're describing how they look in a static setting - have you actually ridden them?

I don't mean to condascend, but none of what you've written mentions actually riding them.

I weigh 78k. When first ridden there was only 140mm of stanchion exposed and I was using 120mm of it at 4.5 Bar. After getting the excess air out of the neg chamber, I reset them and pumped them to 5 Bar. Now when I sit on the bike to check sag, they don't compress at all. They will not compress unless I put all my weight on them and push hard.

Are your forks the TRC version, and are they new or used? It sounds like you're setting them with TRC on - this is the exact symptom of reduced air chamber; even effects the damping side.

Be aware that when you unscrew the air cap, the TRC lever pulls off, and if you (or shop, or previous owner if 2nd hand) don't put it back correctly (correct orientation), then it is easy to have it set wrong.

They are TRC and are brand spanking. The TRC lever moves through 1/8 of the circumference of the top of the fork leg (does that make sense) when flicked between on and off (off being towards the back of the fork) and is very stiff, could this be the prob?

Both my sets were/are stiff but not [i]very[/i] stiff, Just a mechanical friction to hold it in position.

It definitely sounds like a TRC issue to me. Though my current set are only a few weeks old my last set were 18 months old & never serviced. Judging by mates forks and my own experiences they're very reliable. The feel of the forks hasn't changed since day 1, but only work well when the instructions were followed to the letter.

To be honest, I said that part of me was incredulous, but to clarify, if they were so bad they would've been on the shop counter the moment I thought they were faulty. Having said that, if you've forced more air in than recommended, you may have knackered them.

Yeah, mine were also fine, that is until I bent a stanchion coming up short on a gap jump.
Just been picked up on the way to BOS now, expect a telling off for using j-tech and none BOS parts for servicing.
Will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to get back to me with a repair cost, their service sheet says they will service forks on the Tuesday after arrival. How very french

Dasnut - please let us know how you get on and cost of postage etc. Many thanks

well, so far £50 including £500 insurance for the way out there.....
hopefully they go missing, I get the £500 and spend it on some lyriks with the avalanche cartridge 🙂

I will indeed keep this thread upto date with progress....

howdy,
I'm from Dublin. Somebody asked if the Madelkcycles lads are ok. Yep, they are. They are foreigners living in Ireland hence some errors in text but they are well known here. Nice, hard working lads and very good mountain bikers too..
They sponsor a local MTB club (probably the biggest one in the whole country) see here http://www.madmtb.com/

You'll should be able to see their tent on 2013 Irish Gravity Enduro Races.

Regards
Luka

Anyone have any suggestions on how to keep these from diving quite so much? I weigh around 75kg, have the 160mm TRC fork and am currently running 100psi in them and have the low speed ramped all the way in to keep them from diving, and still sometimes turn on the TRC feature to keep them up in the travel...

Seem unusual to me that people who are obviously competent at tuning suspension recommend running more sag for DH than for flat riding, since a greater proportion of weight is over the front of the bike for DH, and the speeds and impacts are likel to be much higher also.

Is this an issue with correctly filling the positive/negative chambers? Or is there some internal problem with the damping circuitry?

Any help appreciated, it seems like i am running the pressure for a 95kg rider and still it doesn't stay high in the travel...

That sounds very odd - in my experience, they're the least "divey" fork I've ever used.

The neg chamber would be my guess. Might not be equalising and is a lot lower than it should be. This is reported to have a knock on effect on damping.

I will retry the procedure for equalising the chambers in that case, and see what difference it makes.

The fork is still plush, and i'm happy with the grip at the front, it's just that the settings i have to use to get the fork to perform how i'd expect are totally at odds with what the users manual states...

I'll try again and see what happens. Do you guys use the 15 clicks out on all adjusters for damping, and find it acceptable?

That's concerning.. Other than scottys dive problem (which is hopefully just the negative air chamber), how do the bos deville forks feel climbing hard out the saddle? (Not the trc ones preferably)

My settings are close to the 15 out. Think I add a couple of clicks of rebound and slow speed compression but my high speed compression is run further open - maybe 20 clicks.

Climbing hard out the saddle is like any other open fork in your normal settings. No special settings with no TRC fitted.