Thinking about changing my Boxxers to an air spring, ive heard some people say it sometimes doesnt work due to scoring from the spring? If that was the case can you just swap the stanchions round?
It won't work with coil or damper stantions due to the different internal bore.
For a conversion you need a new stantion & air internals as well.
The coils are pretty good performance wise just a bit heavier, you'd be better off upgrading the damping to a charger unit if you don't have one already. Which works out as better value v cost.
Ive done the charger upgrade which certainly improved the forks a lot. The main issue is that even with the extra soft spring in they still feel firm over small stuff. I figured the air spring may be better for lighter riders.
Ive heard some people say they have got away with just swapping the spring without changing the stanchion.
How light are you jake? I'm a 62kg weakling and have always had more problems getting air springs to work than coil. My Boxxer would be the last fork I'd think about downgrading to air
Im around 10.5 to 11 stone, so around 65-70kg. Ive always had air forks on my trail bikes which have always worked great for me. I think whether or not its an upgrade or a downgrade would depend on who you asked. The World Cup Boxxers come with the airsprings so i imagine they would be pretty decent. Id be interested to try a pair with the airspring anyway.
Have you tried low friction seals such as the ones from ft tuned, they have one less scraper ring and you have to change the oil in the lowers more frequently. Could improve small bump performance
Been thinking of the charge damper for my boxxer rc, what was the biggest difference ?
Really happy with my charger damper after my rc cartridge. This sounds very general, but I'd say everything about the fork is better... Way more sensitivity, doesn't dive anywhere near as much, can get away with running it with a bit more sag. I'd say in a nutshell, it just dampens the bumps a lot better. I did some timing in my local trails, after the upgrade on the first day of riding it I was already 1.7s faster on a 40s trail. However you will notice your seals getting sticky earlier on...
I've got some low friction seals but haven't fitted them yet, ill fit them when i do a lower leg service and see if it makes much difference.
I'd definitely recommend the charger damper, makes the forks a lot smoother and sit higher in their travel, i found the Boxxer rcs to feel quite wooden, long runs would knacker my arms quite badly and the charger stopped that happening. I found it a very obvious improvement. I just find i can still only get about 20% sag even using the softest spring hence thinking the air spring may be worth a shot.
I got the charger kit from bike-discount.de a few months ago and it was a good deal cheaper than anywhere else i found it.
Thanks for the feedback