My Pikes are a bit battered and I was going to replace them, but a combination of a shortage of funds for a new fork and curiosity and need for a bit of a project sent me down the coil conversion route just to see what's what. I went for the TF Tuned kit and installation was a doddle, and I stripped down and overhauled my damper while I was in there.
So far only just put the forks back on the bike and a few rides up and down the road, some bunny hops and jumps off the kerb suggest they are really really nice and plush - it actually feels like I have some suspension up front. However my HSC is fully wound up to the max and I fear when I get the bike out on the trail I might need a bit more HSC damping. So not sure of my options - I could fit the heavier spring that came with the kit, but wanted to reserve that for bigger days at uplift centres or more DH oriented trails, so wondering about the fine art of using thicker oil in my damper to effectively increase the damping rate? this seems to have been common practice from what I can gather in the 'good old days' of coil shocks and forks to tuen them. The oil that is in there now is the standard issue Rockshox 3wt, so thinking about replacing with 7wt? how does this sound to those experienced in this dark art?
Cheers.
By " overhauled damper" what did you do exactly ?
Interested to know what you've done to the damper that may have changed the HSC. Has your sag changed much? Do you feel you've significantly changed spring rate, or just spring type?
Complete strip down, replaced seals, replaced the lower piston seal assembly that failed on early pikes (the damper had leaked all its oil into the lowers) and put back together.
Sag is around 25 - 30% as it currently is, everything seems to work fine but concerned I'm maxed out on HSC so nowhere to go if I feel I need more once I'm out on the trail.
This is why I'm interested.
I have a coil lyrik and following widely touted advice on here I removed the floodgate from.the damper.
Well that's great if you want a wallowy fork that sits well into its travel and blows through the first 2/3rds of travel then rampuphorribly.
So went with replacing the firm spring with a medium and putting the floodgate back in. Far far far better riding fork.
Removing floodgates just a cheapskate bodge to make your forks feel plusher.
Have you ridden the fork on the trails rather than just worrying about it after kerb tests and bouncing up and down ?
The external adjuster on Pikes is low speed compression, and then the open/trail/climb adjuster that overrules that on RCTs. Or have you done something else for the high speed?
Sag is around 25 - 30%
I think you need the stiffer spring, most people AFAIK go for 20% - 25% with a coil, probably nearer the 20%.
I've not modified the damper in any way, just a basic strip down and rebuild iaw the Rockshox service manual. The only part I replaced was the lower piston assy.
I thought the adjustor on the top was HSC, but I could (apparently am) be mistaken, my eyes are not as they once were and the letters are very small!
I don't suspect there is a problem at all and don't even suspect the damper is not working as before - difficult to say as the spring is so different, it makes sense to me that if you have more sensitivity in the spring, as you do with coil, then you're going to need more damping as you haven't got the additional frictional damping from the air shaft bushes and seals, so I wasn't suspecting anything was wrong. But clearly just wondering what I can do if I do feel I need more compression damping once I do give them a test ride out on the trails.
The suspension feels ultra plush and really nice - so a very positive characteristic which I like, but I'm aware the spring is constant rate so I'm not going to get the ramp up at the top end of the stroke as you do with air and might need a bit more damping for the heavier hits. I don't know yet, but just thinking a few steps ahead, though now I know the adjustor is for low speed compression then I'm a bit more confident that all should be fine.
A test ride is next on the list, taking Friday afternoon off for that so we'll see.
If you do decide you need more damping, you could look to stiffen the shim stack. Easy enough to do if you're happy pulling the charger damper apart and bleeding it.
You need to reshim the damper to alter the HSC or convert it with the FAST kit to get externally adjustable HSC.
Try the heavier spring, you dont need 25 percent sag to get grip with a coil fork.
Run less lag and run the LSC more open, run the rebound as fast as you can to keep it running in the softer part of its travel over roots.
Preloading the spring, contrary to what some people on here might say... shifts the entire spring curve up along the x axis.... by an equal amount at the beginning stroke and end stroke. So initial breakaway force becomes higher... but so does bottom out.
