Hi All,
So despite some advice against, I bought some XC700SL forks for the cheap Avalanche upgrade project and they arrived today. First impressions were good, they're light weight and feel quite good with just a quick setup.
However, they don't have anywhere near as much travel as they should. They should adjust between 90mm and 130mm but they're actually more like 50-90mm with 90mm being the max!
I've reset the air pressure and this still seems to be the top end on them. Am I doing something wrong or is there a problem with the fork?
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Chris
I had a similar problem with some AM SL. Mine went back to Windwave who told me that the ATA was knackered and they couldn't replace it as the part had been discontinued. My only option was 25% off a new set. Thankfully one of the mechanics did a fix which will hopefully hold until I can afford a set of Rock Shox. Marzocchi may have sorted out the "reliability issues" now but their customer service sucks. I wouldn't touch them again.
start the set up again from scratch, ignore Marz pressure settings....
I've had more sucess by running similar forks AM 150 AL and corsa SL's at lower than the recomended pressures.
Actually the pressures feel OK which is strange because I know most say to run them at lower pressure - but the feel of the shock is actually quite good.
I've tried dropping all the air out the top and putting a lot in the bottom to force the fork to full extension - but even this only gives the c.90mm of travel.
So where's my other 40mm gone?
Are you talking amount of stanchion showing or amount of travel achieved whilst pushing down?
Chris-H, see above. It's exactly the same problem I was having. It was nothing to do with air pressures, the ATA was ****ed.
are you reall sure about the pressure...... I'm assuming your fork has a positive and negative chamber at the top of one leg as per the AM and corsa superlights?.........because you can drop the travel on these models using the negative chamber.......I've seen 150mm forks brought into a shop which are acheiving only 100mm of travel as the negative chamber had been pressurised ar above the +ve chamber......
it's worth checking this out before assuming it's the ATA....... 😉
The 90mm I measure is the amount of stanchion showing - so there really is no way it can have more than that in travel.
As far as I'm aware the travel is all set on the left leg, there is a positive chamber at the bottom and a negative one at the top. Even when I set the bottom to a high pressure (i.e. 175PSI) and the top to 0PSI the max amount of the stanchion showing is still the same. This is with the ATA screwed all the way out.
The ATA in itself seems to work, it adjusts OK and drops the travel by a further 40mm as it is supposed to - but what good is dropping from 90mm to 50mm!
Does it sound like I'm missing something or am I likely to have a real problem?
@Coyote - interesting to hear of your experience but it doesn't sound like a good outcome!
This is VERY interesting indeed .My 2008 XC600s are currently with Windwave awaiting a new ATA catridge which they say is on order ? I too could only get about 90mm travel instead of 1400mm despite running them without any air at all .
Windwave tell me they are going to replace the ATA catridge and convert the fork to coil giving me 140mm travel .The obvious flaw in this is i won't be able to REDUCE the travel therefore reducing there adjustability .They say it's the standard fix for these forks now i'm not sure i should accept this but when they do eventually come back guess i'll have to give 'em a go .
The 90mm I measure is the amount of stanchion showing - so there really is no way it can have more than that in travel
I asked this because if they're at full length but not achieving full travel (i.e. ramping up too soon), this is usually because they've too much oil in them, a problem which all marzocchi's have been known for.
Yup, sound like the ATA is faulty. I sent some 55's back to windwave with this problem and they sent me out a new set straight away. having said that, I then found tons of info about removing the ATA gubbins (search on MTBR), and also the cause of the problem, which is apparantly air leaking from one side to the other via a seal.