I bought a second hand reba a while ago, and it's felt fairly 'orrible since day 1. Not so bad that I wanted to return it, but no small bump sensitivity and dives through the travel. I have a mate who has one that actually felt very similar, so I assumed we were both tuning it badly.
Cue lot's of research online, tinkering with pressures and tokens etc, until today, when I read about the bleed valve at the bottom of the air side stanchion.
According to the internet a build up of air in the lower leg due to a leak can cause harshness etc, so I thought 'great, I'll give it a go.'
When I depressed the valve core, all of the air left the fork, although I'd deflated the valve on the top of the stanchion. I'm assuming that isn't normal, and have come to the conclusion that there is a catastrophic leak in the air spring.
So does that sound about right, and will a full air side service fix it do we reckon?
*EDIT* it's a solo air, not dual air.
Solo air forks still have a negative air chamber, there is an equalisation dimple inside the stanchion, they just can't be adjusted like dual airs. If you let the air out the lower section you'll find the forks really hard till the air piston passes the dimple
Hey sam. thanks for the info- I'm aware of the equalisation process in solo air, and have done a lower leg service to check for blockage of the dimple. I've also done the recommended set up procedure of compressing the fork intermittently while inflating etc which has been discussed in a few threads on here before.
What I'm curious about is whether releasing air using the bottom valve should release all of the air in the fork, or just what's in the negative chamber.
Ooo I think I've miss read it,mine only released the pressure in the negative, if yours released both positive and negative then yes seems like a bloody big leak
But if you already released all the pressure from the possitive chamber, the only air left was in the negative chamber. So yes you released all the remaining air.
Sorry, I could have said it clearer- I hadn't already released the air from the top valve. The fork was fully inflated
I had some issues with a Reba Solo Air that didn't have quite the same symptoms (it used to ride "hard" and then pack down and stay down).
The cause was a scratch in the air shaft. The scratch was small but it was allowing bleed between the chambers during compression/extension (I forget which).
New air shaft and some very routine TF Tuned servicing changed it into a different fork.
Can you link to the user manual of the fork you have on the SRAM website? I can’t see anything about a secondary air valve on Reba forks manual.
Are you sure you don’t have dual valve forks?
But usually when forks have pressure release values it does not release pressure from the negative or positive springs. It only releases pressure from the fork lowers which effectively creates a third air spring.
It’s really unclear from your posts what you are doing. But if you have pressure relief valves depress these once the shock pump is removed. This should not change the pressures in your positive and negative springs.
Air should not be leaking into the fork lowers and require regular releasing. It should only need to be done when you’ve climbed a large altitude 2000m+ or there is a big change in air pressure due to some crazy weather.
Sorry for not explaining well. The fork is a solo air, but does have a bleed valve that is well documented.
Tldr; with fork fully inflated, if I depress the bleed valve on the bottom of the fork leg, all of the air goes out of the fork.
I don’t know how the RS system works so can’t say for sure. If you can link to the correct manual that would be helpful.
But other fork brands that have a similar function do not empty the air springs, they only equalise pressure in the lower legs of the fork.
Sounds to me like there is a problem with the forks.
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I agree that there is a problem; my conclusion was that the air spring was leaking heavily into the lower legs.
I was posting initially to see whether people agreed, before doing a full service myself. Instead I think I'm going to book them in with slick and slide in Macclesfield, and see what they make of it.
Just having a look at that manual there isn’t any mention I can see of a valve on the bottom of the lower leg (air side)?
I’m not a huge expert on forms but I’ve had solo air revelations, pikes, Yaris and recons and none have had a lower leg bleed valve.
The only forks I’ve had worth a valve on the bottom of a leg are dual air revelations - the one on the bottom of the leg was for negative spring pressure. I don’t think emptying even that should remove all the air from the positive spring - it should just make it initially hard to get the fork moving as the negative spring isn’t helping you over the initial airspring stiction.
Just having a look at that manual there isn’t any mention I can see of a valve on the bottom of the lower leg (air side)?
It's definitely there. You have to undo the footnut and stick a small allen key up there to get at it. Not sure why SRAM are determined not to include it on the exploded diagrams - if the schrader valve failed without you being aware it was even there, it would be a bit of a head scratcher.