I've had these forks ('09) for a few months and they've been generally good. The other day though, I did a particularly rocky descent for the first time on these forks (Chipps' Birthday I think they call the dh) and the forks were bouncing like a pogo stick - all over the shop, almost impossible to control. Have I not set the damping right, or is the damping just too crude for this descent? I have Van RC2s on another bike and they're far more controlled. I had a similar experience on Stanny's (another rocky dh) with the Rs, but dialled off the rebound damping by a click or two and they were better (but then this was the same setting that felt crap on Birthday). Any thoughts, or tips for an all-round setting? Ta.
Is your spring rate right? Spring rate and rebound work hand in hand.
Set up each fork individually. The fact that '3-turns' of rebound work on one fork doesn't mean it'll be the same on a different fork of the same model.
I run a medium spring, and the bike's a hardtail. I'm just over 11 stone and generally ride rocky, steep and fairly technical stuff. I like my forks pretty soft. On most stuff the forks have been good, but that particular descent just seemed to completely faze them in a way it didn't with my RC2s and some 66s I've owned.
Hmm, are the rc2 float forks? Reason i ask is vans have a bottom out adjustment thats normally factory set too high so you wont use all travel(with right spring rate)...could be that with the slower rebound the forks are packing a little but when they hit the bottom out feel harsh and not smooth.
No, coil.
Personally, I would check the bottom out setting (unfortunatly you have to take the fit cart apart to do that) and set rebound as slow as you can get away with then remove a click of rebound. Then get used to riding it and change if needed. If you dont give time to a setting you'll let your mind convice you its wrong!
A simple way of doing it is ride down the road and bounce the forks. Looking at the forks do they move up and down after the initial compression / return. If they do, adjust the rebound so you dont get that secondary movement. Worked for me on Van 36R.
Cheers - I'll some experimenting, and I'll hit that particular trail some more to see how different settings affect the ride.