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This thing is fitted to my Decathlon E-bike. And whilst riding Bike Park Northampton (which is ace BTW) it was bottoming out. There’s hardly any adjustment on it, and I was wondering what I need- tokens at a guess, but should I do anything else like check the oil.
I’m heavy but previous bikes have been fine- Manitou something or other and Lyrics, both with dials and switches everywhere, so not ridden low spec forks before- is the damper upgradable?
Try tokens first (as it's the easiest thing to do). I guess you could tune the motion control when you ride at the park to give you a bit more compression damping?
Whilst this may not be the answer you are looking for, the best thing I ever did with my 35 fork was stick it on eBay and buy a 2nd hand Yari. It cost under £100 to swap and it was well worth it.
On the 35 I tried tokens, different air pressures, servicing it, different weight oil with the 2nd service but it was still a horrible, noisy fork.
if you are bottoming out lots you need more air/stiffer spring.
ignore the 'recommended settings' and set your 'attack position' sag to 20% or less.
damping is secondary.
you may have rebound set too slow also. Go as fast rebound as comfortable before it becomes a full pogo.
you can buy a novyparts splug which will upgrade the compression damping from teh motion control damper in there.
Thanks all, I’m guessing there is no coil conversion?
if you are bottoming out lots you need more air/stiffer spring.
ignore the ‘recommended settings’ and set your ‘attack position’ sag to 20% or less.
damping is secondary.
The exact amount will be personal preference, but you can't make up for a lack of damping with spring rate, or vice versa. You need both.
I actually find it quite hard to bottom out because it's too progressive even without tokens, but mines set to 130mm which means the air spring is inherently more progressive. But I still have ~2 clicks on the compression damper. Stops the fork from using too much travel on all but occasional f-ups, and the progressive air spring means the bottom out isn't harsh anyway.
Okay I need to have a play, I’ll also get some tokens before I start perusing the sales.
all the suspension gurus will say - sag first and damping after to taste depending on how you want the fork to feel and if you are riding jumps or just XC (as 2 extreme examples). turn off all compression damping (so you have zero compression damping on) when setting sag
dont use compression damping to compensate for a too low spring weight - the fork will run crap. yes - ultimately you might want a couple of clicks of compression but that is minor fish compared to teh right pressure/spring which is most important.
you might end up needing a couple of tokens as well as more air in the 'spring'.