I rode my new BOS Deville fork yesterday (Cotic Rocket). After the worrying BOS news last week, (news I heard literally moments after cutting through the steerer tube), I was feeling quite negative about trying this ‘disposable’ fork. I worried I’d got caught up in the hype a bit. Maybe I had been, but despite my negativity towards it, I was won over big time. Its really good and I was buzzing after my ride.

I want to play around with it a bit, may as well get the best out of it if its going in the bin once the seals pop!
Anyone got any setting recommendations? Anything you’ve experienced experimenting with this fork would be of interest. I’m pretty clueless with suspension set up, rebound is about as far as my experience goes.
I am riding a short DH run in my local woods. It has a bit of everything, but mostly natural forest track with berms and smallish jumps. It REALLY excels on these, mega confidence inspiring grip, but it is proper harsh over a rock garden section.

I’m going for another blast now, will check for replies this evening. Thanks in advance for all the hundreds of replies.

but it is proper harsh over a rock garden section.

It has more midstroke compression support, this will stop it from diving as much but may also cause this.

The fork feels a bit like the race setups Elites used in the NPS series when my brother used to race it. It definately had a stiffer racier feel than plush the time I demo’d a mates.

Cheers bwaarp. Thankfully I’m not looking for plush, it was just a bit extreme yesterday. I let a bit of air out tonight and that made it less harsh, not plush. I’m using 150mm of the travel now compared to 140mm on the same run yesterday, and that seems more appropriate for this run. However, I felt I lost some of the feel today. I might try playing with the rebound tomorrow to speed that up a touch. I think I’ll leave slow and high speed compression alone for now. At least until I’ve read about what they actually do! I’m enjoying the learning. Cotic Rocket with Bos Deville is a dream to play on. I feel like superman coming down the hill and I’m also able to ride straight back up it. Its perfect.

First thing to do is let all the air out of them and see if they suck down before you do any setup etc. This will prove if the neg air chamber is working properly. Mine was not and I ran them for months like that and they still felt good. With it sorted they are very good.

Don’t get the harsh comments – mine a V plush through fast stuff if that is how you want to set them.

cheers mrplow. Ive read about setting the negative chamber, I’ll do that now to make sure. Do you know what settings you have ended up with in terms of number of clicks?

This is why you have to check the neg chamber first as you will end up with very different settings if it is not equalizing. About to give the bike a quick wash so can check the clicks but everyone likes different things. My setup would be like a spongy sofa to bwaarp yet it still does not blow through travel which I love. 🙂

Use the settings in the manual. There’s a note in the dh forks manual which pretty much says, try these settings, no really try these settings.

letting a bit of air out is a good plan, they do have a lot of mid stroke support. I run between 30 and 35% sag on mine but still don’t achieve full travel often. I couldn’t tell you how many clicks i have on hi and low speed compression, i just set it up how i wanted it and left it alone.

Super fork, but it is a bit worrying about r53. luckily I just had mine serviced last month so they’re good for a while. anyone know of anyone else in the uk who would service them?

Have a read through here!

http://forums.mtbr.com/nicolai/bos-suspension-671338.html

My settings which were last messed with in the Alps are:
Rider Weight 80ish KG with all gear on
83-85psi achieving 26/27% sag
Rebound messed with and has ended up back at factory recommendation of 15clicks from fully closed.
Low speed 11 clicks from fully closed.
High speed 21 clicks from fully closed.

Your fork will only feel like mine if your negative air chamber works correctly. It feels soft in the car park test but works a treat on rough trails and most other stuff with no upsetting diving. 🙂

A company called Jtech are doing servicing as well look like reasonable pricing to.

http://www.j-techsuspension.co.uk/

Bats.

Cheers MrPlow, its kind of you to do that. I’ve definitely got the air set up right now, totally emptied it, then refilled a bar at a time and worked the suspension by 10mm at each stage. I’ll try your settings and see how I like them, might speed the process up a bit for me.

batman11, that is good to know, thanks for sharing the link. They use fox seals, so for a plain service it doesn’t matter whether Bos send them parts or not. Its just if you need more than just seals and oil that you may be in trouble.

and as you say, relatively cheap, £101 with postage. Not bad every 2 years.

Did the fork suck down? I spent ages filling, working the fork but there was an internal fault and I am guessing there was a bad batch. No amount of care will fix it, you have to prove the fork sucks down to know it is working according to R53. Mine did not suck down until sorted. The damper settings and performance will be off if it is not right so worth verifying.
A difference you feel if it is equalizing is when you do the very slow strokes. At first it feels a little sticky on the first couple of small 10mm strokes then it is suddenly buttery(tm) smooth and very easy to do slowly as the neg chamber equalizes.

They use fox seals, so for a plain service it doesn’t matter whether Bos send them parts or not. Its just if you need more than just seals and oil that you may be in trouble.

It’s not quite that simple with BOS (never is!).

They use a very specific oil that’s more like an engine oil than a normal suspension oil, in that it has a cold & warm operating temperature.

TF tuned, from working on them before suggest it’s ‘like’ a 7.5wt suspension oil, but it will feel a little different to a factory oil.

However yes, the Fox 34 SKF seals fit them so you can do the most basic oil & seal changes at home if you are prepared to experiment a bit with oils & weights 🙂

No it didn’t suck down! I totally emptied it and it just stood tall. However, when I was refilling, I noticed that the pressure dropped slightly on the shock pump at each stage after the 10mm strokes. This made me think the air was passing to the other chamber.

just emptied them and refilled again, this time they sucked down a bit, about 30mm. A tap on the headset sent them a little lower. I’m hoping its just sticking on the seals.

Sweet, all good going on what R53 told me. Now you need to pump them up again all carefully 😆

emptied and refilled several times, now they suck up a lot. Just refilled in a highly neurotic manner, got quite a sweat on! No way can the chambers not be equalized! Bring on tomorrow evening so I can ride once more!

I think I’ll leave slow and high speed compression alone for now. At least until I’ve read about what they actually do!

Slow – you pushing down
High – wheel pushing up

If anything like my RC2 36’s, getting these right made the difference between a fork that worked, and one that didn’t.

Hia T E I N,
I’ve been running Devilles for almost a year. I had the 2011 then received a 2012 as part of my original purchase deal. I think it’s a really fab fork and I hope you’ll love yours.
As the service interval is over 1 year perhaps we’ll be lucky and someone will step in as UK agent. Even if they don’t I feel it’s not a nightmare to send suspension to Toulouse for a service, as long, that is, as they don’t take ages to do the work and send it back.

Settings –
When I got the 2012 one it felt awful and that scared me as I was leaving for Inners the next day, however, I got this instruction to set equalisation from R53 and it then really came to life:

TRC in the OFF position during these steps.

1- connect your shock pump and leave connected for entire procedure

2- drop all the air out. not entirely necessary but at least you’ll know where you are. you’ll notice as you dump the air out the top chamber it will then start rising again as the pressure bleeds through from the bottom chamber. keep dumping the air till flat

3- pump up to 2 or 3 bar

4- slowly compress the fork 10-15mm a few times. this allows air to move between the chambers. monitor the pump pressure. you should see it drop a bit as the chambers equalise

5- repeat above 3 or 4 times till you get up to @ 9bar. equalizing every time you put in more air.

6- finally, set the pressure for your weight and equalize again

AND

At first the original Deville I had on test felt too “springy” to me on climbing. And I messed it up over a couple of rides by trying to make it feel like my old Van 36, thinking back now, WHY did I ever do that?

Then I spoke to Shinny who sold me it and has looked after me ever since.
So, next, I swallowed the BOS pill.

Run the settings are factory defaults and learn to like them, ONLY THEN consider adjustments, keep at 15 out on all three adjusters for quite a few rides. DO NOT test it in the carpark. Get a fast run over some rough ground with those std. settings.
I suggest you ride a lot like this before you move away from those settings.
I have found this to be true of the BOS Idylle SC and the S**Toy too. BOS sure seem to know what they are doing.
I think we’ll be fine with servicing, J-Tech seem a like a nice setup and they can do it, although I suppose they might get stuck if special BOS parts are needed.
enjoy
neil

50 psi hamster in each leg should do it!

I’m not sure I understand what is meant by “suck down”. I have tried letting all the air out of mine, but it doesn’t seem to sink, if that’s what meant. Basically just feels a little softer, but always extends fully.

Do I have a defect fork, or will I just have to pump it back up, and empty it a few times, have te desired effect?

Best regards from a Deville (and suspension) noob.

Also, I can’t seem to hit 25% “sag”. If I pump the fork to 5 bar, as the manual indicates for a rider of my weight, the o-ring barely moves.
If I really lean on the handlebars, I can get like 10 mm of sag.

The advice I’ve heard from mates who’ve got Devilles is set them soft, with rebound fairly fast.

Did the fork suck down? I spent ages filling, working the fork but there was an internal fault and I am guessing there was a bad batch. No amount of care will fix it, you have to prove the fork sucks down to know it is working according to R53. Mine did not suck down until sorted.

@mr plow: Did you have to send the in for repair, ’cause I think this is the problem I’m having.

If its brand new then the new seals might be stopping it from sucking down. That’s what i found. Try lubing the seals and then letting the air out.

Sent them in and R53 sorted them. I bought them at the start of the year.

@theendisnigh: I’ll try that this afternoon.
If I let ALL the air out, should I be able to compress the fork the full length of the travel?

When you empty the air, your should see the fork compress down on its own.

Also take the suggested BOS air pressures with a pinch of salt. They are pretty far out.

Has anyone checked what J-Tech are actually doing service wise? I was under the impression it was nothing official – i.e using Fox seals & normal oil? (no BOS AMX oil, which is a wierd blend of oils).

To be fair I got shot of mine anyway, so not really concerned. Lesson learnt for the second time sadly.

It doesn’t compress down. At all. Only goes a little softer, but still stays fully extended.

That happened to mine as well. I got a little zip tie and very gently slid the point of it between the seal and the stantion…only a tiny bit. That released some air and the next time I let all the air out the forks went down. It’s what someone else suggested I tried Also I let the air out directly from the valve, not via the shock pump.

@blur it rider: Awesome if that works. I’ll try it tomorrow. On my way to Bikepark Hahnenklee for the weekend, so if it works, I’ll owe u one.
Between seal and stanchion on left or right leg? Sorry if that’s a stupid question, but I’m new at this.

Otherwise, the fork is going back to YT industries, and I’ll probably not be biking for weeks.

@kennethjohnsen – I did it between seal and stanchion on both legs. After doing that I let all the air out via the valve. The forks went right down. You may need to repeat this by pumping them up and releasing air again. Once the forks had “sucked down” I did the pump up to 3 bar, cycle the fork 5 times to about 15mm, then repeated for 5,7 and 9 bar. I then let a little out at a time, cycled them 15mm 5 times, and kept repeating this until I got them back down to 4 bar. They wok a treat now.
Good luck and hope you have a bike for the w/e.

I will let you know how it works out. If it doesn’t, I’ll rent a Bergamont in Hahnenklee. If it does, you are my new hero 😉

Didn’t do the trick for me.

I sent the Deville to YT, who sent it to BOS, and it’s coming back this week. Whole process took about 2 weeks, which is OK, I guess.

First thing I’ll check is if the air can be let out of the fork 😀
Fingers crossed.

what bike was this from Kenneth?

YT Wicked 160 LTD perchance?

Yes Wicked 160 LTD.

Apologies for the thread hijack but what Do you think of it?

How has communicating with YT been?