I’ve removed all the tokens from the fork as it felt too harsh, now I’m running a little over 30% sag and it feels better, but still not using the last 1-2 cm of the travel.
HSC is full open.

I’m around 75kg, mostly wheels on the ground, but do some small drops and jumps.
Am I not gnarly enough for this fork? Should I eat more and/or be more aggresive?

That sounds about right tbh. You don’t want to be bottoming out unless you’ve had a really big impact. Does the fork feel good? If so just leave it. If it feels too firm then forget sag and just change air pressure until it’s using an appropriate amount of travel and feels good.

You could also try adding tokens and dropping pressure. FWIW, I run a 140mm Lyrik on some pretty gnarly trails and rarely get past 125mm. Fork feels great.

I’m around 75kg, mostly wheels on the ground, but do some small drops and jumps.
Am I not gnarly enough for this fork?

take the air out and see if you can compress it all the way. Is the fork quite soft and soggy being over 30% sag (don’t use it to tune your fork though).

It feels better without tokens, it felt too harsh with them (specially low bump sensitivity), and I used even less travel.

At a tad over 30% sag it doesn’t feel soft.

I’ll try to remove the air and check, thxs.

Remove the air AND take off the top cap, otherwise you’ve still got a bit of an air spring in there.

30% is a lot of sag to run for a fork, definitely worth a good look over everything

You’ll have to hit things pretty hard to bottom out a 160mm fork if you’re only getting very slightly airborne. Drops to flat tend to use more travel than anything else.

Out of interest, spaniardclimber what psi are you running for the 30% sag.

Could it be the “infamous” wrong oil levels from factory issue? Time to get some tools, oil and a container and get it swapped out?

Take all the air out – do you get all the travel now?

If yes, then set the fork to what suits your riding, and move on 🙂

If no, then I’d do a bottom leg service and check everything is moving nicely. If it is, move on 🙂

So I removed all the air and I got full travel, I checked the pressure and it was set to 83 PSI (@pembo6), which kind of falls in the range for my weight.

I did a lower leg service just before removing the tokens and everything was right, so I guess I should just move on….?

When you say small drops, how small are you talking?

The RS Trailhead app reckons 78psi for 75kg. It’s usually not too far off.

I did a lower leg service just before removing the tokens and everything was right, so I guess I should just move on….?

If the fork feels good generally and you have a wee bit of travel left after most rides, then I would say you have a good set up.

The one in Boneyville or the ones in Roots Manoeuvres in BPW. (Also Thick n Creamy if you know surrey hills). Allthough I haven’t done these since I removed the tokens.

I’m a similar weight and riding style and don’t normally get into the last inch or so of travel. I’d only expect to if I was hitting proper rough stuff hard, or completely messing up ie nose heavy landings off larger drops. I wouldn’t worry about it myself.

The one in Boneyville or the ones in Roots Manoeuvres in BPW. (Also Thick n Creamy if you know surrey hills). Allthough I haven’t done these since I removed the tokens.

In the context of STW these are pretty decent sized drops (ie not going to trouble a gnar bro, but certainly bigger than a foot or two).

That pressure sounds a bit on the high side for your weight.

Have you tried just lowering the pressure a bit (still with no tokens) and seeing how it rides?

I get full travel on my Lyrik Ultimate when I land on the front wheel to flat from a small-ish drop on my local trails. You don’t have to be a gnarly shredder to use all of a fork’s travel.

One of the curses of modern suspension is that it’s so good, you can happily ride a nice enough set-up for ages and not realise it could be better.

@chakaping I’ll try that, but then sag will probably be around 35% (which might not be an issue though).
So it seems nothing is wring with the fork then…I guess I’ll have to try different pressures etc then, cheers!

Let us know how it goes.

I serviced my Lyrik Ultimate at the weekend and forgot to note down the pressure, so I’ll be going through the same process myself on my next ride. I never even try to measure sag on the fork though, it’s really difficult to get accurate. I just go on feel & whether I’m getting enough travel.

Latest C1 airshaft or the old B1 ?

I’d check for excessive air in the lowers, burp them with a cable tie down the seals, they will hiss if there is trapped air.

It’s the old b1 air shaft.

I weight about 95kg and send well on stuff like a470 and I did not bottom out my 170mm Ultimate’s at BPW a couple of months ago.

I would only expect to use full travel in a full on save my ass maneuverer where i nearly go over the bars.

I’ve had the same issue on my Pikes, In my case bleeding the damper fixed it. Air inside the damper was causing the rubber sleeve to press against the inside of the fork stanchion stopping the last inch of travel. If you let all the air out of the air spring and can’t get full travel this will likely be the issue

I think the B1 air spring can be a bit harder to bottom out than the newer C1. The pay back is that the B1 is a bit more compliant off the top. I recently burped my pike by releasing the foot bolts, and it felt a lot better after this.

Pressure sounds very high…

I’m 95kg, 3 tokens, 69psi, HSC full open, LSC 16 clicks from closed, rebound 3 clicks from closed

Probably wouldn’t get full travel unless nose landing

I’m 75kg and run 82-85.

How are you measuring sag, with the markers on the stanchions or just measurement from seal to o-ring?

30% sag is a lot. Pressures wise, huge variation from pump to pump..

I measure sag with the markers in stanchion, also the pressure was measure with a digital pressure gauge, the pump gauges are pretty rubish.

I would only expect to use full travel in a full on save my ass maneuverer where i nearly go over the bars.

^^This, last time I bottomed my forks was due to hitting a 2’ deep frozen logging machine rut at 90 degrees while doing about 20 mph.

I’m 95kg, 3 tokens, 69psi, HSC full open, LSC 16 clicks from closed, rebound 3 clicks from closed

Your numbers are the furthest from the way I’ve managed to get my Lyriks working well (4x Lyriks across multiple bikes and eMTB)

Low pressure? Rebound almost closed? I’d expect your fork to have a huge tendency to pack down. The OP’s numbers are more on point.

I would only expect to use full travel in a full on save my ass maneuverer where i nearly go over the bars.

This ^^^

Every fork is a compromise. The RS Lyriks certainly seem to struggle to give up all their travel… but my experience is that when you tune them for the support you want they give sublime control and take the hits.

I raced a Scottish enduro at Fort William failing to notice that my 170mm Lyrik RCT3 was in the middle compression setting. I set it that way on a climb on practice day and forgot about it. I made a couple of tweak adjustments and went into race day with this far from ideal setup… but the fork was smooth and controlled everywhere and I was able to hit my lines at race speeds. Probably didn’t use more than 130mm travel but no problems with grip or comfort.

My advice: don’t get hung up on seeing full travel; tune the feel of the fork not trying to hit some arbitrary criteria on the numbers.

That said, I’m surprised you’re getting 30% sag on your pressures. Even more surprised you’re on zero tokens on a 160mm.

As I was hinting before, it’s quite hard to measure sag accurately on a fork – I’m sure some experts advise not to even bother – so the OP’s 30% may or may not be accurate.

I’d certainly not expect to get “full travel every ride”, but there are some spots where I know I should be able to get it.

Maybe you’re riding a little off the back. I find that with 160 you need to keep more weight on the bars and keep better balanced between front and rear. You’ll get more travel and the bike will ride better.

stick the vorsprung smashpot in and wonder why you ever used air in the first place.

Similar issue here. 85kg, 50psi on my pump which equates to 30% sag, not had more than about 135mm travel. Don’t feel great on small bumps and then the rebound knob fell off and been told Sept 2022 to get a new one. Great £900 purchase so far…… They look good though when the bikes in the garage…

Even more surprised you’re on zero tokens on a 160mm.

Used to run a 160mm pike with no tokens although it did have a luftkappe.

85kg, 50psi on my pump which equates to 30% sag, … Don’t feel great on small bumps

Cause and effect right there. 30% sag and 50psi for your weight will tend to pack. Chances are you can’t get the rebound fast enough.

The not getting full travel thing is annoying but setting low pressures to try and get full travel sounds like a bad answer for most riding scenarios.

Doing a friction test when you’re doing a service seems to be the “in” thing to do. Remove lowers. Remove damper cartridge. Remove air spring. Remove seals and foam rings. Fit hub and tighten normally. Do the lowers bind on the bushes anywhere in their travel? Bush sizing or hub spacing/alignment problem?

Tried it with 70 psi, end up with just under 20% sag when standing over the bike and no more than 120mm travel and even harsher. With all air out they fully compress and seem smooth. Rebound is plenty quick enough. I just want the forks to use the travel I paid for once or twice a ride on the biggest (for a lame rider like me!) drops I do, I don’t see why the companies can’t make them do this. Older Manitous used to work fine. These are just false advertising much like the Lyriks I had before and numerous other forks.

“Tried it with 70 psi, end up with just under 20% sag when standing over the bike and no more than 120mm travel and even harsher.”

These forks sound faulty. I’m running B1 Lyrik RC2 160mm and they use plenty of travel, although the last 10mm only gets used on heavy flat landings or when I screw up. I run quite a lot of sag, 25-30%, seems to work best on my Levo.

I’ve got some more on the way for my 29er hardtail build, same travel, same damper, newer air spring (unfortunately?)

I hope not, I only bought them in rage as the forks which came on my new bike had already been back for warranty twice and not fixed (Z2’s with rebound issues), these did (in theory!) give me an extra 10mm as well so a useful upgrade I thought…..they did feel ok yesterday, I will play around more with sag and tokens. Had Lyriks on my previous bike and they failed twice also with rebound damper issues. Mattocs before that back a few times and not fixed, I think I’m jinxed or something! Only forks which have worked consistently as described are a set of old 120 Towers and my ~1996 Pace MXCD’s lol

I just want the forks to use the travel I paid for once or twice a ride on the biggest (for a lame rider like me!) drops I do, I don’t see why the companies can’t make them do this.

Try someone else’s forks on the same trail but if the forks are set up well for small and medium bumps don’t worry about the lack of full travel.

Just an update in case it helps anyone:
What I ended up doing was ignoring sag and just kept removing pressure from the fork until it felt ok.
I think I’m in the lower 70’s with no tokens, and now it feels like I have suspension … wish I had tried this a year ago …
I think I haven’t managed to get into those last mm of travel but I don’t care now, as the fork feels plush and my wheels is not bouncing around. I will continue to play with pressure, and maybe tokens, but the baseline I am now is already a massive improvement.