Reba solo Air very rubbish

Picked up some used 2013 Reba RLs to fit my Solaris, replacing my older Reba SL dual air I have put on a friends bike and am very, very unimpressed.

The old dual are were absolutely lovely responsive forks with the tuning of the dual air both my 85kg and her much lighter weight but these solo air feel like they are locked out at the recommended pressure.

Aware of the problems with blocked air port to gave them a service and they improved a bit. Air is getting into the negative chamber as confirmed by pressing the hidden valve under the air spring shaft bolt but I just cannot get the sag or initial bump sensitivity right. Damper seems to be working okay but want to get rid of the remote lock out so I can adjust the compression damping.

Options seem to be:

a) Top out bumper mod
b) replace with 110mm dual air spring
C) try and fit an extender bolt to the air shaft to mount the negative valve externally thus adapt them to dual air and fit a spacer to stop them equalising
d) sack off the air spring and fit a 120mm recon coil spring but that seems a shame after how well my old dual airs used to feel.

Totally ignore the recommended air pressure, stick a couple of tokens in there and set air pressure by sag 20-25% suits me.

I noticed there were no threads for tokens, looks like you have to buy a set with a new cap. Typical: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RockShox-Bottomless-Kit-Revelation-SoloAir/dp/B00LW8EH8K

From the first review:

These stopped me binning my 2014 Reba. Previously the fork would either have to be set really hard so as to have nearly no sag and small bump sensitivity, or if 20% or more sag was set the fork would blow through its travel and dive in hard corners and berms.

Looks like exactly what I need to do.

My RLT Ti revs are dual position unfortunately as I’d like to try some in them too. They are night and day different to the Rebas though, still not quite as plush as my old dual air Revs though, just better damped (Blackbox) and much stiffer (20mm, newer chassis)

Hmm, relevant to me, picking up a bike soon with solo airs.

Can you achieve the same effect as the tokens by just putting extra oil in the lowers?

Edit: D’oh, no, not quite as simple as my old bombers! Tokens go in the air chamber. Still though, just stick extra fluid in the air chamber?

Loco tuning sorted out some tokens for me, he has the threaded caps as well, not silly money and totally transform the fork.

Can someone elaborate on what the tokens do? I’m a bit out of touch 😉 I’ve got a pair of these forks and a bit underwhelmed with them…

Oh, don’t get me started with these forks.

To cut a long story short, mine were replaced under warranty after being returned for servicing four times in a year, having had most parts replaced but never curing the poor performance.

The replacement set have been fine. Not quite as plush as my old dual air ones but near enough. I can only imagine that SRAMs quality control lets some dud ones through.

As has been said, the recommended pressures printed on the lowers are way off. Go by sag and tweak from there.

Is this still an issue or did it affect a batch? I’ve been thinking of buying a spare in case of wheelsize apocalypse.

Why did RS stop making the dual air version?

Still though, just stick extra fluid in the air chamber?

The fluid will slowly migrate to the negative chamber through the equalization dimple, reducing available travel or blowing an o-ring.

Why did RS stop making the dual air version

Because very (very) few people wanted to adjust the performance on their negative spring

And because the tiny amount of air plus the valve meant accurately getting a certain pressure in the negative chamber was almost impossible.

It is a small amount of air but a lot of people couldnt seem to understand the benefit. Worst case all people had to do was set it the same as the positive. It wasnt really rocket science and at least if your spring head seal blew then it would just dump the negative air into the lower leg and you could ride home with a very harsh fork.

As above, you can’t use oil in the air spring now as it will migrate. Should be something really thick like the PM6000 grease, other fork greases are a bit less sticky but wull probably be okay if you don’t use too much. There is generally a big lump of the red stuff in there so just be careful and re-use it for a couple of services.

Could you not just put a bit of extra oil in the top of the compression damper in the other leg?

that wouldnt affect the air spring ramp up like tokens or extra oil (if it would stay in the positive spring) do. I believe messing with the oil volume in the damper is a bad thing. Viscosity yes if you know what you are doing but not volume.

I need to order a 120mm air shaft anyway so thinking about ordering a 130mm 29er Rev one and adapting it to dual air. Advantage would be a reduction in positive air volume like fitting a token and then I can use oil to further reduce it.

wordnumb – Member

Why did RS stop making the dual air version?

Same reason they stopped doing u-turn, it’s a mass market product so was dumbed down and simplified at the cost of performance

I prefer dual position to U-turn provided that the travel matches what you want. Changing spring shafts seems a bit cheaper than the old system too but gone is the chance to use simple travel spacers as they would stop the solo air system from equalising. They could use a system where the air piston is spaced down but then that would mean they lose the ability to have the hidden negative valve.

One thing I did notice when I stripped the forks was the dimple seems more like a round dot compared to photos I have seen which show it as being elongated. They do seem to be equalising to a point though so I think there is still a route around the o-ring. Just maybe not enough in a single pass when you combine it with some grease as the pressures get close.

Will have a play with pressures and sag, If they feel responsive at the right sag but just diving everywhere then will go the token route.

Bloody hell, I chose a bike with Rebas instead of a bike with Fox 32s because I liked the simplicity and reliability of my old Rebas 🙄

Glad I’m not looking for crazy performance out of them at least…

Northwind > it’s a mass market product so was dumbed down and simplified at the cost of performance

Sounds about right. I just bought a RL Solo Air because by the time I might need to replace my fantastic Dual Air Brexit recession will have made the selling of 26″er parts punishable by prisonship to Australia.