Tuning a Lyrik Ultimate for a light rider?

My wife is about 60kg kitted up which often puts her at the light end of fork airspring charts and she often has to run them quite soft & fully open to use a decent amount of travel.

When people talk about re-tuning a fork or shock is it the damper to reduce the amount of compression?

Would it be worthwhile on a ‘23 Lyrik Ultimate?

She hasn’t fully finished playing with it yet so it might end up ok with a token removed (assuming it has one in there).

If her fettling doesn’t work, speaking to someone like JTech would be a good idea. But I’d definitely recommend removing any tokens, I’m 78kg kitted up and have none in mine at 160mm.

You could try a Trutune token in it too, has definitely made my Rockshox fork much more supple in the first part of the stroke.

As a fellow light(ish) rider (64 kg), get it sent to J-Tech for an Andreani piston upgrade.

Basically stock fork tune is for fat Americans riding smooth bikepark trails where loads of low speed compression damping is useful. They simply don’t open up enough for lighter people riding natural stuff. If you try and compensate by running less pressure, you just end up with a fork that feels OK on single hits, but chokes up on repeated bumps and lacks support.

I’ve just been through this with a new (to me) Pike Ultimate on my hardtail. Felt like I couldn’t ride the bike for toffee, which is weird as it “was” my favourite bike. Sent it off for a service and a tune, got talked into the Andreani upgrade and its made a HUGE difference. I’m running 15psi more (thats ~30%!), and for the first time ever have a usable range of LSC rather than just leaving it wide open and wanting it more open still. I’ve got more support, more sensitivity and all of a sudden the bike feels spot on again.

(Also – if its a Charger 3 damper, there’s a reason they’ve just released the 3.1, and that’s because the 3 was universally considered to be overdamped.)

Close the LSC all the way. Open the HSC right up.

If it feels harsh then there’s too much damping and no amount of external fiddling and twiddling will get around around that.

If the damper is too restrictive, I would guess she’ll end up dropping the pressure to compensate for too much damping. That’ll probably end up with a spongey feeling fork and a massive ramp up of progression right at the end which. That’ll add to the feeling of harshness.

Options for damper tuning would be either pull it apart and change some shims around or send it away to have it done. Can be done as part of a service.

You could also go for a lighter (thinner) oil in the damper if you’re happy bleeding it yourself?

That all depends on whether the damper is too form for her weight though. I’m going to guess at 60kg that it would be. I’m a bit heavier than that and always find forks too harsh.

Trutune is a good option for lighter rider

Trutune will just be a sticking  plaster for the actual problem. The fork will be over damped for her. I’m 100kg fully kitted and generally run my forks fully open, so it must be way over damped for her.

Email your suspension service company of choice (or a couple ) and ask for their advice.
Charger 3 uses 3wt damper fluid, so not much scope for going lighter but I’m sure a re shim would make a huge difference.

If you are outside the 70-80kg window, a retune is always worthwhile. I’m obviously at the opposite end of the scale and my issue is usually not enough rebound control. I always get more rebound damping added at first service.

Mrs_oab has been 50-60kg all her life and every fork is over damped.

Best we had was a headshok which was given different shims and lighter oil.

Since then I’ve always experimented with lighter oils – I mix different weights if needed. Mrs_oab can feel the difference when the oil is lighter.

Fundamentally though this is a sticking plaster and a good suspension tuning company is the answer.

The Charger 3.1 is much less heavily damped than the Charger 3 but I bet a custom tune will work better at her weight.

At least is a Rockshox. My wife is in the vey light camp to the point when she can’t get full travel out of a fox fork with 20psi in it. We can just get a lyric to work but she isn’t the most sensitive to settings so everything fully open is ok for her.

If the Lyrik is 170mm I have a DSD Runt for sale, may help, but as other have posted it may be the fork itself and need the shim stack playing with or the oil weights.

Two things you should do.

1. Have the bushings burnished. If you bought the bike from us we’ll do that for free. Other brands may not.

2. Consider a swap to 3wt damper oil. It really opens the fork up.

3. Get rid of any tokens.

I echo previous comments of head to J-Tech. I don’t have your specific issue being weightier, but just their custom tune alone to my Lyriks transformed them. They’ve definitely got the knowledge and will have options for you.

Throw a coil in it. My weight sits between 55-60kg and thats been my solution for every fork I’ve owned in the last ten years. Possibly this is more of a problem with older forks and the air spring struggling to be effective at low pressure because of the friction from seals. Coil fixes that and and makes the damping more useable – mileage may vary etc, but thats on a couple of lyriks and a pike.

I would be tempted to try the TruTune. I’m 10 Kg heavier with the same forks and experimented with low to high pressures; even the pressures that were 20 psi lower than I now run still felt really nice with decent control. The issue was bottoming out on big jumps and drops so I upped the pressures. I’m guessing she will be running somewhere in the zone I tried…

J-tech are good, friend had a custom tune by them and a tru tune and loves his forks, although he is much heavier than me!

Thanks everyone, looks like we are thinking along the right lines.

(Also – if its a Charger 3 damper, there’s a reason they’ve just released the 3.1, and that’s because the 3 was universally considered to be overdamped.)

I’m going to go & check if it’s a 3 or 3.1 damper. I don’t think it’s the latest 3.1 as it’s a 2023 fork. I think.

@benpinnick That’s interesting thanks, she did indeed buy the bike from you :-) We’re off to Wales at the end of October, I don’t think we’ll have to time to do anything with it before then but might well be in touch when we’re back, in the meantime I’ll check for tokens and make sure the compression is all open. I guess the lighter oil is the first step before going down the re-tuning route, is that something you also would do?

She loves the bike BTW – very happy wife! :-)

Everflow “The Link” will release a bit more travel.  it slightly better balances leg air volume  I bet she can’t get full travel even with no air in  that’s because one leg lower has a far smaller volume  a the link helps with that  and it’s cheap  Mine works. Tru tune does work but doesn’t do a lot for the price. I agree with looking into opening up damping.

Lighter damper oil might help someone above mentioned it’s already 3WT tho. That’s the oil in the damper not the lowers so it needs a bleed after I believe. Supension service territory IMO.
I’d perhaps like to open my damping up. Was planning to ask J-Tech. Considered a coil. Costly but probably ideal.

tru tune is like a minus token. The full size version claims to be like removing 3 tokens. I think that’s exaggeration. Jtech would know. James is a mine of info.

The TruTune and damper tuning are addressing very different issues. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to spend the money on either until you’re sure that your fixing a problem.

TruTune is dealing with ramp up in the air spring. Damper tuning will affect the entire stroke of the fork (and the rebound).

You might benefit from both or from neither.

I’d say your upcoming trip to Wales will be a good way to find out what needs doing. I’d go with your plan of removing any tokens and opening up the damper to start off with. See how you go with that and then decide what doesn’t feel right

Have a look at Luft Fusion air spring, ask the guy if you want more details, he is very helpful: https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3001468/

The TruTune and damper tuning are addressing very different issues. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to spend the money on either until you’re sure that your fixing a problem.

TruTune is dealing with ramp up in the air spring. Damper tuning will affect the entire stroke of the fork (and the rebound).

I’d absolutely agree with this.

But I’d just add that I have a Charger 3 Zeb which was reluctant to get near the full 180mm travel, at any sensible pressure.

I’ve put a TruTune in it and it has improved the air spring greatly, allowing me to use the damping more effectively.

I had a chat with Duncan from Sprung Suspension in the Forest of Dean about all this. A 60 kg rider is probably an outlier but it may apply to me at 79 kg ready to ride.
(I have the “link” and the TruTune I run lower pressure than the RS calculator says and all compression damping fully open. I still only ever find my travel O ring about 30 mm from the top)

Duncan said set 20% sag – don’t try for low speed compliance (comfort) because that will ruin how the fork feels once in the stroke. I can’t say I understood the entire conversation, but it did make be that anyone who can and finds themselves in the area should call by Sprung for a Duncan chat / setup session.