I’m toying with upgrading the motion control damper in my Yari at some point. Even with no tokens and running around 70psi I find it really ramps up as the fork goes through the travel and I can’t use the last inch of travel. I have a bike that probably is light on the forks as it’s quite long but even in a crash I didn’t get near it. I think I’m finding the fork a little bit spiky in repetitive impacts so would like to upgrade it.

Looking online I’ve found 3 options so far – putting in a charger damper from a lyric, the fast damper upgrade and the avalanche cartridge. The latter is too expensive for me to justify – I’m not sure if I’d be better with the charged or the fast damper upgrade? Both are around £200 or so I think.

Anything else to consider?

I’ve never managed to use more than 90% of mine either.

I fitted a Luftkappe and it made a huge difference, but it didn’t let me use any more travel, just meant I could use more of the mid-stroke and it stopped that spikeness you describe.

I believe you’ve highlighted all the available dampers. I was all set to get the RCT3 damper, but since the luftkappe I haven’t bothered.

Novyparts & Fast both offer €150 damper with hsc tuned for weight & LSC by external dial.

Novyparts one has been excellent so far.

(I tried luftkappe 1st but still wasn’t as good as my pike)

I’m interested in this too. I don’t have a Yari but I will be getting one in the next week. I already have a Pike and a Lyrik and am I’m happy enough with each of those running completely stock internals.
What does this Vorsprung Luftkappe thing do? from a quick google it seems to just be a replacement air piston/sealhead with some sort of integrated top cap taking up the space of one token (is there something else in there?).

I had assumed the Yari being solo air would have the same air side internals as a Pike and Lyrik. Is this not the case?

P-Jay are you saying the spiking you experienced was down to the stock air piston in your fork rather than the damping circuit? If so. Why doesn’t this occur on the stock Lyrik?
Confusing to say the least.

Joebristol. How long have you been riding the Yari? and how much have you played with the air pressure? It took me around 10 rides to find the sweetspot in my Lyrik to allow full travel but remain supportive. I’m fairly sure the fork became more supple during that time too which could possibly be down to seals/bushings etc. breaking in? I’ve ended up running no tokens at all and very specific pressure. As little as 3psi too much and it’d noticably use less travel. 3psi less and I wasn’t happy with that much sag. The fork will only bottom out on an absolutely massive hit. but it will use all the travel when that happens. But only just. No harsh mechanical bottom out.

Now that I am interested. Out of the Rockshox Charger, Fast Damper, Novy parts and Avalanche dampers mentioned who here has used what? which is better? and why?

I’ve just taken a closer look at the Vorsprung Luftkappe. All it seems to do is alter the Air volume ratio between negative and positive chambers in the air spring. Whether that’s beneficial to you or not is entirely personal preference and like I said I’m already happy enough with way I have the air spring set up in my Lyrik so don’t see that being any different with the Yari. So just ignore my question about that.

Just a thought Joe. How much travel does your Yari have? and what do you weigh?
One difference between the damper design of a Yari to that of the Lyrik is that the Yari’s design of damper  creates more ramp up in that side during compression. This actually increases the longer travel the fork is. ie.  . So switching to an open bath damper will not only change the damping. it will lower the progressiveness of the fork.

Luftkappe helped with my Pike, bigger -ve chamber meant i can run more PSI to keep sitting higher in travel, but keeps it nice and plush.

Reduction in +ve chamber means 1less token.

When I got my Yari, I fitted one and found a similar benefit but not as pronounced.

Moco damper in Yari felt fine until fast DH stuff, when it felt rougher than the pike.

Novyparts damper, & a day on a shockwiz had it set up very nice, more controled smoother on rough stuff….. until some shit stoke my bike on Friday!

don’t worry about that last few mm of travel.  if the fork works well for your riding then don’t worry about it.

Geex- I’ve been running the Yari since May 2017 so a fair while. Started wih 2 tokens and gradually removed them so I don’t have any now. 160mm travel on a long bike with a 65.5 degree headangle.

I’vv played with pressures quite a lot. To the extent that it’s soft enough to use around 75-80% if the travel on trails hat aren’t that vigorous – but it still doesn’t use the final 25mm of travel or so on big stuff. Think it’s the damper ramping up.

I don’t think the luftkappe would help me as that’s primarily allowing you to run more pressure but with more negative pressure so the fork gets moving quicker at the start but then ramps up quicker due to higher pressure. So not what I need at the moment!

When I said I only use full travel on the very hardest hits I really meant VERY hardest. like massive heavy landings. Especially nose heavy ones. This isn’t on a long bike though. I’d imaging on a very long bike you’ll ride more centrally over the bike than forwards above the bars (if you know what i mean?) meaning if riding with decent midstroke support you may well never reach full travel unless it goes massively wrong.

Try this: (It’s something i’ve always done when testing a forks’ spring rate and resistance to bottoming)

* find a breaking bump, drainage ditch or some other wheel sized compression that your front wheel would fall into at low speed. (it doesn’t have to be deep. However the shape of the hole needs to cup the wheel enough that you’d feel a bit of a jar from the bars at low speed)

* roll up to the compression at around walking pace pedals and level stood up and let the wheel drop in (just so you know it’s a suitable compression)

* Now repeat that roll in at that same pace and in the same position but this time pre-jump into it (American or proper bunny hop). not too high though! It’s nosing in that matters not the height

*land with your front wheel in the compression and your front brake on. Yes! locked on! (it’s unlikely you’ll fully commit to this first try so repeat it a few times as a warm up/practice.

* Once confidently repeating this also push down through your bars with all your strength and weight forwards above/over the bars.

* repeat until you are fully comitting and pushing down as hard as you possibly can.

Treat this as a challenge. How far off full travel can you get the fork doing this?

I’ve been using this test a very long time so I just go straight to the last step. After 3 or 4 tries I’ve found the maximum travel that the fork settings (pressure/spring weight/compression) will get to.
If you’re a strong rider and ride fast/aggressively and are not afraid to hit big stuff you should be using almost all available travel but not bottoming out the fork harshly.
pansying around or riding smoother trails you’ll never get to that last inch. and rightly so.

hope this helps.

Best upgrade to my Yari’s was selling them and buying something else! Mine had a Luftkappe which was pretty good. If I’m honest, I’m not sure why I bought them because I’ve never really got in with RS forks and hated the Moco damper when it was first released. Didn’t like my Boxxers with charger damper either.

The Yari’s do ramp up an awful lot. I ran mine without volume spacers. I started with two as suggested and they were awful.

The novyparts damper meant I could run 2 tokens & a luftkappe & it still ramps less than moco & no tokens

Geex – you suggestion sounds like a sure fire way to jar my slightly messed up shoulder (had the tissue reattached to the bone but it’s not 100% back to its original strength) or go over the handlebars!

I wouldn’t mind not hitting full travel – it’s more that I’m getting nowhere near it. Not even when I’ve crashed / hit the upside of a mound really hard (jarring my shoulder / nearly going over the bats) / landing a drop off a little too heavily etc.

I do have a new linkage for the rear of my bike to take it from 145mm travel up to 160mm (although it also lowers the BB/ slackens the head angle more / ups how progressive the rear shock is) which I might fit first and see how that changes things.

I think I’m still interested in an upgraded fork damper at some point this year if funds allow.

If you’re desperate to use more travel simply run less air pressure in the fork.They’ll sag more, ride deeper into their travel and won’t be as supportive in the mid stroke.

The advice I’ve given you is basically just sharing a way of replocating a high speed hit somewhere flat (and safe) where you can try different spring rates (or fork pressures) without having to go and ride something gnarly and guess what’s going on. If your shoulder can’t take that it can’t take a bottom out hit while riding either so now I’m somewhat confused as to why you’re even asking for advice.

Geex – don’t get me wrong I appreciate any advice given – just think I’d have to be careful about how I tested the forks in the way you suggested. My shoulder may be fine with it, but when you dislocated it multiple times and had it fixed brought surgery it just makes you a bit careful with it / nervous 😬

Yeah. if in doubt. er on the side of caution.
But I wouldn’t go spending loads of money on suspension upgrades when your body’s at half strength.
Especially when simply softening up your fork by running lower pressure might do the trick until you’re healed up fully.
Remember. it’s a 160mm fork. it’s meant for riding hard.

Rarely use all the travel in my 160 Yari, usually on a sketchy landing.  Stuck the Luftkappe in and it’s great. A lot more supportive and less dive especially on slow steep stuff. The best bit though is how it tracks the trail surface so much better at all speeds. I might experiment dropping the pressure back down to use more travel more often but very happy in how the fork feels considering the damper – don’t get too hung up on using all the travel

i think the latest 2018 Pike and Lyrik now have something similar?