Vorsprung Smashpot – fitted.

Really easy to install as long as you have the correct tools.
Feels very nice so far but only riding outside of my house – maybe need the 40lb spring instead of the 45lb – There is one issue but I’m not sure whether it’s normal or not until I’ve spoke to TF or Vorsprung tomorrow – there is a noticeable topout knock/noise underlight movement of the fork, this is not noticeable once your full weight is on the bike and you are moving. Slowing the rebound to too slow does not remove the noise but full rebound damping does clear it.

Any ideas greatly received 🙂

What’s the top out spring like? Don’t think I’ve noticed it in any photos

Quite small, you can see it on their website.

How many preload washers have you got on the spring?

two x 20mm = 40mm for 170mm travel
Just added the 2mm x 2 to see what happens – it’s the same.

You got the 9mm of shaft showing when you fitted the spring?
If it doesn’t top out when you’re actualy riding is it a problem?

9mm showing, not noticeable when riding.

I’ve seen the video in pm, likely it’s a blown shim or leaky damper looking at the rebound speed at 6 clicks from fully closed.

Not a real problem then.
Coil forks are always a bit noisy.
Edit.
Not seen any of that so my comments are pointless.

They don’t visually top out that loud, it’s as loud as my PUSH when I open the damper fully – but at 6 from closed. Fully closing the low speed ports fixes it and finally slows the fork downn, but the setting at 6 from fully closed is crazy fast to me. So IMO, bent high speed rebound shim.

it’s not on social media or ever has been!!

Raybanwomble – Thanks for your thoughts on the video I sent you, just got a reply from Steve at Vorsprung (great customer service on a Sunday!) so a few things to check with regard to pre-load etc. Will let you know result 🙂

Be interested to see your results and what you did.

Unfortunately I’m working away from home from tomorrow until Thursday night, so not much I can do till then.

Interested how you get on with the 45lb spring, I was unsure between the 40 and 45 but went 40. Waiting for some tools to arrive in order to assemble mine.

TF tuned via email seemed to suggest that the spring alone weighs about 400g so 600g extra weight all in fitted to the fork

Minus about 100g from the the airspring – which is what my 170mm Fox 36 air shaft weighed. The Spring kit for my ACS3 weighed 400g as well but only added about 300g to the total weight. The extra oil will of course add a bit more.

250g to 450g of extra weight depending on the spring rate sounds about right to me based on my experience with the ACS3.

45lb spring in the bag is 337g.

Anyone got a 29er 150mm debonair shaft they’ve taken out they want to sell?

Needs to be 100% scratch free obvs.

how is it? mini review?

So, it’s sorted now! Very critical that you do not pre-load the spring at all, just snug the spring collar up to the spring to stop any vertical movement, the spring can move laterally on the collar and spacer but that’s not a problem.
Feels very smooth so far but I’ve only managed a blast round my cul de sac 🙂

Will report again once I’ve been into Wharny.

Think I may need the 40lb spring not the 45lb I ordered.

What grease did you use for the spring? I’ve got sram pm600 military grease which I’m hoping will be ok.

I used SRAM Butter, you don’t want anything in there that may swell the seal, bushings etc.
RSP stuff for forks from TFT or the recommended Slik Honey.

<p>ok you must all have been smashing it with your new forks over the weekend? How is it?</p>

Anyone else keep reading the name of the product as ‘spamshot’ ?

I’m really liking mine after a couple of rides. A bit of noise from the spring but grip is fantastic and fork feels really plush.

Really pleased;

Much more comfortable through rocky sections, as I’m able to run less compression damping but able to control the amount of travel used off drops and heavy landings with the “Bottom out” adjuster. Plenty of mid stroke Pop for hitting jumps as well – can’t go wrong! Haven’t noticed the weight increase so far to affect my enjoyment of trail riding.
Got a bit of noise from the top out spring preload but that’s getting cured – Steve at Vorsprung has been great at responding to questions and setup and TF are providing their usual excellent service.

Get one – forget the weight increase, it’s the ride characteristics that count.

cheers. I have got one, just not fitted yet!

cheers. I have got one, just not fitted yet!

Before assembling the parts(and covering the shaft with heat shrink) pay particular attention to the preload on the top out spring – make sure the top out spring turns easely, otherwise you’ll need to fit a different preload spacer to the top out spring (a kit will be available from TF very soon). In the meantime making sure there’s no preload at all on the main spring reduces the noise/clunk to hardly noticeable.

I think I may well fit one of these to my Hightower soon, £100 less than Push makes it more appealing, though it’s about 140g heavier than the Push.

My 29er came with 150mm forks rather than the standard 140mm, so I may take the Smashpot as an opportunity to set it to the factory 140mm to see if it makes the bike more manageable on steep technical ups. Easy enough to set it back to 150mm with this kit if I prefer the longer travel.

@cyclelife someone else is fitting it for me 🙂

Got a bit of noise from the top out spring preload but that’s getting cured – Steve at Vorsprung has been great at responding to questions and setup and TF are providing their usual excellent service.

To be clear for the others, I did not think that the top out on your fork when I tried was any worse than my ACS3’s – you hear it if you depress the fork a few mm but not after deep compression.

how are we getting on my smashpot brothers and sisters?   I’m taking mine for a super quick test on saturday morning before leaving for finale where i can really test it.

Anything to think about? How many clicks from fully closed are you running for bottom out? and changes to other settings? any changes to tyre pressure? Damper settings?

bump. enjoying mine!

3 rides in for me. So far it feels great. I’ve wound full bottom out resistance on as a startign point and notice that I have 20mm left to go after the rides so far. I’ve left my damper as before, it’s a Charger 2 damper upgrade (originally tuned for a Debonair spring) so assume it may need some fiddling to get it to its best.

Tyre pressures stay the same (based on my normal of mid-twenties) I’d suggest you really need to know your onions before things like that would be affected.

The one issue for me is that I seem to be getting a spring rattle mid stroke. Initially I thought it was the rear coil spring (new bike build) but it’s not that so I’m thinking it’s the fork. I paid extra for TF to assemble the Smashpot so all I had to do was drop it in so am happy that all is put together correctly.

I guess this is just the spring flexing under compression and rattling on the inside of the stanchion and nothing to worry about.

Not getting any rattling on mine, and i assembled it myself.
Mine went into a new Yari chassis, with the upgraded ‘YariUp’ damper and smashpot fitted.

I had to return the spring and go for a lower LBS rate as it was way too stiff. Even the one which is 5lbs lower than the chart recommends is pretty stiff. I may even get another one to test which would be 10lbs lower than suggested.

So far it feels great, but hot hugely different to my other coil forks (Ohlins coil in the trail bike, and previous marzocchi 55RC3 ti on the enduro bike)

I reckon, with a lower spring rate, dialling in more bottom out resistance and with a reasonable level of mid speed compression (available on the YariUp) using very little slow-speed compression, it’ll sit very nicely into the mid travel without blowing through too quickly, whilst being very compliant over the small to mid sized chattery stuff.

Great upgrade for an air fork, to bring it inline with coil plushness, but not a miracle-in-a-box.

I’ve only one a couple of rides for me (in a 2015 Fox 36) but really appreciating it so far. I’ve often had coil trailbike forks before- Lyriks for a long time, and I built a coiled Revelation blackbox out of Sektor parts- and, well, it’s like those really. That version of the 36 was quite a sticky fork anyway and I was never totally happy with that but I really like the damping, so it’s a best-of-both solution for me.

Still got a slightly gimped wrist from a break last year, and it makes a whole lot of difference to fatigue, that alone’s totally worth it and while I’m mostly noticing it because of the dodgy wrist, it’ll always be there.

All in all- glad I did it, wish it was cheaper. I dropped down a spring rate to 40, because the 45 that I wanted was out of stock and I was between the two, tbh it might be slightly too soft but the recommendations weren’t far off.

Stu, got any old boxxer springs with the wrappy plastic still on? Might help the knockers.

Scruff, was going to put another wrap or two of heat shrink on the spring, just waiting to hear any tips TF have.

what kind of bottom out resistance settings are people using? i’m finding i can use less h and lsc , which is grand . fox 36 from 2018