Have a 130mm Yari with RCT3 Charger 2 damper. Even with no tokens it’s still too progressive. Much more than my 140mm Pike RC with 2 tokens in.

Anything I can do?

It’s the damper. You could try using thinner oil in the damper side but other than that it’s changing the damper.

Charger is the standard answer but you could use a Splug (cheaper I think) or a Fast Yariup

Edit – just re-read and realised you’ve already changed the moco out. Are the bushings in your fork smooth if you let all the air out?

Yeah all smooth. If I let all the air out I can get full travel easily. Just ramps up too much.

Is the debonair spring the latest C1 version?

Anything I can do?

Smashpot coil conversion?

You could try reducing the amount of oil in the damper and lower legs. The act as air spings with zero initial psi. As long as there is enough in the lower leg to lubricate and enough in the damper to cover the mechanism its ok. One set of forks i had even 5ml extra in the lower leg led to hydralic lock befire full compression and 10 ml extra in the damper was noticabke

Sounds like you might ba candidate for CarbonAir. Not cheap, but cheaper than a coil. Supposedly its the opposite of a token

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/carbon-air-aims-to-make-air-suspension-more-like-coil-pond-beaver-2021.html

Carbon Air products in bike air suspensions and shocks

Might be a daft question but how much sag are you running and is the compression damping completely open?

I agree, my Yari is just odd damping. I either run it too soft, or have to put up with a real ramping up. It almost ‘chokes’ on really fast hits, just like my old 2002 Manitou Black(!).
I’ve learned to live with it, but next time I’m not buying RS again. We’ve three Fox forks in the house, and even the ‘duff’ damper in the Evo is better IMO.

I bought a splug for my Yari…game changer. run on my trek rail ebike – transformed the front end for £110 bargain i reckon

Had the same issue as Matt above but this solved it.

25% sag. Compression fully open. LSC fully open too. I rarely use pedal or firm modes.

As nick above said, carbon air might be worth a shout. My friend (who is very light and struggles to use full travel) got one at Tweedlove. We did an uplift yesterday and she’s absolutely delighted with it. Really seems to do what it says on the tin. She’s able to run more pressure for better support, but is using more travel than ever.

It almost ‘chokes’ on really fast hits

I’ve always felt like mine goes “wooden” and stops responding on fast, bumpy stuff – I guess you mean the same when you say it chokes.
I’ve just bought the Charger RC2 Damper for mine to try and fix this, I’m hoping it helps.
Is yours the standard Motion Control?

matt_outandabout
Full Member
I agree, my Yari is just odd damping. I either run it too soft, or have to put up with a real ramping up. It almost ‘chokes’ on really fast hits,

That’s exactly what it does, it spikes as it cant handle the oil flow. As far as I can tell RS deliberately hobbled the Yari in this way as old MoCo forks (as much as they had their faults) didn’t spike like that. If the Yari damper didn’t have such a fault it would make for a tricky time for the marketing people trying to sell Lyriks

@phil5556

Yes, standard MoCo damper. Wooden is a good description. It feels OK up to a point, and then just can’t seem to react quick enough. Setting it softer, more tokens, fewer tokens, setting it firmer, winding off rebound, fresh service – tried it all. At high speed on bigger and repetitive hits, it just is out of its depth.

And I am HT, so not as fast as some might be on FS..

Carbonair looks interesting. I wonder if other materials might work.

Setting it softer, more tokens, fewer tokens, setting it firmer, winding off rebound, fresh service – tried it all. At high speed on bigger and repetitive hits, it just is out of its depth.

Its the compression damper, so nothing like that will work. Lighter oil might help. This is why you can just remove the top part of the damper, through it away and drop in a Novyparts Splug or YariUp with minimal effort. The spring is a Lyrik spring so that side is fine

Are your lowers parallel?

I’d strip the fork down leave the seals in but remove the garter springs. Then see if the uppers will drop in under their own weight one at a time.

Then try both legs together.

Then try again with the front wheel in. It’s possible that the lowers are misaligned and there’s more bushing bind lower into the stroke.

I know you said the forks run smoothly without air but it wasn’t clear if that was with or without the wheel.

Could just be the charger damper though.

@matt_outandabout

novyparts splug is what you need. i just swapped out my moco for one and its a different fork. they set the threshold for your weight, bike and riding style (so dont lie!)

lookin forward to BPW at the end of teh month for a proper test.

Are your lowers parallel?

Yep. And done it from day1.

I’m resent splashing out on aftermarket solutions when the fork isn’t exactly bargain basement in price/market position….

@matt_outandabout I’m hoping I’ll really notice the difference, I’ve played around with it plenty over the last few years but not managed to improve it. I’m doing the air spring aswell to up the travel to 140mm.

It’s £220 worth of parts (plus cost of service which is due anyway) so not cheap but reckon I’d have to be spending £500+ to replace the fork.

VanHalen
Full Member

novyparts splug is what you need. i just swapped out my moco for one and its a different fork. they set the threshold for your weight, bike and riding style (so dont lie!)

Even better now as they dont have to tune them individually anymore. They tweaked the construction a bit so you get more adjustment on the dial, so no longer need the customer tuning

How easy/hard is it to change the oil in a charger damper?

How easy/hard is it to change the oil in a charger damper?

super easy with a moco damper: take the damper out and pour out the oil. put new oil in and replace.

if you do have the moco damper you could try the milk bottle shim trick to lower the platform threshold.

Bleeding a charger 2.0/2.1 is pretty straightforward. Syringe with screw in fitting and a T10 torx.

Bleeding a charger 2.0/2.1 is pretty straightforward. Syringe with screw in fitting and a T10 torx.

Thanks. I have a spare bleed kit that’s not been used so might give it a go.

One easy thing to try before getting into the guts is slip a small ziptie under the dust seal to relieve any air trapped in the lowers.
Ultimately the moco damper is trash and a novyparts splug will make it all betterer.