2.3 minion front @ 25psi
2.1 monorail rear @ 28psi

13 stone rider, full susser.

one iron horse mkiii owner here…

…with a freshly cracked rear triangle…

bought it 3 years ago, 5 year warranty, new rear end is winging its way to me…

rides like a bat out of hell, but i dont know if i should cut my losses and trade the frame in once the new rear is bolted on, since i doubt ill be able to get another rear end when it cracks again.

the stroke adjustments would take place inside the damper itself, not the air sleeve.

fox rear shock dampers are nitrogen charged, so unless you have the equipment needed to perform a professional strip down and rebuild of the entire shock, your better off just sending it in for the work to be done properly.

running the shock with a longe rstroke will only do bad things to the frame/geometry of the bike. it will raise the bb, steepen the head angle and possibly create a number of other issues with clearances and stresses in the frame itself…

when people mode shock strokes and lengths its usually to lower and slacken the bike and or limit travel, which is always done with a shorter stroke/length.

tora's are a much cheaper fork, and may have simply been less smooth and so moved less ?

check the flood gate setting, its either a gold dial on top of the RH leg, or its under a plastic cap on the same leg that youll need a small allen key to get to.

turn it fully clockwise and see if its solves your problem.

if not the damper may be low on oil and you should get them looked at.

ill pipe up and throw the cove stiffie into the mix…

though you cant go wrong with a chameleon, a friend has one with a set of 36 talas in it… mean machine….

youll be fine with a medium if your only running 2 chainrings.

the horse will be a nice bike, although the pitch may represent better value for money coponent wise, the iron horse's frame on its own is over 1k to buy seperately. the main reason its going cheap is as you say iron horse are having issues, so spares in the future may be a problem.

personally id stay clear, or ask the nice mr shop man if he'll throw in a spare pivot hardware kit…

im in a similar boat, my full susser is an iron horse mkiii i built up from a frame… and im having major issues getting new pivot hardware for it….

Rorschach…

has your fork been serviced during its life at all ?

the reason i ask is because it is possible to tweak the amount of air in the lower legs when the fork is re-assembled. ive noticed this myself when servicing my own rockshox forks.

the proper way to do it is after mating the threads on the shaft bolts, to pull the fork to full extension and then tighten them up, so the lowers contain air.

the other way to do it is to copress the fork and tighten the shaft bolts while compressed, so then when the fork is extended, a vacuum is formed inside the lower legs which sucks the fork down, like having too much air in the -ve spring.

the oil seals/bushings tend to seal tight enough to trap in the air/maintain this vacuum.

try inverting your fork, loosening the shaft bolts and tap them loose to brake the seal (but dont fully unthread them!), check the fork is fully extended, and then bolt them up again and see if your problem persists.

if you use a post to IS adapter, it adds 20mm to the original mounts disc size.

if your fork is 160mm post, using a post-IS adapter will mean you have to run a 185 disc, although you could add a second adapterunder thefirst adapter to get it up to 203 i wouldnt reccomend bolting 2 adapters together for safety reasons.

most frames have IS rear mounts, so a standard adapter up the rotor size your going to use should be fine.

i think the problem you may be having is due to the cranks, i used to have a set of deus cranks that ate BB's for breakfaast.

the trick with race face setups is that the BB has to be perfectly faced, and you have to make sure your using the correct number of nylon washers on the crank axle. Personally i was cheap, and tried removing a washer to stop the bearings from being squeezed.

2 years later the BB is still going… although admitedly it was switched over to an xt crankset just before xmas… but still, check your not side loding your bearings when you install reinstlal the crank on a new BB.

crank that lockring on as hard as you can… if push comes to shove and the body gets shredded you can get a steel replacement from hope…

i know a 180 front doubles as a 160 rear, so id have though the same applies to 160 front and 140 rear…

first try adding mil of 15wt suspension fuild to the chamber (remove valve core and syringe it in there) leave the fork upside down for a bit and inflate the chamber and see if it holds air – dry air seals dont seal.

It could also be the valve core itself that is loose and leaking.

if its not either of the above then your looking at a seal change…

NB, positive chamber first…

i live local to both, bought my last frame (cove handjob) from two wheels, i wouldnt say im a regular – but ive had nothing but good experiences with them.

race co however, – although pauls a nice enough fella, did seem to want my money, havent been in there for over a year since he fibbed about being able to get iron horse frames, and failing to order a pair of pikes for said frame, even though they were in stock and i was waving cash around trying to spur him into action lol…

two wheels has a strong local following. theyve been there for yonks, and while they may only have 1 or 2 staff on the shop front, they always have several mechanics fettling away in the workshop, they’re rarely short of work.

however ill be surprised if race co is still around in a couple of years…