Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I'm jealous of your ability to notice the difference!

I bought one with the frame so ok for now.

I figured it was snaked oil. But you know what isn't snake oil? Shiny stantions. Mmm. just like my shhiny shiny forehead.

Is spraying stantions with silicoin lube ilke liekyl likely fuck to fuck something up?

Spray onto cloth, then wipe onto stanchions will avoid slippery stuff contaminating brake pads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysXMUj7XJ5Q

I'm not hosing down my rotors dude. I'm talking about the boingy bits.

I'm just wondering if the silly con lube can mess with internals of the forks.

Juice Lubes Fork Juice is pretty much just silicone spray.

I've been using it on fork seals for years with no noticeable problems. That's not to say that it actually does anything and helps!
When I get back from a ride I give the seal area and stanchions a wipe down then spray some of the fork Juice around the seal and bounce the fork a few times. Same goes for the dropper post seal.

You can, but it's not great. I had quite bad stiction using motor oil, which was resolved switching to a motorbike fork oil instead.

Also, the rubber bung on the syringe I was using to squirt it in the legs ended up swelling so badly that it doubled in size. Presumably that's what was happening to the fork seals too

I used 0-30 fully synth in my son's Reba. Seems fine. The lower leg lubrication is basically an oil bath. Motor oil is probably vastly over specced for this.

Edit to add.. from what I can gather the oil needs to be fully synth to avoid seal damage

Stanton bikes are in administration.

Ah, shame. They bit off more than they could chew I think what with all the custom paint and wild FS stuff.

Sadly one wonders who's next in bikeco.

Did a longish gravel ride today on the 29er just to get some miles in on it and noticed that for small bumps it seems to do fuck all. I see the bottom of the fork wobbling, like a rigid fork would but don't notice any vertical shock movement. Since I never use the whole travel is it worth doing something like lowering pressure or some other internal voodoo so it might be smoother on little bumps? Oh, it's due its first service so I could spec an oil change or something if that might make a difference? I think it's already running ~9psi below their recommended setting for my system weight.

I'm gonna use this for the AMR so think long distance and I won't be taking any risks on anything technical (read: lots of walking). If I lock it out for the flatter/smoother stuff, I'm thinking comfort over efficiency for when it's in bouncy mode (my hands are the most common thing to get caned on the MTB)

You could stick some tokens in it, then lower pressure a bit. That would give you better small bump compliance (FYI, a piece of gravel is too small to be considered a bump) and the tokens would ensure you don't smash through all the travel. It will, however, feel like total shit in the midstroke so don't expect lots of support if you're cornering hard

Also, servicing it will help. As will dropping a couple of psi from your tyres.

I thought tokens were for people smashing big drops that ran out of travel. Pressure was probably high in the tyres, but it was a gravel ride. Wouldn't that make it more likely for the shock to move?

I also don't corner hard. I don't trust shit off-road - grip, tyres, my ability to pick the line I should, my ability to stay on the line I wanted in the first place, etc. I don't know how it's supposed to feel but I seem to have to 'get over it and bounce it' or hit something bigger before it moves at all. Just assume it'd move a bit more on little potholes and stuff. Maybe not, but if it could, would it save my hands a bit?

It almost seem 'grippy' at the start of the compression. Maybe it's just in my head.

Suspension is always a compromise somewhere, so lowering pressure to get you extra small bump compliance means you either bottom out a lot, or you can add some tokens and progression at the end of the stroke. If you're banging into potholes and it's not moving though, that sounds like you need to service it. Fresh oil and grease, some new foam rings, should feel loads better.

I've never bottomed it out and I can definitely make it move if I stand up and bounce it but I just figured I'd see a bit more movement on the smaller bumps. I won't be servicing it so I'll see what Bike Mechanic Guy says.

Fwiw, my 170mm coil fork doesn't really move until I've got some weight over the front and am hitting objects that are at least 3-4cm big. Until then, it's the tyres doing to bump absorption.

This is (what I thought was) a pretty lightweight SID Ultimate 120mm. God damn, why can't I have everything?!

I'm going to try some of those ugly Ergon grips to help my hands but that also means I need to lose the SID grip lockout for a lever (or no lockout).

Or just drop your pressure until it feels better. There's no hard and fast rule with suspension setup, other than doing what your body tells you is right

And that you can't have it all!

Also drop the compression damping. Heck, turn it as close to off as you can.

I'll try and get it serviced in Jan before Atlas and then play around with lower pressures.

@Howard Where might I find that adjustment. JFGI hippy...

https://trailhead.rockshox.com/en/

"Rockshox reckon I need 109psi and -4 clicks rebound" when I last did it.
According to my cheap shock pump it's at about 100psi

drop the compression damping

Where might I find that adjustment. JFGI hippy...

If you don't know you probably don't have it.

In that case, drop all the rebound damping and see how it feels. Even try adding a touch more pressure. It might be that it's packing down and can't rebound to a point where it can react to small impacts again. If it feels OK with less (or more!) pressure start to dial the rebound back in.

Says "comp" on it

It can't be "packing down" if it's not moving for any of the small bumps though, right? This was a gravel ride not an MTB. It's not like it was getting any big hits.

Time to bung on a Laugh, sorry Lauf.

Nah, pretty sure mine just has lockout on the right, valve on the left and a rebound thingie on the bottom. Maybe the other leg has something on it. Dunno. 50 page manual for Rockshox suspension tuning indicates that I will not be suspension tuning any time soon.

"We recommend Plush 10wt for the lower fork service on both SID and Pike forks. It is very similar to the 0w-30 we produce for Rock Shox and slightly better at friction reduction. Plush 10wt is considered an upgrade from the RS 0w-30.
If you want to further reduce friction at the lower fork, apply a thin coat of Maxima Assembly lube to the lower fork bushings and saturate the foam rings with AL during assembly.
Let us know if you have any other questions.
Thank you for choosing Maxima"
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/fork-more-or-less-air-volume-vs-tokens.1177064/