|   Paging Quasimoto owners...... | doctordirt2000
Feb 16, 2002 5:15 PM | | I want to know if anyone has found a front shock travel setting that works well with both the 4.5 and 5.9 in the rear for general cross country riding. I currently have a fox Vanilla 125 set up with a full 5 inches in front. It seemed to feel better with the longer travel setting in back. I am wondering if altering the travel in front to 100 mm will make it handle a little quicker and work nice in the 4.5 setting as well as the 5.9. Any thoughts? Also I wonder which spring rate setting people are running? I am using a Vanilla Rl on the back too.
I have hardly put many miles on the bike or taken it off this dreadful Long Island place, but so far it is a lot of fun!
Thanks for your thoughts. |
| re: Paging Quasimoto owners...... | Nat
Feb 16, 2002 10:36 PM | | I also have the Vanilla 125 fork. I ran the fork at 105mm for awhile, just to see how it felt. The steering was quicker, but I kept bottoming out the fork too easily, so I'm going to stay at 125.
I'm currently using the 4.5" mode in back because the trails I've been riding lately are relatively smooth and I like the more "crisp" feeling in the rear. I think the new 2001 style plates with the 2" travel shock give a bit more than 4.5" (at least the travel feels deeper than it did with the old plates), so I think I'm getting something like 5" front/5" rear.
The newer style rear link plate has the settings such that the bike's overall geometry doesn't change whether you're in short or long travel mode, whereas a few years ago it did change the geometry. How old are your linkage plates?
I have the firm spring in the fork (green?) and a 650lb coil in back on a 2" stroke Vanilla R shock set at rising/falling pivot. I'm 180# plus 10# Camelbak.
Do you have any pics of your bike? |
| Nice Bike! | doctordirt2000
Feb 17, 2002 7:01 AM | | THanks for posting your reply with a pic. I wish I had one of mine. Hopefully soon.
My bike is a 2001 model with the 2002 vanilla RL. The spring is 700 lbs and I weigh about 165 plus gear so figure atleast 170. The rear spring seems fine. In full rising rate I got near full travel on a nasty xc course, but I changed it to rising falling for now. I agree the travel feels pretty bottomless . I probably get at least 4.5 on average hits in this setting.
Thats pretty interesting that you say there is no geometry change in the newer bikes when you change rear travel. It did feel different. I wonder if that is due to less sag.
I need to check what color spring mine has. I didn't get a bunch of them with my fork from titus so I assume the stock one is medium. It DOES go through travel fast! I was wondering about that if I reduce the travel. I used it nearly all up doing some small front wheel drop in stuff in a dry river bed and was amazed. Never got full travel on a fork before! DO you find the compression dampening to do much?
Aside from the bottoming issue, how did the bike handle with the shorter travel? |
| Thanks | Nat
Feb 17, 2002 8:24 AM | | I bet the different sag did cause the change in geometry. I need to preload the coil a couple of turns more in 6" mode due to the different leverage.
My fork only came with one spring instead of three, but Fox sent me spares when I called them. Mine came with the heavy rate instead of the medium because there was a shortage of mediums at the time of assembly (per Fox). When I went to 105mm on the fork (it's safe to do that instead of 100mm by rearranging the spacers, also per Fox), the bike did handle nicely. You'll need to use the next stiffer spring whenever you shorten the travel.
I have the Vanilla R model because I don't believe in compression damping and I'd never use lockout unless on pavement, and I rarely ride on pavement with this bike. My fork only had a few cc's of oil in it from the factory, so you might want to check yours. When I tried to buy more, Fox said that their fork oil wasn't available for retail sale yet. I suspect that they had a shortage of the oil too at assembly time, and was trying to ration it out so they could get more forks out on the shelves. |
| Thanks | doctordirt2000
Feb 17, 2002 4:46 PM | | Thanks for the tips Nat. I should give Fox a call. I take it they didn't charge you for those springs. The instructions with the manual are not the greatest. Is it a hastle to take apart? Do you need to take anything else off but the top caps?
I proably don't need the lock out, and wouldn't have gotten it but Allen at Titus recommended the compression dampening.
Hope you got a ride in this weekend. Dr-D |
| Thanks | Nat
Feb 17, 2002 5:23 PM | | There wasn't any charge for the springs. Try to figure out which spring you have in there now, because Fox wasn't sure which one they put in mine and asked me to take a look first.
The first time I took mine apart, I spent probably an hour doing so. I went slowly so I could really inspect the parts and figure out what went where and how it all worked. Now it takes maybe 15 minutes. It's not too difficult if you're mechanically inclined, but it can be messy. There are a couple more steps with the RLC than with the R, but I doubt it'd be much more difficult.
By the way, the manual says to remove the bottom nut PART way then tap with a mallet to drain the oil. If you do so, you may end up with a stuck nut, a rod that spins freely, and the ensuing feeling of panic. That's what happened to me and at least one other guy on this site. Now I remove the nut the whole way before tapping up the rod to let the oil drain. There's a thread from a couple weeks ago in which we discussed this malady. Page me before you work on yours if you'd like. |
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