Getting all my fork travel

alomac

I've had my Trek 6300 and its RS Dart 3 for a little over a month, but I don't seem to be getting all of the Dart's 100mm travel. In the fork FAQ supersonic mentioned that the fork should bottom out 'once or twice a ride' as a sign that it's using all of its travel effectively, but depite riding some rather rocky and rooty trails I've never once had a bottom out. I measured the high-tide mark on the staunchion (?) after my last ride, and if that's anything to go by,never moves more than 60mm.

I don't think I have enough sag dailed in on the preload yet, but from reading around, I get the idea that fixing this, it won't affect this particular issue.

Does any of this sound right? I've never ridden a suspended bike before so I have no basis for comparison, but I've always been happy with the way it actually performs on the trail.

Cheers,
Adam.

supersonic

How much do you weigh, and what is your current measured sag?

alomac

Thanks for replying! I weigh 87kg in my birthday suit, which is 13.7 stone. The measured sag with just me on the bike (no tool kit, water bottle etc.) is 10mm. The Dart 3 manual stipulates that it should be 15-25mm.

Cheersm
Adam.

supersonic

They can be quite heavily sprung, and stiff to operate. You may need a softer spring (some were fitted with firm as standard) - or try servicing the fork.

Of course, wind all the preload off to start and see how you get on.

naefearjustbeer

My forks only bottomed out once when I went down the black VTOL section of Golspie. Up until that time on more sedate XC runs I was know where near using my full travel. I think I would be worried if they were bottoming out more often on easier stuff.

The Rookie

If your only getting 10mm of sag, setting that to the recomended average of 20mm will see your travel at 70mm....

Agree with SS though, it may have the firmer spring and/or you're just not putting the hits into it to get it to 100mm

Simon

xtreem

I can confirm that you have firm spring.
A mate here has a Dart 3, I have Dart 2, I can get 80-90mm of the travel by just compressing
the fork with my hands, but on my mate's 3 I could barely compress the fork more than
40mm. He's the around your weight or more and he's not getting the most of the travel, 70max.

But trust me, you don't want to bottom out the Dart 2 or 3, you'll damage the oil damping cartridge.

alomac

This definately matches my experience. With preload wound all the way off, I can only get 15mm of sag, and I can't manually compress the fork more than 30mm even by putting all my weight on it.

Given the warning about bottoming it out, and given that I've never actually been unhappy with the damping on the trails, I think I'll just leave it alone. Maybe in six months or more, when I'm a better rider and have a better idea of what I want from a bike, I'll upgrade the fork altogether. For now, though, I'll just keep having fun with the bike as it is.

Cheers,
Adam.

sparkov

I had a very similar problem with a Dart 2 on a Trek 4500 I bought back in February. I asked about it here too:

Link to my original post

In the end my local bike shop sent the fork away for repair and when I got it back there was a huge difference - I can now easily compress the fork to 80-90mm just by throwing my weight down on the handlebars. Before it never once went past 40mm. Nobody could tell me what the fault was but I suspect it was something to do with the lockout. This is my first bike with a suspension fork and I too didn't really know what to expect from it; I wasn't sure if it was faulty or if it was working as it should - glad I took it back.

I'd recommend taking it back to the shop and letting someone have a proper look at it.

l_a_l_z

i had this problem with dart 3 but i did loads of drops of big stairs onto concrete and big jumps. they are a lot softer but still i am upgrading them, not comfy enough for me