Fox Talas RL Problem

fsr07

Hi all,

I have a 2007 Fox Talas RL fork with a very strange issue. On trail performance is fine, however when I'm either on road or a smooth trail the problem that I'm experiencing rears is ugly head. The fork will gradually bottom out when riding on the road or a smooth trail like a rail trail, fire road etc.

It slowly sinks down from full height (even at 140mm) so much that there is only about an inch of slider tube visible out the top of the fork leg. If I bounce up and down on the fork it will pop back up, sometimes to full height sometimes only half extension. If stop the bike, get off the bars it will come back to full height.

As I mentioned when on normal trials with bumps, rocks, roots it generally performs as expected.

Rebound is set to the middle click or so and I've tried the PSI starting from 90 up to 140. I weigh around 230lbs.

Does anyone out there have any idea what might be going here? It's driving me nuts!!

GHill

When was the last time you had them serviced?

stumpyjon

Sorry, does sound like they want a good service. Ironically I had the opposite problem with mine, I'd start a rocky descent with 140mm of travel and ended up with 100mm at the bottom (assuming I hadn't gone over the bars). The TALAS forks can be a pain to service and it does sound like the left leg needs stripping. My advice is to send them to TFTuned, it'll set you back £ 110 but you'll get them back fixed within 48hrs. When they fixed mine the found the seals had swollen which was why mine weren't returning properly when I put the travel back up (the travel loss was a different issue which they also fixed ).

fivelittlefish

Hmmm - I have a new pair of Talas 140's - a couple of months old. I always have to get off the bike to get them to return to full travel after winding them down and then releasing them again. Mojo told me it was normal.

Or is this a different issue?

stumpyjon

Certainly not normal on my 32's. I can get them to return on the fly, come back quicker if I lift the front end but they return anyway with the suspension action. As I said when TFT serviced mine they told me they weren't returnung easily because the seals had swollen. Since getting them back they've been fine.

fsr07

What I'm experiencing is not slight sinking but right down so that only an inch or so upper tube is visible above the lower legs. I did some research last night and found what appears to be the solution.

The issue is in fact an o-ring in the travel adjuster assembly which is at the top of the Talas side of the fork. The assembly includes the schraeder valve. This is from the fox tech site at: http://service.foxracingshox.com/consumers/index.htm

Replace this O-Ring if the TALAS forks sinks past normal sag adjustment statically, although it will be more noticeable at the longest travel setting (i.e., 140mm or 130mm).

The quote above exactly describes the problem I'm having so I can only hope that it will fix it. It's really uncomfortable to ride when hunched way over the bars due to losing 3+ inches of ride height to this sinking situation. I'm going to attempt the service procedure from the URL above and will report back my success or failure.

stumpyjon

Just be careful, if you need to depressurise the negative chamber you really need a special tool and resetting the travel adjust when you put it back togther can be a black art as well.