Locking your fork ? Any point ?

nickfrog

Hiya,
I have a poploc remote thingy on my Rebas but removed it as I always forgot to unlock the forks when going down. Unless you race XC (does anyone do that nowadays?), does anyone seriously use that function ?
I guess you save a bit of energy but I guess you also lose comfort and grip.
I understand they are still active and you can even adjust the threshold and that there is also a remote to adjust the threshold at the bars. Seriously ????????

Dick Scruttock

nickfrog wrote:

Hiya,
I have a poploc remote thingy on my Rebas but removed it as I always forgot to unlock the forks when going down. Unless you race XC (does anyone do that nowadays?), does anyone seriously use that function ?
I guess you save a bit of energy but I guess you also lose comfort and grip.
I understand they are still active and you can even adjust the threshold and that there is also a remote to adjust the threshold at the bars. Seriously ????????

So you forget to unlock the forks going downhill? Sounds to me like you should be on a fully rigid bike tbh.

TheKrikkitWars

I use the lockout on my RC36's all the time (it's a simple locked/open affair unlike poplock). If you're climbing steep ground at a slow pace with a lot of weght to the front, then the forks start to compress as you mash the pedals. If what I'm climbing is not steep enough to force me out of the saddle, then lockout is just the icing on the efficiency cake.

ricardo_smooth

so in other words......yes....lots of point!

nickfrog

Rick Draper wrote:

Sounds to me like you should be on a fully rigid bike tbh.

I am considering it really, in a search for even more simplicity and riding purity (I am now even riding 1x9). I live on the South Downs and even suspension forks are not always particularly useful as I only ride 2/3 hours. The downhills are so short, fully rigid should slow me down a bit and make them last longer. Also, smoking your average £3K FS bike riden by Dave from accounts will be even more fun I guess.

Buckled_Rims

I use it on my Toras. I do find it useful for climbing and flat roads. But it's not a critical accessory and I'm not sure it makes me any faster either. I just like the feeling of a bit of stiffness up front...oh dear did I just say that? :oops:

supersonic

I ride a lot with my Toras fully locked, or nearly fully locked. WIth this particular sytem, motion control, you get 20mm of travel to soak up buzz, and a blow off valve for bigger hits. No wallow when pedalling. No brake dive.

weeksy59

I must have locked mine 20+ times at Afan yesterday. In simplest terms.. if it improves efficiency, for the 3 seconds it takes.. Why not

.blitz

supersonic wrote:

I ride a lot with my Toras fully locked, or nearly fully locked. WIth this particular sytem, motion control, you get 20mm of travel to soak up buzz, and a blow off valve for bigger hits. No wallow when pedalling. No brake dive.

+1

jayson

I bike to work everyday of the week and i always lock my forks out for the road section then unlock it as i cut through the woods.

njee20

Unless you race XC (does anyone do that nowadays?),

I race a lot of XC, and never ever lock my fork out. In fact I took the MoCo damper out of my Rebas, I always ran the Flood Gate wide open, so it wasn't doing much, particularly without a cable attached! Saves about 115g, which isn't bad. I'll do the same on my SIDs when I get round to it!

nickfrog

njee20 wrote:

Unless you race XC (does anyone do that nowadays?),

I race a lot of XC, and never ever lock my fork out. In fact I took the MoCo damper out of my Rebas, I always ran the Flood Gate wide open, so it wasn't doing much, particularly without a cable attached! Saves about 115g, which isn't bad. I'll do the same on my SIDs when I get round to it!

Hiya,
Do you mean 115g including the weight saving of the remote and cable or 115g weight saving purely through removing the MoCo damper ? How easy is to remove it ?
I thought it also provided damping for the main spring and did not realise there was a specific device dedicated to the lock out. Cheers. Nick

bike-a-swan

Use mine mostly for tarmac or other smooth stuff. I've also found it pretty good for absolutely flat out stand up 'cough your lungs out' level sprints which would tend to pogo it all over the place otherwise. These don't usually last long and I can yank the bike over roots for that short period.

njee20

Well theoretically it will affect the compression damping, but I personally couldn't tell the difference, I'm certainly not a 'faffer' when it comes to forks, Tim Flooks nearly had a heart attack mind. Rebound damping is totally unaffected.

Very easy to do, 22mm (IIRC) socket, or large adjustable on top cap, undo, remove MoCo damper, buy and fit alternative top cap. I used an air one, like on the LH leg, you could adjust the compression damping by adding air.

Ends up looking like this, much neater! It was 115g from the MoCo damper, not including the lever and cable, I didn't have that fitted anyway.

I wouldn't necessarily listen to me, I'm sure people will be along to tell me what effect it would have had, but I used the fork for 2 years and won several races with it, certainly didn't cause me a problem!

rieko

If im riding on road or up a steep climb i tend to lock my forks out. I dont want my forks to absorb all my energy.

mackie1

AFAIK you can't just remove the lockout bits and save weight, it's all part of the damper assembly. I may be wrong but by removing it you remove all damping (including rebound). Or is the rebound handled by a different unit?

njee20

Rebound is a different unit, that was what concerned me.

Edit: or it was on my Reba World Cups, I've yet to find out if it is on new SIDs. As it's the Black Box MoCo there'll be less weight saved, so I've not tried yet!

mackie1

In that case it's not that barmy really. Plenty of forks on the market with no compression damping and with a dual air spring you can tune things pretty well without.

My 2010 Rev Teams have a clicky dial but I only really ever use fully open or fully locked out, I can't really see much benefit with the other 5 or so positions. I guess it could be useful if you find yourself bottoming out on the trail and need to stiffen it up a tad on the fly.

njee20

That was my theory, I didn't have the lever fitted, as I never used it when it was fitted, it just cluttered the bars and made race numbers hard to fit, ergo the MoCo was just dead weight!

wesk

Hmm, want to sell your remote lockout for the rebas?
I like rigid bikes uphill so dial in lockout on the crown currently.
Seriously, PM me if interested.

njee20

Afraid I sold it long ago, if I take the one out of my SID I'll hang onto it, makes the fork easier to sell I suspect!

cat_with_no_tail

I use the lock out on my Pikes quite a lot, same with the U-Turn function.

blister pus

i was convinced i'd never use the poploc on my recon 351s but genuinely find it useful and use it all the time. i've managed to train myself to remember the lock is on, i figured if i can drive a car remembering to press a button / thumb a lever down shouldn't be beyond me.

Mark Elvin

I used to have my RC36's locked out 90% of the time. So I replaced them with a rigid carbon fork.

MrChuck

Handy for long fireroad climbs or if you have a few miles of tarmac to get to the trails, so not a waste of time.
That said the poploc on my Rebas is often gummed up and I probably woudln't miss it too much if it broke.

njee20

I guess fork length is a factor, with 100mm of travel they just don't really bob too much. Saying that even when I had some 140mm Foxes I'm not sure I ever locked them out, just never feel the need with my riding style.

paulrockliffe

I use mine a lot on my Thors, but it isn't really a lock out. It's a second compession damping setting, which I set to be a little compliant, rather than completely jammed up. Good for standing up and sprinting, when out and about. But if I was racing I would probably leave them int hat setting the entire race.

supersonic

IMHO it is the moco that makes these forks lol. Wide range of ste up options, a and af ull range of compression damping from fully open, to fully locked.

FLoodgate sets the blow off force.

njee20

Yep, and if you don't have the cable in the lockout (which I never do!) then the Floodgate becomes fairly irrelevant, so you may as well ditch the damper!

On that note, I'm going to order a new top cap for my SIDs, and do those too, even with the Black Box MoCo I reckon that'd gotta save 80g or so.

ExTrEmE BiKeR

i dont have lockout. if i want make my fork really stiff (almost comparable to a lockout) i just put compression all the way up

supersonic

I ccouldn't run the damper without any compression as the brake dive and bob would annoy me.