Are my new RockShox Reba SL's broken?

bigface

Hi,

Complete newbie here, so firstly hello! I bought a 2010 Boardman "Team" MTB (hard tail) from Halfords yesterday. I had done a bit of research, probably not as much as I should have, but enough to know that going to Halfords may or may not have been my first mistake. Still, the guy who helped me was genuinely into his bikes and I hoped it would be OK.

I've not taken it out yet, it's still sat in my hallway looking too shiny. But I was having a look at it last night and I'm not sure all is well.

The first thing was that the lockout on the forks doesn't seem to work. It stiffens them up, sure - but by no means "locks" as I would have expected.

I've tried to adjust the internal floodgate control (2.5mm hex under the pop-out plug) to stiffen it up, but it just seems to turn freely - i.e. it never tightens. Surely that's not right?

I've read about a common issue with Rebas where the oil leaks through into the lower dampening chamber which - from what I've seen - is fixable but means it's likely to reoccur. I'm worried this might be what's happening here, and if so I want to just throw the bike back at Halfords and start again. Equally I might be being a numpty somehow.

Perhaps more importantly I want to take the bike out, preferably now!

If anyone can help shed some light I'd appreciate it! Cheers!

The Northern Monkey

Lockout wont completely lock out the forks... There will always be a bit of movement.

bigface

OK - I have some sort of comparison here as I bought my other half a Boardman at the same time (different forks, still RockShox though). The lockout on her bike more or less locks completely (tiny bit of movement). Mine stiffens it up quite a lot, but ultimately I can still compress the forks to their full extent. That's the amount of movement we're talking about.

Also a bit concerned about the floodgate control turning freely?

dan shard

If you're talking about what I think you are, the oil leaking causes the fork to have partial travel and then come to a complete harsh stop as if there is a solid rod inside the fork, this is regardless of whether the lockout is on. My advice if you're concerned is to take it back and ask the question.
As said the lock out on the sl has a protection device which means suspension travel if you hit something big in lockout so shouldn't lock out completely but if you're getting full travel then adjust and settings probably won't do anything as it's not working properly

joshtp

the lockout sounds OK.... its actually a compression adjustment as opposed to a lockout... it increases the amount of low speed compression damping when engaged, this has the effect of stiffening the fork under low speed movement as caused by pedalling or braking... the floodgate adjusts the level to which this happens. It sounds like you have it at it's lightest setting, with the floodgate turned all the other way it will be more like the lockout you are expecting... but it will always move to some degree.

the floodgate will never "tighten" it's an adjustment, not a bolt, but it should come to an eventual stop.

bigface

Thanks for the replies - feeling slightly more positive about it all! Was slightly panicked and feeling like a kid who's Christmas present arrived broken!

I guess before I do anything I should get a shock pump and check the pressures - as I've not been able to do that yet.

The floodgate still seems weird as I was turning the hex key for about five minutes last night with no resistance, but that might be OK.

Basically sod it. I'm going out and if there turns out to be a problem and Halfords don't want to take the bike back muddy I'll kick up a fuss until they do

Thanks guys.

warpcow

If I remember correctly, you're only supposed to adjust floodgate with the 'lock' off too. Otherwise, you don't get any change. Does your wife's fork have the same kind of damper? As I understand it Turnkey (if her forks are lower spec.) is more of a traditional open-close valve that should 'lock' more.

What everyone else says is correct; if you're still getting bob when the compression-damping is fully on/closed, then you're not cycling right

dan shard

warpcow wrote:

If I remember correctly, you're only supposed to adjust floodgate with the 'lock' off too. Otherwise, you don't get any change.

yeah Ive heard that too

bigface

warpcow wrote:

If I remember correctly, you're only supposed to adjust floodgate with the 'lock' off too. Otherwise, you don't get any change.

That's interesting, didn't know that.

Went for a run yesterday and had huge sag on the forks. I reckon they've been sold pretty much empty of air so I'll have a play with that first and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the advice!