fork oil swap 2012 Revelation and otehr fork servicing Qs

bomberesque

Good morning

I have a new RS revelation RL that I think has an issue with the damper. the symptoms are;

with return damper half on - feels like no return damping at all
with return damper 75% or more on - sounds (to my untrained ear) like coke is being sucked through a straw during rebound

I am guessing that this is because there is not enough damper fluid in the motion control

I could return it to the shop but, honestly, I am at the stage where I need to learn to do these things myself as paying for regular maintenance is prohibitative given our bike collecting tendancies (the family currently numbers 11 bikes; 4 with front suspension, 3 with front and rear, 4 with none). Plus, I suppose that simply swapping out the damper oil should be a simple process.

so, I've watched the SRAM videos on dropping the lowers off, servicing the damper and reassembly, it all looks doable if I wanted to service the whole lot but if I only want to replace the damper fluid, could I do this by;

let the air out of the spring
Remove the compression damper
pour the damper fluid out of the top of the fork
put in the correct amount of 5w oil
reinstall the compression damper

without going through the lower leg dissassembly process?

or perhaps I should just go back to my LBS and cry warranty?

final questio; when I come to fdo a full service on one of my forks, of course I will have a set of spare seals / rings ready but how often do they really need renewing or do you find that they can usually be reused (ie; how many sets should I buy if I'm servicing, say, 3 SIDS)

Ta muchly

warpcow

Noise from the damper is normal. Have you actually ridden it and does it feel ok?

The service instructions you've quoted would work fine, you don't even need to empty the spring-side, but it'd be better to strip the whole thing so that you can remove the rebound assembly and make sure it's fully drained of old oil too.

bomberesque

warpcow

thanks for the response. Yes I have ridden it (about 150-200 k so far) and no it is not OK. I definitely lack front end grip, which I thought was tyre pressues to start with or just a new fork being a bit sticky (tyre pressures are sorted, could still be new fork stickiness though). the tyre is the same I have on my sovereign (2.4 NN) so I don't think it's that. None of my other RS forks make such a noise, but this is my only rev (all the others are 100mm SID or Reba). It's possible I just need to get settings dialled and be a bit patient but I thought swapping out the oil might not be a bad thing to do anyway. your point about making sure all of the oil is out is what I was worried about. I know the oil volume is sensitive. If it's a case of stripping it all down, I may just ride it a bit more and then take it back if I think there is still an issue. I have plenty of out of warranty forks to practice cack handed maintenance skills on without voiding the warranty on a new one!

nice Sov, btw, mine is a 2007 (ish) 853 with a TALAS and I love it to bits (although I think I preferred it with the PIKE on) but it maybe a bit edged out by this new bike ... a cotic rocket

warpcow

I'd ride it a while just to see if getting it dialled in helps. If the problem persists, and since it's new, then I'd just return it. It does sound like you've given it a good chance already though.

I wish I'd had the cash for an 853 Sov back when they were still making them, but a CRC sale one'll have to do. I keep um'ing and ah'ing over whether to get a 'more modern', lighter fork, but I'm pretty sure I'd miss the stiffness of Pike (even if it was only in my head).

bomberesque

Willdo, thanks for the help

stick with the pike ... or go for a sektor (not ridden one but hear good things) the TALAS is 15mm through and is stiff enough but the pike did add to the feeling of security and "point it anywhere" indestructibility. plus it was coil and so smoooooth. the TALAS is nice, don't get me wrong, but it is a PIKE kind-a frame. I saved half a kilo changing from PIKE to TALAS but tbh the money would have probably been better spent on a nice set of light but stiff AM wheels. fortunately, being middle aged, I got to do both :-D