FOX 32 Float 29 Evolution CTD - are they really this bad?

daveappleton

Hi.

Long story made short…

Scott scale 50 (with Rockshox Reba Dual Air) got nicked.
After some discussion my insurance company paid out leaving me a little short, but that’s life.
Wheelies supplied me with a Scott Scale 940 after paying to make up the difference.
Out of the box, the fork lockout (CTD) made no difference to the stiffness. LBS confirmed that they were faulty.
Bike sent back… waited 3 weeks for it to be returned.
Got it back last Thursday with no explanation as to the work done to the bike.

Anyway, out of the box the forks felt a lot better than they did before and the CTD lockout seemed to make some difference to the stiffness although when in ‘Climb’ mode it appeared to take a couple of pumps to build some pressure. It’s the first time I’ve had a set of FOX forks so not sure what really to expect.

This morning was my first real ride on it through some forest/gravel trails – 10 miles but nothing particularly testing at all. During the journey the lockout setting was changed a small number of times to suit the terrain. Throughout the ride, I wasn’t convinced that the Climb mode was providing the stiffness that it should have as there was noticeable travel whilst accelerating (sitting down). When I completed the ride, I asked my friend to have a go and see what he thought and I noticed that when he stopped the bike from a low speed (<8mph not particularly sharply, he weighs about 12 stone), in ‘climb’ mode the forks pretty much sunk to the point of maximum travel. :shock:

As I have said, this is the first time I’ve had a set of Fox forks and I understand that lockout will not make the forks rock solid, but this kind of stiffness for a fork whose RRP is £600 seems a little rubbish to me?

So is this what I should expect from my forks, or do they sound faulty for a second time within 10 miles of riding?

I’d appreciate any (constructive!) response.

Thanks,
Dave.

DCR00

this is a common criticism of the CTD damper i.e. very little compression damping

You can fiddle around with the compression levels by using a heavier weight oil in the damper

assuming you have set up the fork properly, i would take it back to the shop and ask them what they did to "fix" the original problem

97th choice

I was talking to a specialized rep a good few months ago, he said he just left it in trail all the time, which kind of tells you all you need to know about its effectiveness.

daveappleton

Thanks for getting back to me. I had read that the CTD was a little bit iffy (after I bought it), but never thought it could have been that bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no racer and use the bike for pleasure / off road commuting and if I can notice that the difference in settings then someone who’s competitive would run a mile from these. I only wish I had my Rebas back as they were great and never gave me any problems whatsoever.

The problem I have is that the insurance company wanted me to use Wheelies. So if it has to go back again I have to package it up and have another day off of work so that I’m in for the delivery company to come and collect it.

JohnBurt

There is a well documented issue with 2013 CTD dampers, gett hem sent back to Mojo under warranty, they are not great and yes they have little support in the mid stroke but there should be a definite differnce between the compression damping in all 3 modes.

daveappleton

Well, I’ve just been outside to take another look.

Standing beside the bike and compressing the forks there is no difference between the Climb and Trail mode. Descend is only ever so slightly softer and gives away maybe a further cm of travel. If I was sat on the bike, I imagine that there wouldn’t be any difference between them all. I’ll be having a proper go on the way home tonight and double checking all the settings when I get there.

Sigh.

A bit of a wind up really, since I was going to wait for the 2014 model to come out considering the time of year, but summer was passing quickly and I wanted to enjoy the weather while it was here.

So it’s now been about 5 weeks since I originally ordered the bike, I’ve done 10 miles on it and it looks like the things got to go back again now (probably another 3 weeks if last time is anything to go by).

Meanwhile, Wheelies are now advertising the bike at a 20% discount to what I paid for it – almost £350 off.

Not happy!

adamfo

Send them to Mojo. There was a batch of faulty switches on Evolution forks.

The ones on my 29er hardly move set to climb. The o-ring bellow shows how much movement ridden gently.

There should also a noticeable difference between trail and descend when ridden.

JohnBurt

Don't loose heart talk to the supplier and make sure the fork goes back to Mojo, mine came back within a week and was v much better. I think thye fit the new compression damper (2014) denoted by two centre punch marks on the damper top cap.

nicklouse

yes fox messed up with the 2013 CTD it is all changed for 2014 though.

daveappleton

Thanks for the advice. I'll give them a call tonight and see what they say.

adamfo

nicklouse wrote:

yes fox messed up with the 2013 CTD it is all changed for 2014 though.

A bit early to say that !

Fox Talas 2013 spec forks also had problems loosing damping although it was the early ones made in 2012 AFAIK.
Problems started showing up in the new year magazine tests in Germany. Future Plc mags generally don't report such issues because they are afraid of losing advertising revenue.

daveappleton

BTW, thanks for the photo. That really does confirm that there’s something very wrong with them (still!).

I hope Wheelies take it a little more seriously this time. When I called them while the bike was away, they told me that the forks had been sent back to the supplier (I assumed Mojo, I now assume not). I also asked the lady on the phone if they could confirm what exactly was done with them when they sent it back and she told me that she didn’t have a report, but would try to find it (guess what – never got it).

They obviously did something with it as it was certainly different to when I originally got the bike, I now have my doubts that they did anything but bare minimum.

Oh well, that’ll teach me for wanting to get on my bike rather than wait for the new season!

nicklouse

adamfo wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

yes fox messed up with the 2013 CTD it is all changed for 2014 though.

A bit early to say that !

Fox Talas 2013 spec forks also had problems loosing damping although it was the early ones made in 2012 AFAIK.
Problems started showing up in the new year magazine tests in Germany. Future Plc mags generally don't report such issues because they are afraid of losing advertising revenue.

try googling about the fox problem with the CTD.

adamfo

Das Bike magazine reported in their March issue (I think) problems with 3 out of 4 evolution equipped bikes on test. That means late 2012 production. My Canyon came to me in April with a 3 week wait and has been fine so presumably it has the factory updated forks.

viewtopic.php?t=12924044&p=18341351

The magazine's Lapierre Zesty Talas blew it's rebound damping during the same period.

daveappleton

Hi.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice here. I measured the travel in ‘Climb’ mode on the way home and considering the journey was completely on road (and I was riding carefully so as to not pile a whole lot of pressure in to the forks and screw up the reading), it still managed to go to maximum travel.

Anyway after the kids woke me up a ridiculous o’clock this morning I went down in to the garage to take a final look before I got back on the phone to Wheelies.

After yesterday’s messages I noticed that it did have the two centre punch marks on the damper top cap which made me think that Wheelies must have sent it back to Mojo for a repair, so I decided to give it a proper once over just in case.

I checked everything that I know how and then tightened the lockout mech on the bars to its limit only to find that it started to stiffen up a little bit. From there I refitted the lockout wire making sure that it was as tight as I could get it in ‘Climb’ mode, and then added a little tension via the handlebar mech to take up any slack that may have crept in. All of a sudden the thing started to work as I would have expected it to. ‘Climb’ now has next to no travel (very similar to the photos that adamfo supplied) and both ‘Trail’ and ‘Descend’ seem reasonable.

So it would appear that my forks are fine and the problem was how they were refitted to the bike. I suppose I should stop being so naïve in thinking that the bike would have come back to me in full working order, and it’s only thanks to your comments above that put me on the right track.

Back on it again this morning and it feels like a different bike. Only other problem was some loose cleats meaning that my foot came out of the pedal while bunny hopping over a lump and me almost ending up in a blackberry bush as a result – I can sort that one out myself though.

Thanks again guys,
Dave.

williambowland

EXACTLY the same situation for my insurance replacement Scale 920 also from Wheelies - nice one for putting me straight, Dave! I was all set to get my forks off to Mojo...

The problem is it is actually a bit of a bugger to get enough tension in the cable to get it into Climb properly.

daveappleton

Indeed. It was a bit of a three handed job for me.

The way I did it was to release the wire from the top of the forks, ensure that the fine tune adjustment screw on the handlebar mech was wound all the way in and finally make sure tha the mech was set to Climb mode (all the way forward).

So with my first hand I used an allen key to wind the damper control clockwise as far as it would go so that is was firmly in Clime mode. With my second hand I used some pliers to get as much tension on the wire as I could and with my third hand I tightened the wire in place. Finally I put some extra tension on the wire via the fine tune screw on the handlebar mech and it worked like a dream.

Usually, I would have done the other way around but I think that if you started with the damper control set to Descend, the handlebar mech doesn't take up enough slack to get ot back in to Climb properly.

Anyway, glad to hear that this has helped someone else out as well.

Dave.