Suspension q...

kovacsa

Hi All, When the front suspension "speed lock" ("lock-out") feature is on, is there suppose to be any sort of small "give" when pressing down on the suspension? I was told this small amount of compression is to prevent the speed lock from breaking in case anything hard is hit when it is on. I've only seen this give on one fork so far, all others are rock solid.

Thanks!

The Rookie

Cheap forks with a mechanical lockout will be rigid and you can damage them via a hard hit.

Better quality forks don't have a lockout as such, instead they significantly increase the low speed damping so that they are effectively locked against pedal inputs but will still move somewhat, some will also 'open' in the event of a hard hit as it both reduces the chance of damage and makes sense from a comfort/control point of view.

And the forks are........?

JGTR

My RS Rebas still compress when locked out, I've never owned a fork that locked solid, all my forks have been Rockshox.

kovacsa

The Rookie wrote:

Cheap forks with a mechanical lockout will be rigid and you can damage them via a hard hit.

Better quality forks don't have a lockout as such, instead they significantly increase the low speed damping so that they are effectively locked against pedal inputs but will still move somewhat, some will also 'open' in the event of a hard hit as it both reduces the chance of damage and makes sense from a comfort/control point of view.

And the forks are........?

Thanks for the feedback. It makes sense that fork has some give in it when it locked out.
The bike is: http://www.bikes.com/en/bikes/whistler/ ... histler-70
and the fork is:
SUNTOUR NRX D HLO. 63MM. HYDRAULIC SPEED LOCKOUT / PRELOAD

The Rookie

Yup, hydraulic lock out so not only is some movement to be expected, but a complete lack of 'give' would indicate a defect.

The NCX contain a relatively cheap and cheerful cartridge damper so a big hit could in theory damage them, that said I've ridden a hire bike (Giant Roam) with the same forks and given them some pretty hefty whacks in potholes and never had an issue.