Rockshox recon gold not really locking out

ed1973

As title suggests
Basic story is, I recently changed the travel from 80 to 100mm by cutting the spacer (non damper side) in half I took great care in ensuring the spacer was super straight and sanded down to make the best seal possible. I also serviced the entire fork but only had 15wt fork oil instead of the recommended 5wt. I didn’t replace any seals, just put the whole thing back together.
So the turnkey lockout isn’t working very well at all, it just isn’t locking out as it was. So does anyone have any suggestions?
Do I:
Buy a spacer kit for £11.99, to do the job properly
Use the correct 5wt on the damper side.
Do a complete seal change
All of the above

The Rookie

Did you have the damper out, have you refilled it properly, is the lever hitting the fork crown because you’ve put it on in the wrong place.

ed1973

The Rookie wrote:

Did you have the damper out, have you refilled it properly, is the lever hitting the fork crown because you’ve put it on in the wrong place.

There is a black disc in the bottom of the lower leg, should this be on top or below upper leg?

ed1973

Ed1973 wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

Did you have the damper out, have you refilled it properly, is the lever hitting the fork crown because you’ve put it on in the wrong place.

There is a black disc in the bottom of the lower leg, should this be on top or below upper leg?

Just an update.
I have taken the damper out and had a good luck, nothing obviously wrong, changed the oil and put back on.
It’s done nothing, still not really locking out.

The Rookie

Could you answer the third question.......

ed1973

The Rookie wrote:

Could you answer the third question.......

Change all the o rings on the various parts

cooldad

That's not the answer to his question.

larkim

I've got Recon Gold forks and they don't lock out particularly decisively, and haven't done so since I bought them (brand new).

Dadros

Ed1973 wrote:

As title suggests
Basic story is, I recently changed the travel from 80 to 100mm by cutting the spacer (non damper side) in half I took great care in ensuring the spacer was super straight and sanded down to make the best seal possible. I also serviced the entire fork but only had 15wt fork oil instead of the recommended 5wt. I didn’t replace any seals, just put the whole thing back together.
So the turnkey lockout isn’t working very well at all, it just isn’t locking out as it was. So does anyone have any suggestions?
Do I:
Buy a spacer kit for £11.99, to do the job properly
Use the correct 5wt on the damper side.
Do a complete seal change
All of the above

You must place a certain amount of oil in the damper side (where is the lock) as Rock Shock suggests for this fork and the specific mm of travel. I suppose that you have to put a bit more since you increase the fork travel.
I would also recommend you to change the oil viscosity back to 5Wt, 15 Wt is very heavy and the rebound and compression will not work as it should be.
The seals has nothing to do with the lock.

ed1973

Dadros wrote:

Ed1973 wrote:

As title suggests
Basic story is, I recently changed the travel from 80 to 100mm by cutting the spacer (non damper side) in half I took great care in ensuring the spacer was super straight and sanded down to make the best seal possible. I also serviced the entire fork but only had 15wt fork oil instead of the recommended 5wt. I didn’t replace any seals, just put the whole thing back together.
So the turnkey lockout isn’t working very well at all, it just isn’t locking out as it was. So does anyone have any suggestions?
Do I:
Buy a spacer kit for £11.99, to do the job properly
Use the correct 5wt on the damper side.
Do a complete seal change
All of the above

You must place a certain amount of oil in the damper side (where is the lock) as Rock Shock suggests for this fork and the specific mm of travel. I suppose that you have to put a bit more since you increase the fork travel.
I would also recommend you to change the oil viscosity back to 5Wt, 15 Wt is very heavy and the rebound and compression will not work as it should be.
The seals has nothing to do with the lock.

Nice one I’ll try this.
I managed to get the required height if oil from the Sram website and going to make a ghetto oil measurer from a syringe, plastic tube, hollow cable hose and zip tie.
I’ll keep you all posted.

ed1973

Quick update.
I cleaned and re oiled the damper side with 5wt, put exact amount of oil, fully measured quantity then height.
You guessed it, no change. Still getting loads of movement in lock out.
Any suggestions folks?

JBA

Ed1973 wrote:

Any suggestions folks?

This:

The Rookie wrote:

Did you have the damper out, have you refilled it properly, is the lever hitting the fork crown because you’ve put it on in the wrong place.

ed1973

JBA wrote:

Ed1973 wrote:

Any suggestions folks?

This:

The Rookie wrote:

Did you have the damper out, have you refilled it properly, is the lever hitting the fork crown because you’ve put it on in the wrong place.

Sorry I have no idea what this means, which lever, and what is the fork crown. Sorry for my ignorance, I’m a bit new to this.

JBA

Ed1973 wrote:

Sorry I have no idea what this means, which lever, and what is the fork crown. Sorry for my ignorance, I’m a bit new to this.

You don't know the names of the fork components yet decided to take them apart and cut bits off! :shock:

Did you follow any guides or videos or just hack at it?

Let's go back to basics:

What year are the forks?
Single or dual air?

ed1973

2012 gold tk
Single air

cooldad

The lockout lever. And Google is your friend.

ed1973

So after I stepped away from the bike, had a coffee and a bit of Winter Olympics I went back to the lever and made sure it wasn’t hitting the fork crown (I had a moment of clarity after a bit of thinking). I have taken the lever off and used a spanner to manually lock the fork. But it’s still not really doing much. Could the damper inside be screwed. I did find a video on YouTube about my exact damper but it’s all in Russian and I couldn’t make any of it out.

JBA

According to the SRAM manual for those forks you just had to remove a travel spacer to increase the travel. Nothing should have been cut or filed. Look on page 16.

Damper service is page 19 onwards.

ed1973

Thanks for the post and thanks for the hyperlinks. The spacer came in a block of 4 that were a solid block, you can buy them on amazon in 1’s 2’s or 4’s.