Low-Ri-Der

[Particle]

Well during my second practice run on Saturday of Race 2 weekend at the shoe, my almost new 888 ATA WC fork decided to get stuck down. We pulled the thing apart a bunch of different ways to no avail. Wound up racing it with about 3" of firm travel, probably bottomed it 10 times during my run on Sunday. Anyway, Marzocchi is accepting it back and it's shipping out to them for warranty this afternoon, so hopefully it'll all get worked out.

The Blindside is already a very low bike. With the fork that low, the thing is like riding a slammed Caddy, but without all the bumpin' hydraulics. I couldn't pedal anywhere except for a flat road without smacking pedals all over the place. And I had to ride the brakes on high-speed bumps to avoid dying. Bleh.

Still pulled out a 7th out of 18 riders so all wasn't lost. I was hoping for a strong finish in the series points though after my 2nd in the first race, so it's definitely a bummer.




------------------
Here's a few more pics from the weekend. I suck at taking photos at races...just too much going on.

Gotta say though, Snowshoe RULES. I love riding it WAY more than Deer Valley. It's just so tacky and fun. The roots still freak me out a bit, but they have such a huge variety of trails you can really find whatever you want to ride there. I see why people rave about it, I'm just surprised at how little attention it gets in the mountain bike world.

Some riding buddies taking a break...


One of our team guys (white shirt) killing it in DS




Race pits in the fog...


I needed to beat this guy. I didn't.


Caught a buddy of mine at the end of his run after I finished.




Yes, we were in West Vujinya. Cut-off jeans and dip cans. Should make bagtagley and buzzworthy all nostalgic-like.


Nice turnout for the awards.


Podium at the finish - another buddy of mine on the left side.

[MarsB]

Way to battle through adversity! Top half of the field racing with a busted fork? FKNA!

[davep]

Woah, nice result considering the fork! Sucks about the fork - mine hasn't done that yet, but it's had its fair share of other problems

What's the BB height on that bike (when the 888 is not-stuck-down)?


BTW, did you try dissasembling the ATA cartridge? I would guess air slipped by the ATA piston from the main chamber into the negative air chamber, in which case removing the ATA cartridge and then unscrewing its top cap should release it...?

[lph]

Nice! I can't believe you raced.

[Buzzworthy]

Damn Particle, nice pull off with a gimped shock!


I miss the tacky and the roots and all that good stuff.

Chicks in cut off jeans and dip cans, not so much.
But man have I seen my fair share.

[Particle]

Thanks yall. Guess I can't be all bummed.

davep - BB height is 14.2" but sags to under 13" I'm pretty sure...with a normal fork. I must've been under 10"

I did pull out the ATA stuff, couldn't get any air to escape so I'm not sure what the problem is. Another guy at the race mentioned he'd had a similar thing happen on the coil side, so I tried that too, but didn't want to screw up and make the fork completely unrideable before my run. I'll let Marz fix it...

[Dromond]

Allright, you've done it. I'm going to have to dust off my DH bike and go ride lifts next weekend.

[boobookitty]

Way to stick it out! Sounds like someone needs to put the warrantied fork on eBay and go get himself a Fox

[funkendrenchman]

Way to stick it out! Sounds like someone needs to put the warrantied fork on eBay and go get himself a Fox

Or a 2006 888 RC2X.

[Conundrum]

Bummer J. I've been shopping around for forks and all the new Marz stuff is getting bad reviews. I've tried a ghetto fix on my '05 thanks to some bagtag and kidw ideas. Seems to be working great.

[kidwoo]

I could have told you how to fix your fork.



But it's freakin rad that you raced it like that

[davep]

I could have told you how to fix your fork.

Fill us in?

[pechelman]

Bummer J. I've been shopping around for forks and all the new Marz stuff is getting bad reviews. I've tried a ghetto fix on my '05 thanks to some bagtag and kidw ideas. Seems to be working great.

not sure what fork you're looking for, but i can give a reasonable non-glowing recommendation for a 55ETA. It needed a quick spring side oil increase that took 10mins having never done one before, a 25 cent oring for the QR20 axle, and about 10hours of riding and its pretty nice.

My only complaints are that its a little heavy and still a little sticky in the very top of its travel (though its not noticeable on the trail)

having said that, stiffness increase aside from the 55, my old 2005 desert storm colored 110-130mm AM1 feels better in pretty much every aspect


im surprised kidwoo didnt comment on how much hed love to have a bike with a BB that low

fkna sick you rode it out and kicked butt!

[kidwoo]

Fill us in?

Just need to completely disassemble the ata cartridge. Air can seep past the main chamber into the negative chamber. And by completely disassemble I mean take off the top cap of the air cartridge and pull the whole piston out.

Mine did this when it was new and I reset it twice. It happened again and since I knew the seals were new, I just greased it up really well with some slick honey and put it back together. Hasn't happened since.


Just make sure that the piston rod is at full extension when you reassemble it. Otherwise you just make another big negative chamber.

[Conundrum]

not sure what fork you're looking for, but i can give a reasonable non-glowing recommendation for a 55ETA. It needed a quick spring side oil increase that took 10mins having never done one before, a 25 cent oring for the QR20 axle, and about 10hours of riding and its pretty nice.

My only complaints are that its a little heavy and still a little sticky in the very top of its travel (though its not noticeable on the trail)

having said that, stiffness increase aside from the 55, my old 2005 desert storm colored 110-130mm AM1 feels better in pretty much every aspect


im surprised kidwoo didnt comment on how much hed love to have a bike with a BB that low

fkna sick you rode it out and kicked butt!

Most of the new ATA stuff for the reasons Particle is looking at and the 66 RC3 forks. Wobbly axles, stuck down low, doesn't always hold air pressure. That was through some first hands, here, ridemonkey, mtbr...

I did pick up an '07 AM SL1 with upgraded 55 internals on the ATA side. Have a couple rides on it and really likey but am concerned about durability. We'll see.

I hope it holds together because it's smoove.

[pechelman]

10-4
goodluck
when theyre working theyre nice

and fwiw, the wobbly axle is fixed with that 25cent oring and some bearing grease

[davep]

Just need to completely disassemble the ata cartridge. Air can seep past the main chamber into the negative chamber. And by completely disassemble I mean take off the top cap of the air cartridge and pull the whole piston out.

Mine did this when it was new and I reset it twice. It happened again and since I knew the seals were new, I just greased it up really well with some slick honey and put it back together. Hasn't happened since.


Just make sure that the piston rod is at full extension when you reassemble it. Otherwise you just make another big negative chamber.

I soooooo called it 10 posts up

Add sloppy bushings to the list of 08 marz complaints - I snapped my original '08 888 lowers, had to pay marz to replace them, and the bushings in the new lowers are sloppy!! bastardos!

[kidwoo]

I soooooo called it 10 posts up

They ain't complicated

[davep]

They ain't complicated

give me my small victories

[kidwoo]

give me my small victories

Actually, you have a pretty large victory I need to draw from.


You've rebuilt a dhx shock right?

I've got a buddy who's shock body cap unthreaded on him this weekend. How do you reassemble/bleed those things to get them back together sans bubbles?

[davep]

Actually, you have a pretty large victory I need to draw from.


You've rebuilt a dhx shock right?

I've got a buddy who's shock body cap unthreaded on him this weekend. How do you reassemble/bleed those things to get them back together sans bubbles?

Oh hell no, I'm too sceered to unscrew the damper body. I only mess with the air end of things

[pechelman]

the best way ive found to bleed a DHX style shock is to remove the resevoir cap so you have access to the back of the floating piston.

fill the main damper body, press the floating piston against the end of the rez until it is bottomed, and cycle the main piston SLOWLY to remove the air bubbles. keep adding fluid and after its pretty full, let go of the floating piston, press the main piston in until the floating piston comes near the end of the rez, and then push back on the floating piston looking for bubbles. repeat until there are none.

once you're confident there are no bubbles, press the floating piston against the damper, and reinstall the end cap to the rez. (so there is max air volume in the rez)

top off the main damper body so its full to the brim and carefully and slowly insert the end cap onto the damper body and screw it on.
fluid will ooze out but thats what you want to make sure there is no trapped air. do this part slowly as well.
when you do this part, you want the main piston to be bottomed against the end cap, so as to have minimum damper shaft volume inside the fluid.

add pressure and you should be good to go.
make sure you loctite the piston nut at the end of the main piston if you take any of this apart

ask me why i know this

[kidwoo]

Thanks!


53464

[pechelman]

oh, and a sanity check you can do, to make sure there is no air inside, is instead of putting on the rez end cap when i said, just leave it off

when you install the main piston and damper end cap , the floating piston should move up a little in the rez.
when everything is tightened on the main damper body, press down on the floating piston;

-if it feels rock solid, youve done it right
-if it feels spongy or hear some knocking, youve got air inside and need to rebleed

and no problem \ glad to help ya out

feel free to give me a call if you're in a heat of the moment type scenario and need a quick answer

[Particle]

Just need to completely disassemble the ata cartridge. Air can seep past the main chamber into the negative chamber. And by completely disassemble I mean take off the top cap of the air cartridge and pull the whole piston out.

Mine did this when it was new and I reset it twice. It happened again and since I knew the seals were new, I just greased it up really well with some slick honey and put it back together. Hasn't happened since.


Just make sure that the piston rod is at full extension when you reassemble it. Otherwise you just make another big negative chamber.

Hmmm. I pulled all the air out of both the PAR and the top chambers, unscrewed the top completely. Then we were unscrewing the bottom PAR shrader valve, and getting close just hoping it would release the air. And fully extending the fork - which it didn't want to do - trying to get the air out. But my buddy who is a mechanic and way more smarterer than me with this stuff was worried it would suck the valve into the fork being forever lost to us and ruining any chance I had of riding the bike. So we backed off.


As for the race, the cool thing was some of the smoov corners were soooooo much fun! OMG?! it was fast.