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#1,381 ·
NoahColorado said:
Yes, I think with a little more experimentation he could eliminate the limited criticisms he had of performance. For instance, reducing reliance on Ramp Control and increasing air pressure. Or, reducing the delta between pos/neg pressure.

The impression he had of coil riding in the mid-stroke didn't seem right to me either, but perhaps that was with the initial soft spring installed. Coil has more mid-stroke support than air, so it should ride higher (closer to sag more often).

That said, even without a perfect setup he said multiple times (in the video) the Ribbon was head and shoulders above Fox and Rock Shox in very rough terrain. I'm good with that. :)
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Assuming what the reviewer said was correct, the info and fashion he presented it was great. Yeah, every fork maker boasts of chatter eliminating small bump compliance, mid-stroke support, and impact eating end stroke progression. But the reviewer compared how each fork had subtle differences and circumstances where one fork might be a better choice than another - that was great.

I'd like to add what I've found with the Ribbon coil as well. It's not quite as soft off the top as I expected for a coil. Might be because I'm geared up at 180# on a 275 with 150mm of travel and that puts me near the low end on the middle spring. So when I'm just taking my time, cruising along on our chattery trails the fork almost feels just a bit harsh. However, when the going gets rough and I start to push the bike through high speed chunk and hitting landings a bit off after air time, the Coil really comes to life and performs any air fork I've ridden in a while.

Two questions for MRP/Noah if you don't mind...

The LSC damping seems a bit stiff for my 180#. I've heard from a few others they typically ride their LSC completely or almost completely open. Any chance the stock damper set up is a bit on the firm side?

Dropped and cleaned out the lowers and the oil I had on hand was RockShox 30w. Any reason that might cause a problem, or am I ok with that oil weight?
 
#1,382 ·
NoahColorado said:
There will be. It's pretty special.
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Can you give any general hints on what sort of time frame we're looking at for this? Christmas? Next spring? Next summer?

I'm looking at ordering a new bike between Christmas and February. If I go with a GG Smash, I'd love to spec a full MRP air suspension, and the availability of it would probably push me in favor of getting that bike rather than a Sentinel.
 
#1,383 ·
Miker J said:
Two questions for MRP/Noah if you don't mind...

The LSC damping seems a bit stiff for my 180#. I've heard from a few others they typically ride their LSC completely or almost completely open. Any chance the stock damper set up is a bit on the firm side?

Dropped and cleaned out the lowers and the oil I had on hand was RockShox 30w. Any reason that might cause a problem, or am I ok with that oil weight?
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Question #1. No, there's no chance anything we're making now could be improved. :)

I'm around your weight and I seldom use LSC either, but I'm generally higher on spring rate than others at the same weight. I think there is correlation there. As well, there so much choppiness and so many square-edge hits on my terrain, I'm looking to keep that initial stroke as supple as possible.

I know many people who do run more in the middle of the range. Any I think everyone uses it at max from time to time, to climb roads primarily.

In any case, we're always (or at least often) experimenting with new damper tech and tunes.

Two, there's so many different oils out there that I'm kinda relying on you guys to test and report. We're doing some more disciplined testing in house with some specific oils, but as you can imagine, this process takes awhile if you're really limiting the variables. Anecdotally, I feel there is benefit to higher viscosity oil use in the lowers (bath oil), at least for most of the season here (where it's very warm). I am curious to see if that changes as temps drop. Since we don't know where each fork goes, we kinda have to build with something that works in *most* climates.

In short: We haven't tested everything, but I think as long as you're using something intended for suspension, you should be a-okay.

Lighter viscosity in colder operation temps, higher in higher temps. Lower viscosity may necessitate more frequent service. I don't necessarily see that as a downside, IMO the more you refresh the oil and grease in your lowers the more consistent and better your fork feels (and the quicker the service operation becomes).

:thumbsup:
 
#1,384 ·
Andeh said:
Can you give any general hints on what sort of time frame we're looking at for this? Christmas? Next spring? Next summer?

I'm looking at ordering a new bike between Christmas and February. If I go with a GG Smash, I'd love to spec a full MRP air suspension, and the availability of it would probably push me in favor of getting that bike rather than a Sentinel.
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I can only say "not Christmas." And not between then and February.

I certainly have development timelines, but we're not gonna come out with it until it's perfect. That could be spring (that'd be the absolute earliest), that could be summer.

To give you an idea, we've been working on it regularly for at least 3 years. We've completely scrapped more than a few designs. I've been on the same basic design since May 2017 though, so it's definitely getting close.
 
#1,386 ·
NoahColorado said:
I can only say "not Christmas." And not between then and February.

I certainly have development timelines, but we're not gonna come out with it until it's perfect. That could be spring (that'd be the absolute earliest), that could be summer.

To give you an idea, we've been working on it regularly for at least 3 years. We've completely scrapped more than a few designs. I've been on the same basic design since May 2017 though, so it's definitely getting close.
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Thanks for the honest answer. It's still useful to know - maybe I get a budget RS shock as a placeholder, or start with coil and upgrade to air later to have both.
 
#1,390 ·
Andeh said:
Thanks for the honest answer. It's still useful to know - maybe I get a budget RS shock as a placeholder, or start with coil and upgrade to air later to have both.
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I'm pretty sure that my RS Deluxe fits the Smash. You can have it as as I'm concerned.
 
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#1,392 ·
Man now I've messed up (don't wrench on your bike late at night). I noticed that my stanchions had a little bit of wear (2 scratches along the stanchion) and wanted to inspect the bushes of my ribbon. Fine right? Nope, I managed to not only conclude that the bushings look ok, so the wear is most likely due to an unlucky grain of sand making its way into the seal, but also managed to unthread the damper needle introducing air to the damper. Ugh, looks like a new CSU and damper bleed are in order.

Is there anywhere in Europe that I can order the damper bleed tools? I'd probably look to send the fork for service, but there are no local service centers, so it would have to go abroad.

As for the CSU, I have to decide whether it is worth replacing or simply ride the fork as I bought it used for not a huge sum (and actually maybe those scratches were there from when I bought it).

Here is the scratch (there are 2, both on the air side):
 
#1,393 ·
Miker J said:
Thanks - yeah, I just figured that out. And the spring/travel change pdf covers dropping the lowers.

Any chance SRAM/Pike/Boxxer sized foam rings fit the MRP forks?
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yes they fit, as well as 3rd party ones for 35mm (Push, SKF)..
 
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#1,394 ·
fr0sty said:
As for the CSU, I have to decide whether it is worth replacing or simply ride the fork as I bought it used for not a huge sum (and actually maybe those scratches were there from when I bought it).
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I would not replace the CSU. You polish the scratches with some very fine grit wet sandpaper if you think they'll damage the seal. I've repaired far worse stanchion scratches and I am still using the repaired forks 1-2 years later with no issue.
 
#1,395 ·
vikb said:
I would not replace the CSU. You polish the scratches with some very fine grit wet sandpaper if you think they'll damage the seal. I've repaired far worse stanchion scratches and I am still using the repaired forks 1-2 years later with no issue.
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Yeah I'm leaning towards that, the scratches aren't going to damage the seals I think, will require a bit more frequent lower leg services but that is fine. Anyway I'll probably just send the fork for a service and see what they say, I've found a dealer nearby that will send it to a service center.
 
#1,396 ·
I was doing a travel change and managed to scratch the shaft with my screwdriver (only to later find out that my multi tool pliers fit the lock ring perfectly...)
It's not too big imo but can be felt when moving the piston through it =any possible issues from this?
Also got bath oil coming out the negative valve when releasing pressure, can it be caused by that scratch or did I mess something else too?
Thanks for your suggestions,
Roman

Odoslané z M1 pomocou Tapatalku
 
#1,397 ·
fr0sty said:
Man now I've messed up (don't wrench on your bike late at night). I noticed that my stanchions had a little bit of wear (2 scratches along the stanchion) and wanted to inspect the bushes of my ribbon. Fine right? Nope, I managed to not only conclude that the bushings look ok, so the wear is most likely due to an unlucky grain of sand making its way into the seal, but also managed to unthread the damper needle introducing air to the damper. Ugh, looks like a new CSU and damper bleed are in order.

Is there anywhere in Europe that I can order the damper bleed tools? I'd probably look to send the fork for service, but there are no local service centers, so it would have to go abroad.

As for the CSU, I have to decide whether it is worth replacing or simply ride the fork as I bought it used for not a huge sum (and actually maybe those scratches were there from when I bought it).

Here is the scratch (there are 2, both on the air side):

View attachment 1225819
Click to expand...
FYI, we can just replace a stanchion (vs. replacing a whole CSU).
 
#1,399 ·
I just got a brand new MRP Ribbon Air and was unlucky enough to receive one with defective sticky bushings. What a lovely Christmas gift to myself. The merchant has jumped on a fix right away and is going to have MRP fix me right up (I hope) so maybe I'll be able to ride it soon.
 
#1,400 ·
I have done a service on my Ribbon Coil. When I pulled off the casting, there was an O ring and a nut on the rod of the spring side. I looked at the service video and it was clear how the parts had to be put together again.

Why does this nut loosen at all? What function did I have to miss? I assume that I drove like that for several months without knowing that I have a problem.
 
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