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#1,483 · (Edited)
Fajita Dave said:
It definitely needs some time to break in but it is silky smooth once it does! It soaks up rock gardens far better than any fork I've ridden once I got the HSC dialed in. I don't use a whole lot of OTT for my weight but it's a great feature to have for softening up small bump compliance without compromising your air pressure.
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Man, wish I had your fork! My 5 month old Diamond must be one of the "stiff" ones. Feels like the air chamber is too short-- I'd like to pull out a couple nonexistent volume spacers and set high speed compression 2 turns below zero. It's been re-bled under warranty along with new seals and lube, and the various adjustment ranges pretty thoroughly explored.

Feels like it could be great, but something's holding it back. At 165lbs geared up, I can't bottom it at any pressure high enough to balance the OTT spring, i.e. over 75psi, which sounds more like a pressure we'd expect for an Onyx. That fork must have a lighter neg spring to run those lower pressures.

Is your Diamond from the Boost generation (140-170), or a non-boost (130 to 160 travel)? Maybe they changed something to get the 170 option, that had side-effects, or some other running change.

I see a pretty bimodal distribution of comments in this thread. Either "best, smoothest bump absorption ever, now that I've figured out how to stop it bottoming out", or "Harsh, stiff, beats me up, and terrible on chunky stuff". Gotta be two very different forks, or I suppose to be fair two kinds of riders-- realistic ones and those with impossible expectations?
 
#1,484 ·
Ripbro said:
A few questions regarding my diamond 160mm. My ott adjuster appears to be tightening by itself as I ride. I am 135lbs and have my OTT fully backed off, but after a few rides I have 5 or 6 rotations. I have flipped the piston, run 1 LSC and 1 turn of HSC, pressure 85 psi. I looked through this thread and have seen this mentioned however I couldn’t find the fix.

Also occasionally on larger high speed hits it sounds (and feels) like my fork has bottomed out but I still have about an inch exposed between the green travel indicator and the top of the stanchion.

any insights are greatly appreciated:)
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Ancient, but maybe this helps someone else: self winding OTT is best cured by replacing the grease in the neg spring with lots of something stiff like Maxima Waterproof Grease. Only example of it being ok to use a Maxima lube on a DVO fork. Dunno why that should be, but that's what DVO suggested when I emailed them, and local suspension shop that warranties DVO agreed.

If that doesn't work, then DVO (or the web) has a cap you can 3D print, or some folks just carefully drill the adjuster and put in a slim SS cotter pin-- photos on the web.

I don't have the issue, but maybe that's because I replaced the grease already to make the spring stay quiet and smooth over the long haul. Soft greases like Slickoleum get washed out too easily by the bath oil which swishes in and out of the air spring, and then it apparently can rattle around and change settings.
 
#1,485 ·
WhatsUpcountry said:
Ripmo Tune

Anybody her know if the Ripmo AF forks have a different (lighter) compression tune than the regular forks? I've bought two Diamonds, one off of a Ripmo AF and the other wasn't. Long story short, I am running significantly lower pressure & more OTT on the non-RipmoAF diamond to get near the same travel usage, and I think I'd like a lighter compression tune with higher spring rate. Thanks in advance.
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Old, but in case it helps someone, the Ripmo AF forks have the ring shim deleted in the compression stack to make them softer. This is covered in this thread above at page 60.
 
#1,486 ·
Zayphod said:
Can't get those 10mm even if I hold down the valve core when i'm compressing the fork - there is a hard stop at the bottom, so it's not oil or grease.

I usually run 120psi, but I have tried with 150psi and even then the fork doesn't fully extends by itself. As for the OTT - I haven't used more than 6 turns and I've seen people here running close to max with the same pressure without any suction problems due to cranked OTT.
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Normal. Mine's like that too. The 1 cm it doesn't bury at the stanchion top is due to a bottom bumper to reduce damage from hard hits. "160mm" is an approximate size with any fork that has a neg spring or chamber, because depending on the balance of the two you commonly get a little "suck down" at rest. I get almost 170 if I air up big with low OTT, but with recommended OTT and pressure I get about 157mm. Maxing OTT with only 75psi gets me a 130mm fork... ;)
 
#1,487 ·
Grande said:
Can anyone suggest a grease for the OTT/negative spring unit for a Sapphire. I'm specifically referring to that gray barrel at the end of the unit. The plastic grey barrel is threads onto the rest of the unit. This is the piece that rotates when you adjust the OTT at the bottom of the left leg. DVO suggested PTFE synthetic grease and specifically Huskey Lube-O-Seal which is apparently used in automotive bushings. I'm not sure where to source that and from what I see the smallest amount they sell is a big tube that goes onto a grease gun.

Any equivalents here?
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DVO are now recommending Maxima Waterproof Grease (the only Maxima product they recommend other than the cleaner). PTFE is so 1977.
 
#1,488 ·
maxants33 said:
Great thread.
I just got a DVO diamond D2.
Only been on one short ride. Yet to dial in the air pressure and settings.
Bit concerned to read how many people found their forks were not very well oiled from new

Question; did most owners find their DVOs were dry inside? Would you suggest just stripping and adding oil as a default measure on a new DVO fork?
Many thanks!

Edit: my flat is too small for a fork teardown. Sadly means I cannot just pop it open and check. Would be a local bike shop job...
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Not all new forks are dry on oil-- mine that I got this year had about 15mL come out of each side; assuming 5mL stays stuck inside, that's about 20mL each side, which is reasonable. I was going to replace with 25/35mL as one of the manuals suggests, but DVO recommended 25mL each side to avoid increasing progression.
 
#1,489 ·
DawnVoyager said:
Normal. Mine's like that too. The 1 cm it doesn't bury at the stanchion top is due to a bottom bumper to reduce damage from hard hits. "160mm" is an approximate size with any fork that has a neg spring or chamber, because depending on the balance of the two you commonly get a little "suck down" at rest. I get almost 170 if I air up big with low OTT, but with recommended OTT and pressure I get about 157mm. Maxing OTT with only 75psi gets me a 130mm fork... ;)
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I have my Diamond set at 130. I have about 5psi less than what DVO recommends for my weight and I'm running 4 full turns of OTT. With it completely aired out and at full compression I get about 127mm.

I also have a Fox 36 with the MRP Ramp Control with the negative chamber conversion. I have about 155 on my 160mm fork at full extension.
 
#1,490 ·
DawnVoyager said:
Man, wish I had your fork! My 5 month old Diamond must be one of the "stiff" ones. Feels like the air chamber is too short-- I'd like to pull out a couple nonexistent volume spacers and set high speed compression 2 turns below zero. It's been re-bled under warranty along with new seals and lube, and the various adjustment ranges pretty thoroughly explored.

Feels like it could be great, but something's holding it back. At 165lbs geared up, I can't bottom it at any pressure high enough to balance the OTT spring, i.e. over 75psi, which sounds more like a pressure we'd expect for an Onyx. That fork must have a lighter neg spring to run those lower pressures.

Is your Diamond from the Boost generation (140-170), or a non-boost (130 to 160 travel)? Maybe they changed something to get the 170 option, that had side-effects, or some other running change. I see a pretty bimodal distribution of comments in this thread. Either "best, smoothest bump absorption ever, now that I've figured out how to stop it bottoming out", or "Harsh, stiff, beats me up, and terrible on chunky stuff". Gotta be two very different forks.
Click to expand...
Same experience on my end - I got a notification when you liked my post from 3 years ago about my Diamond feeling harsh and can confirm that my experience hasn't changed since then. I've ridden two boost Diamonds and both have felt super harsh and near impossible to get reasonable sag on. I've run compression fully open, way more OTT, and pressures far lower than recommended. The first Diamond went back to DVO a few years back and was completely rebuilt with a new CSU due to being creaky. I found it to be harsh for the entirety of its lifespan, until I blew up the air spring earlier this year.

DVO offered a crash replacement over repairing the fork, so I ended up with a brand new 2023 Diamond this summer. It felt exactly the same. Getting more than 10mm of sag on a 150mm fork required super low pressures, and it never felt good on the trail. I've since moved on from that bike to something with a Manitou Mezzer. Huge difference. The fork sags easily, is much happier using travel, and generally feels more comfortable. I honestly should have sold and swapped out the Diamond long ago. I love the idea of the Diamond, but the implementation hasn't been there for me.
 
#1,491 ·
DVO Diamond D1 2023 29" 160 mm


so, from time to time at some point while riding (often when try to wheelie - pulling up the front) I hear some kind of click noise..
I'm not sure, but maybe that's a "problem":


Here's some of OTT parts:

Image




Image


Image



Image



So, here we have kinda black collar (nut) with a total of 5.20 mm depth. There is a retainer ring that sits inside the groove and its depth about 1.86 mm. So, the depth of main chamber under the retainer ring is about 3.34 mm.
The rod has some lip with thickness about 2.01 mm, than there goes a washer 1.05.
Finally, we have about 0.28 mm of free movement - that you can see on video.

The question is - if I put some washer with CS about 0.20 mm - will it make any other unwanted changes ?
Any thoughts...
 
#1,492 ·
Bushing play, what’s the deal? Bought a 2022 RAF and ridden it around 6 months, but since I got it it’s felt good, but the lowers rattle and have easily detectable play, is there a way to replace bushings without spending £160 on all new lowers as the Dvo parts catalogue suggests? Is this normal ( as I’ve seen it said on other threads Dvo has told someone this is a normal thing to have happen) the previous owners before me haven’t ridden the bike hard/much judging by everything else on the bike, and I’ve serviced it a few times during my ownership, though it was an issue since I bought it, what can I do? Bushings usually last years in fox/rs forks as they come tight from factory, is this not the case on the diamond?
 
#1,493 ·
Hi, does anyone have issue where your D1 compression dials turn by themselves when riding?
I think I have seen some discussion about this but I just can’t find the relevant messages here or at PB.
This is different to OTT issue but the mechanism might be somewhat similar, something is rotating during compression or rebound.
 
#1,495 ·
I've been noticing a top-out clunk recently, and investigated during the latest 50 hr lower service. The air shaft seemed a bit rattly with air removed, but perhaps that's normal? However, the OTT mechanism seems to separate with no effort at all. I don't recall this happening on previous services. From watching a few videos (eg Diamond travel change) the entire assembly seems to be fairly well stuck together (ie behave as one piece), but the inside shaft doesn't attach/thread anywhere that I can see. Just wondering if that might be the reason for the top-out clunk. Photos below might better explain what I'm talking about. The fork has about 550hrs/8000km usage and has been fairly fuss-free.

Image

Image

Image
 
#1,500 ·
fxr man said:
Someone has to be on the new 36sl for a while now and have some comparison to the older version.
Can’t find any reviews as it seems no one is or has tested it.
Click to expand...
What information are you looking for exactly?

The D1 damper has been "remastered". Supposedly, it have not gotten worse compared to the previous one – quite the opposite actually. The increase in stanchion diameter and a beefier crown are both good things as well. The only thing left is the air spring which resembles the ones Fox uses quite a bit.

Hard to go wrong in my opinion. The 36 SL would be on top of my list of forks for trail and enduro use. Combined with the sale campaign that's in effect at dvosuspension.com, the value proposition is more than good.
 
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