[petercarm]

I've got both of these forks on two different bikes: older Devinci Spartan alloy and a 2018 model Norco Range 29 carbon.

The forks feel completely different. The Spartan has the old Solo air spring and it is very supportive off the top; the Range has the latest 2019 DebonAir spring and it sets up very soft at the top of its travel. I'm 80kg but prefer the "light" tune on the rebound shim stack on the 2016 fork but haven't done any mods to the 2019 fork. The 2016 is a 170mm 650b fork vs the 29er at 160mm. Both are RCT3 models.

I've been using both these bikes for enduro racing, big mountain rides, bike park etc. The 2016 fork just saw me through a rough and raucous race this last weekend and just looked after me everywhere; the supportiveness gave me confidence to hurl myself down into the jank and have it sort me out. 5 to 8 minute descents and no arm pump at all; just a smooth controlled feeling and yet it is very economical with its travel probably only using 140 of 170mm over all the race stages (other reasons meant that I was riding without practice so I wasn't hitting things as hard as I would on more famliar tracks). My setup is fast rebound (11 clicks out) with 4 clicks of LSC.

The 2019 fork is soft off the top and I get the feeling it gives up its travel a bit easier but then the deep travel is still hard to get into. Again I go for the fast rebound and it feels to me like the stronger negative spring is helping catch the top of the rebound stroke. I have noticed on longer descents that the fork tends to try to wash out and dump me on the deck later in the descent probably when the oil has a bit of temperature build up. I'm relying more on the stability of a longer bike and I'm riding a bit more behind the front wheel.

So can I make my 2019 feel more like the 2016? Should I?

Should I just up it to 170mm spring to get a bigger (more linear) sweet spot?

Is it possible to soften the rebound spring stack (remove the Rapid Recovery preload just like I did with the 2016) and would it do anything worthwhile?

Are the dampers compatible - could I just swap my Charger 1 into the 2019 chassis?

 

[gregnash]

Interested to see what responses are. Have a 2018 Lyrik with DebonAIR and Charger2 w/ MRP Ramp Control and I feel like I am struggling to get it to feel right. Could simply be that since this is only the second RS product I have ever ridden that I really don't like the way they are damped.

I believe you should be able to swap the dampers from the two forks, not 100% though as I don't believe they are "wheel size" specific.

Recent reading on LSC/HSC/RBD and looking at your problem of dive during deeper travel (dumped on the deck, as you say, later in the descent) would make be think you need more HSC on the 29er to help keep you up higher in the travel. The trade-off for this would be that it may feel a bit harsher over the smaller chatter. Read this and see if you get the same impression.

Don't know why but for some reason out of all the fork brands I have owned/used over the years this Lyrik has seemed to be the hardest to tune. I am a couple weeks in now and still fiddling with things, click here, click there, adding, removing, etc.

 

[faul]

Have you tried to put more air in the fork? It won't help with the damper but the feeling may be a little closer.

 

[294037]

A few questions

What tyres are you running and what pressure?

What air pressures are in the forks and how many tokens?

The rebound tune in the 2019 fork is already softer than 2016 with no “rapid recovery” so I don’t advise a revalve there

Sounds like it’s lacking support one way or another, or maybe your bars are too low which makes you instinctively push away from the front end which reduces grip.

 

[petercarm]

A few more details. I've got Shockwiz confirmed pressures on both.

2019: 98psi 1 token 160mm travel (1 less than standard, 75-85 recommended for my weight)
2016: 84psi 2 tokens 170mm travel (1 extra token from standard, 65-75 recommended for my weight)

Bars are pretty high. I like them rolled forward too.

Tyres. Bit of everything really. This last weekend was an Addix Soft Magic Mary up front 2.35 and a Michelin Wild Enduro Front on the rear. Ran with tubes 29psi rear, 25psi front.

On the Norco I've had a TSR+ on the back and swap between a Hillbilly Grid 2.3 front (if there's wet or fresh cut to cope with) or a TSRr.

I'm going to go for two tokens in the 2019 and see what happens.