The images on the Hayes site are pretty helpful. With the lowers removed, you just configure the plastic spacers for the desired travel. They pop on and off the damper rod by hand.
Any have a good Mastodon travel change DIY?
I've done plenty of research and read the documents on the Manitou website. They are helpful but none of them actually walk you through how to disassemble and adjust the travel. Hoping someone has a DIY instead of just a picture of the travel spacers. I have a 2019 Pro EXT 100mm. Thanks, I've read through the 86 pages on the Mastodon thread and it sounds like ALOT of people would like a good DIY for this.
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Same! I’m confused with the process.
I just changed the travel in my Mastodon this week! I followed the guides on the Hayes website.
I don't think that there were really any steps missing from the guide, but I'll give you a few issues that I encountered during the process.
1. You'll need a couple of specialized tools. The "thin wall" 8mm socket isn't a regular socket. I took a regular socket to a grinder to get it to fit. That took a long time and basically killed my socket. The "Manitou cassette tool" is a regular cassette tool with a section removed. I took a park tools cassette tool and cut out a chunk with an angle grinder. Not sure if it's really useable for cassettes anymore...
2. The oils are complicated. I couldn't get my hands on any semi bath oil for the lowers, so I used some 5wt rockshox oil that I have for my Pike. I bought some Maxima synthetic suspension fluid for the damper. I'm not 100% confident that it's the right damper oil, but it seemed right and looked like what was in there before and seems to work so far... If you change travel you will need to add or remove damper fluid.
3. The actual travel change is pretty easy. It's easy to see which spacers to remove to add travel.
4. The fork went back together pretty easily. I had to work a bit too get the bolt on the damper side to catch in the threads on the lowers, but it wasn't too bad.
I don't think that there were really any steps missing from the guide, but I'll give you a few issues that I encountered during the process.
1. You'll need a couple of specialized tools. The "thin wall" 8mm socket isn't a regular socket. I took a regular socket to a grinder to get it to fit. That took a long time and basically killed my socket. The "Manitou cassette tool" is a regular cassette tool with a section removed. I took a park tools cassette tool and cut out a chunk with an angle grinder. Not sure if it's really useable for cassettes anymore...
2. The oils are complicated. I couldn't get my hands on any semi bath oil for the lowers, so I used some 5wt rockshox oil that I have for my Pike. I bought some Maxima synthetic suspension fluid for the damper. I'm not 100% confident that it's the right damper oil, but it seemed right and looked like what was in there before and seems to work so far... If you change travel you will need to add or remove damper fluid.
3. The actual travel change is pretty easy. It's easy to see which spacers to remove to add travel.
4. The fork went back together pretty easily. I had to work a bit too get the bolt on the damper side to catch in the threads on the lowers, but it wasn't too bad.
What year is your fork? I thought 2017(?) and newer mastadon required no oil change for travel change. Just change the spacers.
It's MY 2020 or 2021 comp EXT, not totally sure the exact year as it came OEM on a new fat bike a couple of months ago. It has the dot on the IVA top cap and 367mm stanchions, anyways.
An oil "change" isn't strictly needed. But the amout of oil required in the damper side is measured from the oil height to the top of the stanchion. If you increase travel by 20mm, you'll have to add 20mm (roughly) of oil to the damper side so that the oil height is correct. Same with reducing travel, you'll have to remove a bit of oil.
I wasn't totally confident that the oils I was using were identical to what was in there already, so I decided not to mix unknowns and I drained all of the damper oil before filling it. I probably could have just topped it up a bit though.
EDIT: now that I read back the above... I'm not sure either why you'd have to adjust the damper side oil. I think what I wrote isn't correct, that the oil height on the damper side isn't dependent on travel. I didn't check it before dumping it out... Likely I just took some extra effort for nothing here.
An oil "change" isn't strictly needed. But the amout of oil required in the damper side is measured from the oil height to the top of the stanchion. If you increase travel by 20mm, you'll have to add 20mm (roughly) of oil to the damper side so that the oil height is correct. Same with reducing travel, you'll have to remove a bit of oil.
I wasn't totally confident that the oils I was using were identical to what was in there already, so I decided not to mix unknowns and I drained all of the damper oil before filling it. I probably could have just topped it up a bit though.
EDIT: now that I read back the above... I'm not sure either why you'd have to adjust the damper side oil. I think what I wrote isn't correct, that the oil height on the damper side isn't dependent on travel. I didn't check it before dumping it out... Likely I just took some extra effort for nothing here.
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
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