[Mudgey]

Hi guys,

I've had a number of Boxxers over the years and none have really felt soft and floaty as you constantly hear being touted by reviewers.... so this is my quest to tune the forks to minimum stiction floaty arm saving goodness!

I currently have a set of 2020/21 Boxxer Ultimate's with the 2.1 Charger Damper and am considering the following to try and make the fork feel supply and vibration free:

1. Change the air spring to coil - I also prefer the fit and forget attitude that coil provides.
2. Use a bushing reaming tool to ensure the bushes are at the correct tolerance.

Has anybody out there converted a Boxxer of this version back to coil and did you notice a difference?

Does anybody also offer a bushing reaming tool that doesn't break the bank?

Or should I just call it quits and get a Fox 40?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, cheers!!! Mudgey.

 

[Christopher Robin]

Ok....

I had a 2019 Boxxer WC for a little while and then switched to a 2021 Fox 40.

The Fox 40 out of the box felt and worked better...BUT... in terms of stiction, I felt both were on par with each other. I kinda liked the Boxxer and planned on working on it but because I had a Fox 38 on the other bike, my OCD kicked in and I wanted to have Fox on both bikes.

Maybe I didn't spend enough time playing with air pressure and volume spacers. Maybe it was a combination of the air spring design and the damper (Charger 2.0, not 2.1), but I had planned on converting it to coil or getting a Vorsprung Secus or getting the Push HC97. It doesn't seem too complicated to convert to coil but you'll have to disable the air spring and build yourself spring perches. Or, someone will chime in here and say you can buy the parts from an older Boxxer coil that will still it the current chassis.

What is it about your fork exactly you don't like?

 

[Mudgey]

Cheers for the reply Chris, mostly its small bump sensitivity and it feels like it takes a bit to much to get the fork moving. I am going to disassemble the fork and see how the bushings feel without the air spring or damper, this will give me a good idea as to whether it is the bushings that are on the tight side.

 

[Christopher Robin]

Yeah I never had that problem. Small bump stuff was alright but it was the hard consecutive hits that beat me up. Looking back, I should have run a little more air pressure and probably more low speed compression to keep the fork higher in its travel.

 

[stripes]

Cheers for the reply Chris, mostly its small bump sensitivity and it feels like it takes a bit to much to get the fork moving. I am going to disassemble the fork and see how the bushings feel without the air spring or damper, this will give me a good idea as to whether it is the bushings that are on the tight side.

I have a Boxxer WC from 2016, knowing well I wasn’t going to be happy with damper or the air spring.

Since I got the bike, I had the fork innards completely redone: replaced the air spring with a coil (tokens be damned), and replaced the damper with an Ohlins damper and had that tuned.

I think the chassis is good, and I use a stanction/seal conditioner between rides to keep the stiction in check.

 

[Mudgey]

Stuff

Ah nice, did you buy the spring parts new or found second hand? Didn't know Ohlins did a damper upgrade for the Boxxer, will look into that.

 

[stripes]

Ah nice, did you buy the spring parts new or found second hand? Didn't know Ohlins did a damper upgrade for the Boxxer, will look into that.

I called my suspension whisperer, and he got all the parts and installed them for me. The damper is something like $450US, but I freaking hate the RS dampers. Fork got sent back, working like it should I use the Shock Howse, and Mike’s been fantastic.

The Boxxer is a nice chassis, it’s insides need improvements. Knowing this, I bought a used fork and sent it off to have the insides done right. I put on about 6 solid rides on it before getting the innards switched out. Looking forward to next season on it.

 

[croakies]

The most impactful thing you can do by far for friction is burnishing the bushings. So definitely agree with you that it's something to look into.

That will make an order of magnitude bigger difference than switching to coil.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

 

[Chris2fur]

The most impactful thing you can do by far for friction is burnishing the bushings. So definitely agree with you that it's something to look into.

That will make an order of magnitude bigger difference than switching to coil.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Could not disagree more. Burnishing the bushings will help if the bushing fit is poor. You can't just assume the current fit is poor. To say there is "an order of magnitude difference" on the side of bushing burnishing vs switching to coil is a gross overstatement. The difference between coil and air is significant. If the bushing fit is poor, by all means address it, but for the problems you are describing, I highly recommend a coil conversion.

 

[croakies]

Could not disagree more. Burnishing the bushings will help if the bushing fit is poor. You can't just assume the current fit is poor. To say there is "an order of magnitude difference" on the side of bushing burnishing vs switching to coil is a gross overstatement. The difference between coil and air is significant. If the bushing fit is poor, by all means address it, but for the problems you are describing, I highly recommend a coil conversion.

To be fair you're right on that I should not talk in absolutes etc since I don't have a repeatable test bed with a huge sample etc so I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Having said that still I expect burnishing bushings will lead to a greater reduction in friction than changing to coil in the majority of forks. I have only done 6 forks myself but even on the ones that had good bushings already, the difference after burnishing was for sure significant, on forks with bad bushings, the difference is magical haha.

I like what this poster did to attempt to isolate friction from different components. Not going to be exact but I'd assume it's directionally correct based on my experience. Tight Bushings = Harshness

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

 

[Chris2fur]

To be fair you're right on that I should not talk in absolutes etc since I don't have a repeatable test bed with a huge sample etc so I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Having said that still I expect burnishing bushings will lead to a greater reduction in friction than changing to coil in the majority of forks. I have only done 6 forks myself but even on the ones that had good bushings already, the difference after burnishing was for sure significant, on forks with bad bushings, the difference is magical haha.

I like what this poster did to attempt to isolate friction from different components. Not going to be exact but I'd assume it's directionally correct based on my experience. Tight Bushings = Harshness

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

You could be right and the bushing burnishing may be worth a shot--and easier than a coil conversion. He referred to a wanting a fix that was "arm saving" and that's what got me leaning toward the coil conversion. I found that air spring ramp up was really hard on my shoulders and converting to coil was also "magical" in my case (different fork, though).

 

[dlocki]

Hi guys,

I've had a number of Boxxers over the years and none have really felt soft and floaty as you constantly hear being touted by reviewers.... so this is my quest to tune the forks to minimum stiction floaty arm saving goodness!

I currently have a set of 2020/21 Boxxer Ultimate's with the 2.1 Charger Damper and am considering the following to try and make the fork feel supply and vibration free:

1. Change the air spring to coil - I also prefer the fit and forget attitude that coil provides.
2. Use a bushing reaming tool to ensure the bushes are at the correct tolerance.

Has anybody out there converted a Boxxer of this version back to coil and did you notice a difference?

Does anybody also offer a bushing reaming tool that doesn't break the bank?

Or should I just call it quits and get a Fox 40?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, cheers!!! Mudgey.

Mudgey - im in the uk, send me your lowers and ill run the burnishing tool through them. fitting some new seals also helps.