If your fork locks out, then your oil levels are correct.
Is my RS BlackBox working properly?
I've done some fiddling with the compression and floodgate settings on the BlackBox damper in my Revelation fork and I don't notice much difference among the various compression settings. The full compression (locked) setting does lock out the fork, and at that setting the floodgate adjustment does noticeably affect the blowoff threshold. However, all other settings of compression don't seem to do much. I set the floodgate to maximum so that the blowoff threshold is high and the compression circuit is doing all the work, and even then the various clicks of the knob don't seem to do much. The fork feels very slightly more harsh on stairsteps when compression is high than when it is fully off, but it is a very subtle difference. Even with the compression locked out and maximum floodgate, it doesn't seem like it takes much force to trigger the blowoff. I'm starting to suspect the oil levels are wrong. What should I be looking for to see if the BB is working properly? How do I check the oil level in this damper?
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Common complaint with new users. The fork really needs to be put through it's paces for the circuits to take affect. Early forks which started being supplied with compression settings were very obvious. You could make a change and tell the difference by pushing down on the fork. These systems made for a pretty useless adjustment when bombing hard as they were overly sensitive.........but buyers were happy b/c they could easily tell the difference in changes of settings.
Dial the damping all the way down and drop 2 or 3 feet to flat, then dial it up and see if it makes the bike more compliant and not just blast through it's travel. You could do some big roll offs that push the limit of the fork as well. That might tell you something.
Dial the damping all the way down and drop 2 or 3 feet to flat, then dial it up and see if it makes the bike more compliant and not just blast through it's travel. You could do some big roll offs that push the limit of the fork as well. That might tell you something.
You are right, too coarse an adjustment for rebound or compression becomes useless on the trail.eatdrinkride said:Common complaint with new users. The fork really needs to be put through it's paces for the circuits to take affect. Early forks which started being supplied with compression settings were very obvious. You could make a change and tell the difference by pushing down on the fork. These systems made for a pretty useless adjustment when bombing hard as they were overly sensitive.........but buyers were happy b/c they could easily tell the difference in changes of settings.
Dial the damping all the way down and drop 2 or 3 feet to flat, then dial it up and see if it makes the bike more compliant and not just blast through it's travel. You could do some big roll offs that push the limit of the fork as well. That might tell you something.
After playing around some more with just pushing down on the fork while standing beside the bike, I can feel the difference a lot more because I am not putting my full weight/strength on the fork. The full lockout feels stiff, one click CCW from lockout feels mostly stiff and the fork makes a squishy/bubbly sound very much like oil being squeezed through orifices (because it is). More clicks CCW from that and it becomes difficult to discern the effect while doing an off-the-bike push-down test. During the repeated riding-down-stairs tests, I can notice some difference between full open and 4-5 clicks from open (6 clicks total, last one is lockout) in terms of bottom out speed, but it's hard to tell. I've never used MoCo/BB before but from reading I was expecting that it would "take care" of my brake dive. Alas, it didn't do nearly as much as I thought it would (helped a bit though). Actually going from a 90mm to 70mm stem mostly took care of the dive so lots of low speed compression is not as important for me. However I still need it to keep the fork up in its travel from washboard/rocky downhills.
I will play with it some more. I have not really done to many tests besides running into curbs, braking on pavement and riding down stairs. I will go out to Skegg's/El Corte De Madera tomorrow and give it a whirl.
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