Oliver at Blue Liquid Labs has a drill driven device - just purchased one!

 

So I'm really in love with the Dorado and I'd love to put one on my Spec Turbo Levo but it's not dual crown compatible - should that stop me? People put dual crown forks on bikes that aren't compatible all the time, but am I risking ripping the head tube out?

 

I thought it was more about damaging the frame if the crown hits the top tube in a crash.
I've always run dual crowns on all my bikes with no issue

 

Has anyone found a better (the manitou ones don't stay in place) bumper for the upper legs (to protect the legs/ bike frame)? ODI makes these pretty solid fork bumpers, but designed for non-USD forks, largest they have is for 40mm stanchions. Anything similar available that would fit the Dorado Pro uppers? Thanks!

 

Interested if you find one as my crown hits before the bumper!

 

Not sure if you all saw but @Dougal released the home install Rockeater tune and honestly it’s unreal. Fork is so smooth, supportive, but soft on the hands - by far best fork I’ve ever owned

 

What settings did you end up with?
I'm dialling mine in now.
Very different from his '36 custom tune. In a different league to stock. Still dialling it in.

 

I didn’t get any pressure recommendations from him as it was a Rockeater tune, and the tune says to start with open HSC, LSC -10, and LSR -10

 

Finally got my full custom tuned Dorado Pro back from Dougal (the package was lost en route (not Dougal's fault), long story but all good now!), first ride in a few hours. The recommended pressures indeed are solid. Gonna wind up my rear sprindex a bit firmer as well to make it balanced, but surprised if I don't end up backing down on the pressures. I'm 90kg+ with gear, 90psi/135psi is the starting point. HSC open, LSC -9, LSR -9. I used to run way less on the main chamber (75 psi), but IRT about the same (130).

 

It seems the recommendation for pressure is rider weight in kg with IRT +50%.
Which is quite a bit above the manual suggested pressures.
I think most people were running softer than manual on the 37 as the damping was so firm.

 

My sag is 21% at 180mm travel - I don’t want it any firmer!

 

Yeah, I was really happy with it for steep tech last week, but BPW I struggled...
Time to email Dougal

 

My riding weight is 80kg, and with the fork at 180mm I'm running 52 main /94 IRT for 20ish% sag, so pretty close to johnsogr.

I've been very pleased with the factory valving, and I very much appreciate hearing peoples' experiences with the rockeater tunes but I can't see myself dropping $300 on a self install kit. The price is probably in line with what three new pistons should cost, so it's not a knock against the price, it's just high enough that it would be hard to justify for me when I find the stock damping to be fantastic.

It's due a damper bleed so maybe after it gets fresh 2.5 motorex I'll hate it and order a kit.

 

Believe me I thought that too, but it absolutely can get better

 

I've done a tad more testing and bounced a few ideas off Dougal.

He's suggested an exorcism for my bike, which frankly is not a bad idea taking in to account the amount of issues I've had.

I think a big part of the problem is I've set up the bike for a fork with friction issues with the fork.
I replaced the fork and fitted the new damper from day 1.

If I'd got the bike dialled before swapping the damper it'd be sorting 1 problem at a time.

Basically the rear of the bike rides very low. That worked great with a fork that could not rebound properly. Now I'm running a low friction fork (apart from maybe 1 part)* I need to normalise the bike a bit more first.

A work in progress...

*I'm curious about 1 thing which someone could hopefully double check for me.
With the front wheel off when I compress the legs individually there is almost no friction.
If I push Sideways on the damper leg and compress, still no friction.
If I push on the side of the air spring leg and compress. Lots of friction, it'll stick/slip an inch at a time.
Is this normal or do I need to check my air spring?
Thanks

 

Is this normal or do I need to check my air spring?

my mrs has just thismorning dispached her (mine that she 'borrowed') Dorado pro forks to J-tech for work so if you'd asked lastnight........

I'll be replacing the front tyre on my Norco this week before friday's Dyfi ride so might manage to assess if my Dorado pro's act similarly to yours

as an aside, the forks my mrs was using injested some lower (upper???) oil into the airspring's negative side and had an interesting 'topout' stick&surge - I appreaciate that usd designs and very low airspring pressures probably don't mix (she was running ~40psi main/neg) as the negative pressure probably drops towards a vaccuum at full compression and could suck oil past the sealhead🧐

Rich.

 

Hey

Not sure if you guys know this or not but on the 37mm dorados I've been dealing with excessive friction. I had to resize the bushings quite a bit and individually each leg was zero friction, But things seem to change really quick when you started tightening the axle pinches.

This was with a fork fully stripped down, no seals, no internals and a dummy hub bolted in.

I found if you tighten the axle center as normal first and then cycle it or hold it down compressed a bit and then tighten the right side hex pinch first and then cycle a few more times and then tighten the round left disc side pinch. I could very consistently have basically no excessive friction after tightening the pinches.

This be a small problem with my fork or maybe a bigger problem but it was a significant increase in performance doing this procedure and as far as I can see nowhere actually mentions to tighten the hex first.

 

Hey

Not sure if you guys know this or not but on the 37mm dorados I've been dealing with excessive friction. I had to resize the bushings quite a bit and individually each leg was zero friction, But things seem to change really quick when you started tightening the axle pinches.

This was with a fork fully stripped down, no seals, no internals and a dummy hub bolted in.

I found if you tighten the axle center as normal first and then cycle it or hold it down compressed a bit and then tighten the right side hex pinch first and then cycle a few more times and then tighten the round left disc side pinch. I could very consistently have basically no excessive friction after tightening the pinches.

This be a small problem with my fork or maybe a bigger problem but it was a significant increase in performance doing this procedure and as far as I can see nowhere actually mentions to tighten the hex first.

That's similar to the issue I had.
Do your method, but with no hub.
Measure the space between the dropouts accurately.
What do you get?

 

Hey guys,

I just joined the Dorado Pro club after having massive success with the Mezzer Pro. One of the things that really made the Mezzer shine for me was burnishing the bushings, it noticeably improved sensitivity and feel.
That brings me to my question: do you recommend burnishing the bushings on the Dorado as well? Since the Dorado uses dual crowns and lacks a traditional crown brace, I imagine it relies more on bushing overlap for stiffness. I'm a big fan of burnishing, but I want to avoid introducing any unwanted flex or play if it compromises structural integrity.

For reference, I currently run a +0.07 die on my Mezzer. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

Id say evaluate how you fork is with everything bolted up and torqued. I lucked out and mine is perfectly smooth out of the box (I always service new forks straight away) without the need for burnishing.

 

Well it seems like I've hit enough rides to give a fair first impression on the rockeater tune.

It took a bit longer than I expected to get close for a few reasons:
A) My old Dorado was high friction due to a manufacturing defect which Manitou nicely resolved a few weeks ago. This meant I'd been running a fork with friction limited rebound for a year and had modded my bike extensively to work with it.

B) The new fork hadn't been lubed properly! Can one major company lube the friking air chamber correctly, it's not that hard!

However now I'm running a low friction fork. The geometron geometry is a bit more normal. I've been having a few great rides.

Currently it's similar to my last custom tune from Dougal in that it's extremely supportive, but never spikes. However on the old one I ran rebound open and lsc closed. With that setup it was amazing.
With the new one the adjustments are usable and useful.

So fun has been had, more fun will follow!

 

Have done more riding on the Shockcraft custom tuned Dorado Pro. At first I was dead sure the by Dougal recommended
90/135psi is way too much pressure.
Now I’m not so sure. When riding fast, rough, steep DH tracks, it’s actually really good. Firmed up my rear sprindex also from
520 to 550, and the bike feels balanced. With this much pressure though it’s not a super comfy hammock making all rocks and roots disappear, but feels to have good traction still. I have gone down to 83 on the main while keeping the 1.5x for IRT, but that was already too soft to my liking after having first ridden it at 90… maybe somewhere 85-90 will be my sweet spot (I’m 85kg plus gear on a 17kg DH bike). I also tried backing of the LSC while keeping the pressure at 90, but that didn’t significantly make the fork feel softer. Note that I’m a very average rider. But hey have an issue, seems my crowns are moving, as developing play in headset quite fast. What assembly paste have you been using with success between the Pro carbon stanchion and crown? Have the new double bolt upper crown. Have been torquing to 12.4Nm Thanks!

 

This might be that the bushings are tight. Seems to be a common theme with these forks. Feel to see how the off the top compression feels, and that mid stroke to see if they are tight. If they are, burnishing might do the trick. I had the same thing happening with my Mezzer pro and once I had the bushings done, it was all I could of asked for. Good mid stroke support, with great off the top, small bump sensitivity.

 

@johnsogr & @boostinmini
I ended up taking it to my buddies shop and found out there is already a lot of stiction. Yes, I'm sure I can ride it without issue but since I have burnished all my other forks, I have become very picky about that off the top suppleness of the burnished bushings. So I'm going to go ahead and have that done. Thanks guys!

 

So have some more time on my Shockcraft custom tuned Dorado Pro. Initially Dougal recommended 90/135psi as starting point. As I wrote earlier, that is very firm. Dougal actually came back, but had missed his email, and corrected that to 85/130, or alternatively 75/150 with possibly a bit more LSC. Been playing around, and have to say the 75/150 feels extremely good. HSC still fully open. Rebound I've slowed down 2 clicks from his starting point pretty much regardless of the pressures I'm running, fork feels more calm but still not too slow there. Need to play a bit more w LSC, but getting very close to being very happy.

 

I was playing in Chamonix last week and am thinking along similar lines to you.

As his tune for the last Dorado was amazing, I tried matching the feel with this.
On super steep rocks/roots it felt great with 82/130.
Lsc 3 from closed, unless silly steep then 2.
Rebound 14 from closed.

Really good feel, great use of travel and the grip was better than anything.
Each click on lsc on the rear was noticeable for front end traction.

I'm looking forwards to the next ride.

I am also printing some integrated mudguards which if they work I will post a photo, if you don't see an update then I got bored

 

Rebound/compression do affect each other, so it's not as fast as it sounds.
Recommend for me was -10 -10 +-2.
I have firm compression and medium rebound. {it's how it came, supposed to be F/F, but it worked}
100 kg with gear and fork at 190.
My last tune was full custom, this is rock.

The perk of Dougal's tunes to me is you can run very firm lsc without the harsh. So the front end is supported and you can push it down hard for grip, or float it for fun.
It allows me to ride over the front which is fun!

 

so, my turn to play😜

was delivered nearly 2 months ago but was busy (work & riding) so now time to investigate a dorado rebuild

got as far as partial damper dismantle and leaving it drain overnight before attacking sometime tomorow🧐

what can go wrong🤣🤣🤣

Rich.

 

You had a new toy to play with and you waited 2 months!
It was like Christmas morning for me!

 

You had a new toy to play with and you waited 2 months!
It was like Christmas morning for me!

Im normally quick to start projects BUT have screaming adhd so easily sidetracked 😶

especially if theres something else to do😜

so, friday I drained the damper, yesterday watched the dh wc racing and today rode one of my 'other' bikes (Canyon Torque:ON) @ Bpw and therefore ignored my Norco Range Vlt that the Dorado's were fitted on🤭

maybe I'll sort my shit out tomorrow🤞



also, the Canyon has not been ridden since august lastyear (broke my heel and battery recall) so today I was comparing it's Zeb ultimate forks (180mm) with Mezzer and Dorado - theres no comparison and the zeb's are going 🤨

Rich.

 

Weird how many bikers have ADHD.
It's almost like high intensity fun works quite well with dopamine regulation problems.
It's also why I couldn't wait to fit mine, if I don't do it straight away I'll forget it existed =)

 

so......

progress report (or lack of🤡)

dorado damper stripped & rockeater bits fitted - easy enough but it was my first time inside one so extra carefull etc.


untill I realised I needed to remove the (recently refitted!) compression adjusters as I needed to fill the damper with oil & bleed....

I'm sure a few people here know whats coming next🤭


so, yet another sacrifice to the 'Floor God' so I'm needing a replacement snap-ring circlip as my workshop is a perfect example of a 'Bomb site' so it's never to be seen again🤬🤬🤬

anyone know what size they are?

Rich. (IDIOT)

 

If you mean you lost one of the balls. It just makes a click, doesn't need to be precise.
I just break open old cartridge bearings until one fits.

This resulted in a large performance boost by using ceramic balls. Weight saving unsprung mass = win