[Bikezilla]

Betcha wondering what this is about aren't you?
(aside me being bored that is)

Sunday was a great day to ride and it turned out to be an unusual situation for me: It was a fair bit colder headed back than it was starting out. Usually when I ride the tempature does not change much.

By the time I was on my way back it felt dammed cold but more importantly both my front and rear dampers were getting stiffer and stiffer. Weird! I never actually experienced this before but there it was. I must have been really close to the tempature where it makes a difference b/c it only dropped 5-10 degs... but I could really feel the cold and my bike was much firmer than the ride up.

I've ridden in the cold before but it started and ended at nearly the same tempature.

Am I crazy or is this for real?

 

[miles e]

Am I crazy or is this for real?

For real. I've only had this happen a few times where the performance changed dramatically within a ride, but generally the colder it is the less reactive the suspension feels.

This is why I took advantage of yesterday's "heat wave" to do some head to head suspension fork comparisons. The Vanilla 32 still felt unusually spikey, even in the upper 30's.

Seems like dampers with lower oil volumes would function better under these conditions.

 

[SCUBAPRO]

Seems like dampers with lower oil volumes would function better under these conditions.

I don't think it's the volume; it's more the increased viscosity of the oil at low ambient temperatures that causes the firmness.

 

[cactuscorn]

id go with that.

zilla, just be glad were all not still on pure bumper forks. how many manitou 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's, quadra's, quadra 21's, qradra 21 r's, judy this and judy that's, so on and so forth did everyone own? i had 2 3's and 1 4. 1 of my 3's ended up with a arlo englund cartrage so thats cheating, sorta. think i still have a quadra 21 hangin around too. yep! and then theres the dreaded judy. still have 1 of those on the winter bike of all things but its a coil. dont get me started on judy's.

 

[dHarriet]

dont get me started on judy's.

whatever man...my Judy C circa 1998 was the sh!t!! :thumbsup:

or maybe it was just sh!it...i always get confused...:lol:

 

[miles e]

I don't think it's the volume; it's more the increased viscosity of the oil at low ambient temperatures that causes the firmness.

Right, that part is a given. My point was that a shock with a lower oil volume would heat up more quickly due to the suspension action. The opposite of what you'd want normally, but it would help rather than hurt at really low temperatures.

I'd think you could just put in lower viscosity oil to start with in the winter, but was also wondering if, for example, a cartridge damper would be less temperature sensitive than an open bath.

 

[jmtbkr]

Think about how cold it was yesterday. Think about how fast you go. Wind chill factor gets all that metal on the bike really cold and your fluds viscositygoes up and everything slows down.
Or were you hanging out with FB before the ride?

 

[Bikezilla]

Wind chill, ME???
BWAHAHAHAHHAAHAH!

 

[Turtle 1]

no imagination necessary, it works like that when it gets real cold. It's even colder when you factor the wind chill from transporting your bike. My suspension goes wacko too when I ride in cold temps

 

[AndrewQ]

Uhh...windchill doesn't exist as far as your fork oil is concerned.

The whole "windchill factor" thing is a just a way to factor in the heat transfer from human skin to air so that the weather report correlates with how cold people think it feels.

 

[cactuscorn]

windchill is likely to be -20 or more this am. up to -45 tonight. welcome to iowa.

ps: windchill applies to most everything except little debbie products. the only constant things on the planet.

 

[jokermtb]

I had a brain fart and air'ed up my marzocchi marathon air fork on my SS before a ride - indoors....got the psi's nailed!

then, after getting to the very sub-freezing trailhead, I discovered that my perfectly dialled in fork was practically bottoming out and sitting there defeated......air density!!! cold air is denser than hot air...!

I forgot this rudimentary fact..and paid the price for my ride....still rode, though! hey- it's winter!

 

[Bikezilla]

No kidding!!
I had my 66 dialed indoors, days before the ride. And when I got halfway up the mtn, my sag was more than two thirds! I thought I must have focked up the setup. I aired up and rode on.