Are there any walkthroughs doing a full damper rebuild? I'm keen to see if I have the tools / patience to do the kit

 

Yes full instructions with pictures, tools, fluids, torques etc. I'm doing the final draft now before they're polished and formatted for release.

 

Are recommended spring settings included?

 

That's coming as an optional extra. It's peak season for us here so it might be New Year before we've got that up.
It'll also be available as a shockcraft install.

 

Dougal
Will you be doing more of a range of suspensions going forward like Fox 36 grip 2 VVC and Fox DPX2.

 

Dougal
Will you be doing more of a range of suspensions going forward like Fox 36 grip 2 VVC and Fox DPX2.

Well done Dougal! Has me contemplating selling my ERA for a Mezzer to get the ability to do everything myself at home. This looks awesome. Is this going to only be a Manitou thing or will you expand this to other dampers that you feel this kit can be utilized for?

I've got about a decade of project work ahead of me for all sorts of dampers. I don't want to publicise any of it until it's ready as plans keep changing. Don't want to get people all excited then disappoint them.

 

Well done Dougal! Has me contemplating selling my ERA for a Mezzer to get the ability to do everything myself at home. This looks awesome. Is this going to only be a Manitou thing or will you expand this to other dampers that you feel this kit can be utilized for?

 

Ka Pai Dougal!

 

Very cool!

Easy enough to order a kit for me and a friend to share shipping to the US?

 

Sure is. There are three different shim kits for this fork depending on the grade you end up with. Each shim kit covers several tune grades and the soft/firm poppy/sticky options for those grades.
Soft-Medium.
Medium-Firm.
Firm-Rock.

 

So, for suspension luddites like myself, is this basically the same thing as sending the fork out to be custom tuned, but we get to do the labor?

ie, is this the same as us sending you the fork and having you tune it? Or is this something sort of in the middle?

The other hard thing about this (not just this, but any suspension tune), is being accurate in describing my needs and skill set. Personally I’m probably just a smidge over 90kg when I’m geared up, and have never raced. That said I ride mostly intermediate and advanced trails, and do my version of “going fast” and am usually in the top 10 fastest for the year at any the downhill segments at my local head on… Trailforks (I don’t use strava). Obviously I’m not anywhere near that at larger more regional trail networks though (more like top 10-20%).

So how do us “obviously not racer or pro level” people make sure we get accurate tunes?

Sorry for the somewhat generic questions. I’ve looked at your website and some of the descriptions, but it’s still not sure obvious to me.

 

So, for suspension luddites like myself, is this basically the same thing as sending the fork out to be custom tuned, but we get to do the labor?

ie, is this the same as us sending you the fork and having you tune it? Or is this something sort of in the middle?

The other hard thing about this (not just this, but any suspension tune), is being accurate in describing my needs and skill set. Personally I’m probably just a smidge over 90kg when I’m geared up, and have never raced. That said I ride mostly intermediate and advanced trails, and do my version of “going fast” and am usually in the top 10 fastest for the year at any the downhill segments at my local head on… Trailforks (I don’t use strava). Obviously I’m not anywhere near that at larger more regional trail networks though (more like top 10-20%).

So how do us “obviously not racer or pro level” people make sure we get accurate tunes?

Sorry for the somewhat generic questions. I’ve looked at your website and some of the descriptions, but it’s still not sure obvious to me.

It's a lot more simplified than a custom tune and has fixed grades where a custom tune can really target anything. I can probably do about 200 custom tunes a year max. This enables us to reach a whole heap more customers and it's less cost for them.

Also. Our customers absolutely love getting into their own suspension.

These are split into three grades in the calculator. Sport, Race/Rowdy and Extreme.
The best indicator is arm strength. Because the stronger you are the more rigidly you can hold the bars and the more you can force the suspension to work. The forces involved to bottom a fork get pretty serious in the higher grades.

Rough guidelines.
Sport is for those who can do less than 20 pushups.
Race/Rowdy is for those who can do more than 20 pushups.
Extreme is for athletes and gym beasts.

I ride sport class. Plenty of support, eats bumps at speed and doesn't beat you up. Race/Rowdy will wear you out unless you're strong and fit enough.

 

This is a good start...what all the suspension manufacturers should be doing.

 

Ironically there are more tunes in this package alone (7 compression, 8 rebound) than almost any production suspension.

 

Cool stuff, I wish someday you expand into xc/downcountry fork soon.
Those category really lack quality suspension options that aren't either harsh or lack support or both at the same time.
Even the best I have ridden in the weight range (Manitou R7 Pro, which already ride better than 34 step cast and Sid Ultimate ) still benefit from mods. So I hope to see what you can offer to deep pocket xc racers on Sid/34SC/R7 Pro.

 

^ this!

 

Great product, good job Amazing stuff like this isn't more mainstream.

Really makes me want to upgrade my f36 to a mezzer.

 

Much like Jayem and many others, the weakness of the MTB suspension market is annoying. This is a big step forward to make something like this available and I applaud you for it. Although it won't help you I hope that someday similar services are available from all sorts of sources. A boy can dream, that someday you might even be able to access it from an OEM. Although given that doesn't happen today even in MX I doubt it.

 

Interesting concept. How much variation is to be expected from one fork to another (fork manufacturing tolerances, shim differences,etc)? Are you doing some sort of QC to check this? How long do you expect the service life of the kit to be?

It would be great if a few of the fork manufacturers could agree on some common framework to support this kind of product instead of having to redo your work after every model change.

 

All the Mezzer I've dyno'd were well under 10% variation. Shim variation is about the source. Some places use 0.10mm shims, other are 0.11-0.12mm. We control for that because if you don't it throws your tunes out by a whole grade. Shim diameters are chosen so customers won't mix them up.
While it's easy to check parts before they ship there is no way for us to check the customers final results. The kit is expected to last the life of the fork. The failures forks see are almost exclusively sealing and stanchion wear/damage. This kit doesn't change that.

My Mezzer damper is about 3.5 years old. It's been in two forks and on many different bikes. Apart from tuning changes to pistons, shims and the occasional o-ring it's all original and shows no noticeable signs of wear.

It's these fork makers which keep guys like me in business. If it were easy everyone would already be doing it!

 

Awesome job, Dougal.
Meanwhile I'm such a lousy rider that I'm satisfied with my Mezzer the way it came stock.
Guess I don't know what I don't know.
Should I be happy or sad?
=sParty

 

Yes

 

This is amazing.

 

What? That someone considers a stock fork good enough? 🤣
=sParty

 

Dougal, for those that have been riding the mezzer in stock or semi-modified form, can you help scale the "stock" tune to these new tune options?

I quickly put a screenshot below trying to show this in picture form, but can delete it if it causes confusion. My guess is the location of the stock tune will shift based on rider weight so its wont be applicable across the board for all riders?
I'd also be curious if there is any overlap between a soft grade Race/Rowdy and a Firm Sport tune.

 

Sounds great, are you doing this for your fox van rc tune too?

 

I'm planning a new bike next year and this has convinced me that a Mezzer Pro will be going up front. Many happies!

 

E="Dougal, post: 15815867, member: 235981"]
Yes. Originally it's a 20x1.0mm o-ring but I downside it 2mm to make it less likely to get caught and torn.

Make sure you find the chewed off piece. Otherwise it'll stop something from going together properly.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the warning, this pic was from a while ago and I did fish it out.

 

Stickers arrived today, installation instructions have passed their first draft and it's a Friday. First orders will leave Monday.

 

Seriously Dougal - love the bike type options in the pick and mix calculator.

 

First batches flying out today. We have customers in Australia, Israel, USA, UK, Canada & Germany here on the bench.

Stickers are matte metallic and have a real sparkle that you just can't catch on the camera.

 

Install instructions loaded: https://www.shockcraft.co.nz/media/...k & Mix Kits/Instructions_Shockcraft_Pick_and_Mix_Mezzer_Pro_Self_Tune_Kits.pdf

We're looking for feedback on this. If you think something is harder/weirder or doesn't make sense let me know.

 

Install instructions loaded: https://www.shockcraft.co.nz/media/...k & Mix Kits/Instructions_Shockcraft_Pick_and_Mix_Mezzer_Pro_Self_Tune_Kits.pdf

We're looking for feedback on this. If you think something is harder/weirder or doesn't make sense let me know.

I think it’s well done and understandable. As this will be the first time I’ve modified shim stacks, a diagram labelling all of the referenced parts would be helpful.

I am looking forward to receiving my kit.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I was under the understanding that the Mezzer was impossible to improve upon and worked perfectly for every single person that rode it?

 

Best in class before internal tuning.

 

Grabs popcorn...

 

We've got an email problem with one of our German Pick & Mix customers. Our emails with the calculator codes keep bouncing back.

Mr UB_47 if you have another email account flick us a reply on that and we'll get this moving.