Mr.P said:
Interesting point about the light front.
One more question for you as I am 185lbs so I am close in weight to you. What are your SPV settings? And are you set to plush ride as opposed to a tight hammering platform?
I played around with the settinga a lot last fall before coming the realization that the SPV valve wasn't working properly. It's not clear to me when the valve failed; it could be that it was broken from the start.
Within the past month, I finally received the replacement (warranty) SPV assembly and installed it. I did a ride with the new damper last weekend. For the first half of the ride, I used about 55psi for the SPV pressure. I noticed that I was able to stand up and use the bars for leverage with almost no bob. The downside was that there was almost no small bump sensitivity, though the fork did handle the bigger bumps okay. I had a longish rocky, though not very steep, downhill coming up and wanted the fork to be plusher, so I decreased the SPV pressure to 35 PSI. This definitely gave me a ride that was more to my liking. That said, the ride down that rocky hill was nowhere near as plush as that provided by my Fox Vanilla. It wasn't bad, but I still like the Vanilla better. Later that day, I put the Vanilla back on the bike.
Mr.P said:
I also am noticing a "clunk" on rebound when I push my weight on the handlebars. Is that the SPV in action? Does your make that sound? Faster pushes results in no clunk. I ask becuase my initial forray into the SPV setting has netted me no difference from an 02 fork I have.
Is it a topping out clunk? As far as I know the valve itself doesn't make much sound. You will hear the damping oil whoosh through when the platform is "broken". You'll hear a similar whoosing on rebound.
I have heard a rebound related clunk before. This occurred after I attempted to regrease the original SPV valve myself while waiting for the warranty part to arrive. I'll explain this failure mode after explaining how the SPV valve works.
If you pull out the damping assembly, the SPV valve should be open, i.e., there should be a small gap between the blue cylindrical valve and the plate containing three orifices below it. You should be able to push the valve shut and have it readily spring back. If it takes a lot of force to push it shut and/or it doesn't spring back afterwards, then the valve is defective. There is no mechanical spring inside the valve. The spring action is provide by air trapped in the valve. When you pump air into the SPV chamber, i.e. into the space between the oil and the top of the stanchion, the valve will close. The more air you pump in, the tighter the valve will be shut thus providing for more platform. The valve is submerged beneath the damping oil, thus if the integrity of the seal holding the air in the valve is compromised, oil will get in and the valve will become stuck. (In case it's not clear, there are two air cavities - the first is within the valve itself. The second, much larger cavity is in the leg of the fork between the top of the oil and the topcap where you pump the air in.)
When the valve is stuck in the open position, oil will move freely from the lower to upper chamber on compression and just as freely (if not more so) on rebound. (More so on rebound because the oil can utilize both the path normally taken on compression as well as the path provided for rebound.) Your fork will feel like a pogo stick due to very little damping. The rebound adjustment knob will do next to nothing. When run this way, the fork may actually feel quite plush on small chattery stuff, but will behave unpredictably over very rocky sections.
When the valve is stuck in the closed position, the platform will essentially be "on" all the time. If you work at it, you'll still be able to compress the fork somewhat, but this is due to the air spring formed by the air sitting above the damping oil. You'll find that the fork rides rather high and you might not be able to get as much sag as you like. It's not uncommon to hear a clunking sound; this is caused when the fork tops out. It's been reported that increasing the SPV pressure "helps" to eliminate the clunking noise, but I think this is due to the fact that the fork is more firmly held in the topped out position.
Either way, if the valve is stuck, the fork isn't working properly and you'll want to call Answer's tech support to obtain a warranty part. They made me go through my LBS to get it; others have reported receiving the part directly from Answer.
It could be that the noise you're hearing is something else, but if it were me, I'd pull out the SPV damping assembly and check to make sure that the valve is operating correctly. You can find the maintenance manual on Answer's web site.
It reallly helped me understand the dynamics. I was under the impression that the special grease helps the blue part rebound. But now I understand that the special grease is special because it holds up in oil, creating a seal for the air.
