I think the point of a good damper is that you don't need to have it full open.

 

I might be wrong but I don't think that's how it works. Just because you have the dials backed off all the way, that doesn't mean you have zero compression and rebound damping. (Although my Pike Select+ did feel like it had zero compression damping even with the adjuster fully closed)

 

Oil never flows freely

 

Damper quality does not matter, when you don't ride like when you need the damper, and the oil is flowing very slow and has proper time to flow quite freely through all the ports and along those needles.

 

What the hell is going on here?

 

Even fully open the Motion Control damper on the Yari has a limited oil flow capacity (compared to a damper with a shim stack for example)*. The MoCo allows oil to flow through some holes, where adding compression just makes the holes smaller. The diameter of said holes in the open setting can only allow so much oil to move back and forth in successive hits, so if you bump into obstacles at a certain (high) speed/frequency the fork will effectively get "locked out" after the first few hits.

I used to own a Yari and tried everything apart from changing the damper. My best result was replacing the oil with a ligher viscocity one, removing all tokens and adding about 10-15 more PSI than recommended. This helped the fork stay higher in it's travel where it's more supple and moves more freely overall. Still it wasn't enough for out rocky terrain so I ended up replacing the fork with a DVO Diamond.

So yes, even fully open a basic vs a more sophisticated damper will ride very differently.

*Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on how dampers work

 

I had the Yari with the default MoCo.. later I upgraded the damper to Charger 2.1 RC2 - long story short, you can definitely feel the difference, either if its opened, closed or anything in between.

 

Yari can be modified to work better by shiming the pippet to have it opening sooner, and if you are up for some dremel action you can shim it which makes it work just fine. But some work and experimenting is needed to make it work, if just want to instal your fork and ride Lyrik is the better option.

 

Thanks, folks. This is all very helpful and much appreciated!

 

When I read "MoCo" I think of this:

 

I can only do one scoop rice. Two scoop rice makes me feel like I'm going to explode

 

shameless plug, i have a Dougal-tuned (Shockcraft) "Unharsh" Charger damper for sale here: (i moved down to a Pike and had him mod another one for me).

2021 Shockcraft "Unharsh" Charger 2.1 Damper -...

Shockcraft-tuned "Unharsh" Rockshox Charger 2.1 Upgrade Damper for Lyrik/Yari serviced 4 hours ago. Charger 2.1 upgrade damper that has been revalved and modified by Shockcraft out of New Zealand (search "dougal" on MTBR) to eliminate spikiness under fast hits. plenty of damping for heavier...

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