Fox CTD, settings not working

[Craigwt]

Hi guys,

 

I'm a little dissapointed/confused. I bought a trance x1 (as discussed in my other thread) over the week end and went for my first ride on it. After playing around a bit, I couldn't notice even the slightest difference between the CTD settings on both the fork and the rear shock. At the time I thought I was just missing something, I mean how could both be faulty, on the same bike...

 

I finally got time to do a thorough test tonight and it seems I was right. I basically measured sag across the three settings, as well as doing squish/bounce action to get as much travel as I could out of the suspension with my body weight.

 

Here is the travel I measured (in millimeters)

 

Front

Sag - C:8; T:8; D:8

Bounce - C:75; T:80; D:84

 

 

Rear

Sag - C:11; T:14; D:15

Bounce - C:40; T:43; D:43

 

So, did I just buy a brand new bike, with both the front and rear suspension not functioning as it should? or is there something else I can try, or something I'm not thinking of here? I am supposed to see a noticeable difference in the three settings right?

 

Thanks for any help

[Craigwt]

Looks like some others have had similar issues with CTD forks.

 

http://forums.mtbr.com/shocks-suspension/2013-fox-f29-120mm-ctd-evolution-series-ctd-damper-issue-806075.html

[kosmonooit]

Hope there is no issues with the CTD shock, just ordered one.

[kennyg]

Looking at those figures they look about right...

 

The control of the fork is really done by adjusting the damping ratios, this helps provide apparent stiffness and since you are not increasing air pressure the element that you missing is time.

 

The time differences may be extremely small and almost unmeasurable but the issue you need to take note of is the %. You may find a pure lock out is one of the only measurable effects of a system like this. The various settings may only have a 40 % difference across the three settings from a design point. You seem to be measuring between 11% front and 9% rear. In raw travel, which is the delta across the travel range as the spring is using absorbing energy differently based on the damper energy requirements in the various modes, the times to return to sag position, will probably make up for the rest of the difference.

 

Just for reference, I ride a rigid 95% of the time and race on a hard tail. I have dabbled with a few dual sus bikes and duals but cant get around the slouchy feeling, its great for comfort.

[Tankman]

I took a while to set them up properly but once dialed in it works great and you can clearly feel the difference between the 3 settings.

 

Did not set them up according to some pressure guide either, worked purely on sag and that felt much more accurate!

[Craigwt]

An update for anyone that's interested. It turns out the fork was busted, just collected the bike from the shop this evening (fork was sent to fox to repair) and I can now clearly feel the difference between the settings... particularly between climb and descend. (Heavily impressed with Olympic Cycles for sorting it out so quickly)

 

As for the back, it was a setup error, just too little pressure, after pumping it up its working perfectly