Forum

[PB1]

Hi All - my B5 seems to have almost rock hard rear springs and dampers. It has the standard piggyback oil reservoir ones still fitted and I have set the spring seats to their lowest/softest setting with little difference noticed.
Is the small crosshead screw and ring-nut on the back of the oil reservoir a damper rate adjuster, similar to those on Spax dampers on cars, or is it just a filler or bleed hole? I don't want to undo and try to adjust these if it is not what I think it is. The owners manual isn't much help on this unfortunately. Any help greatly appreciated.

[PB1]

Just realised that these units are gas filled and oil filled.... but the question is still the same really.... is the crosshead screw and slotted washer on the reservoir an adjuster?

[Haggis]

It's for pressurising the air chamber, 100 psi if I remember correctly. The early shocks had a shrader valve, then they changed to the rubber bung version. You use a needle attachment on a pump to adjust pressure. I have one from mountain bike RoxShox.

[PB1]

Thanks Haggis - I'll look into that. Much appreciated.

[PB1]

Just to update this and close it off, a needle type pump adapter arrived from Amazon today and connected to a high pressure cycle pump each damper was found to have about a 30psi reading. The pump just managed to get them back up to 100psi. Not bad for a £10 bargain bin Lidl product. It feels much better and I'll try out different spring tensions to get it just right.

Many thanks for the help Haggis.

[Haggis]

Glad you found a difference with the correct pressure. Any idea why they felt so hard before? Were they just not moving or were they bottoming out. I find they use quite a firm spring as standard.
Have fun....

[Wheaters]

Anyone know if the softer springs from Hitchcocks fit these "piggyback" dampers? I only weigh about 80 kilos maximum fully kitted out and find the ones on my 350 rock hard.

I've considered fitting the shorter "conventional" type in the Bullet catalogue but I don't know if they'd be any softer.

[PB1]

They feel much better but it's difficult to say if they were bottoming out or not, and I don't think they were seized or anything like that. They are now more progressive and I don't get a thump up my spine when going over a bump like I did before. I'm still to experiment with different spring-seat settings.