[zdubyadubya]

Allright fork gurus... I'm stumped. Our shop just got in a 2016 Giant Glory Advanced 1 for a customer. Built the bike up and the fork has a real bad "knock" about 1/2 of the way through the travel. The fork has the new Fit4 RC performance damper not the Fit4 RC2 factory damper. Pulled the fork apart, pulled the damper apart, replaced all fluids with correct amounts, and put it back together. Same noise. It will make the sound either on or off the bike. Cant tell which leg it is coming from, but in the steel spring leg, there is a huge isolator running up the center of the spring from the lower spring perch... is this really necessary? The 40 RC2 I have from a couple years ago doesn't have this... Anyone else had these apart yet? Its incredibly simple on the inside and for the life of me I cant figure out what could be making the knocking noise. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[tacubaya]

Could be the guide tube that runs inside the coil spring hitting the shrink wrap mid travel.

 

[Udi]

The spring dildo was introduced in late 2012 models, so it's nothing new. It reduces spring noise and it's unlikely that it's causing problems. I cut them down to about half length on personal forks since they are dead weight and not really necessary, just make sure you taper the end if you go down that route. I doubt that will help reduce clunks though.

I can almost guarantee that the noise you describe is coming from the coil spring and a function of the heatshrink either being insufficient or not in the right place. It should be in the very center of the spring, and if you still have problems it's worth replacing with a longer (single, centered) length. I'd suggest trying a different spring, flipping the existing spring, or playing with the heatshrink postion until it stops.

Also it's not that hard to remove the fork from the crowns and cycle the legs individually to narrow down the clunk. Probably should have done that before changing all fluids and rebuilding the damper.

Good luck

 

[zdubyadubya]

Also it's not that hard to remove the fork from the crowns and cycle the legs individually to narrow down the clunk. Probably should have done that before changing all fluids and rebuilding the damper.
Good luck

I all of a sudden feel incredibly shortsighted....

Just to close the loop on this. I replaced the heatshrink on the spring with a longer one and flipped the spring so the lettering on it was "rightside up". The ends look identical so no idea why this would do anything, but noise is gone. Thanks ya'll.

Side question. Is it possible to put the older Ti springs in these? Or is the float version good enough at this point that there is no need for the Coil spring version anymore other than to hit a pricepoint? After rebuilding the new Fit4 damper I am liking the way it is put together much better than my old one.

 

[MSA Rider]

Yes, it's possible to use the older Ti spring. That's what I've done in mine and it works great.

 

[Udi]

Yeah the Ti still fits, and the coil is still far superior to the Float in my book. I bought a Float and swapped in the coil guts, it's the 2nd pair I'm running like this now - most of the weight savings are in the new chassis so you end up with a nice light coil fork.