Ohlins RXF38

[Billywatts]

I'm having issues dialing in this fork - I've tried running it with the recommended upper and lower chambers air pressure for my weight to get the 20% sag, but, i can never get small bump sensitivity no matter what I do. Anyone get this fork dialed?

 

[MetroNeck]

I removed the spacer from mine, which helped.

As a side note, by buddy who has an older model on his Kenevo SL, and a new one on his Decoy, is really struggling to get the new one to feel as good as the old one.

I’m thinking it needs some time to break in.

 

[PeeJay1]

I'm having issues dialing in this fork - I've tried running it with the recommended upper and lower chambers air pressure for my weight to get the 20% sag, but, i can never get small bump sensitivity no matter what I do. Anyone get this fork dialed?

Good Afternoon & Welcome..
I have the Rxf 38 and ttx rear shock.. it takes some sorting.. yes.. but once it’s done, perfect.. have you done any adjustments?… pending ya weight and what you are actually riding, .. it can be fine tuned… You tube Vids are very helpful..

 

[Billywatts]

I removed the spacer from mine, which helped.

As a side note, by buddy who has an older model on his Kenevo SL, and a new one on his Decoy, is really struggling to get the new one to feel as good as the old one.

I’m thinking it needs some time to break in.

Do you mean the spacer inside the middle blue cartridge? Looks like a pain to rip the fork down.

 

[Billywatts]

Good Afternoon & Welcome..
I have the Rxf 38 and ttx rear shock.. it takes some sorting.. yes.. but once it’s done, perfect.. have you done any adjustments?… pending ya weight and what you are actually riding, .. it can be fine tuned… You tube Vids are very helpful..

I've been adjusting this this all over. I'm going to start from the beginning again and go back basics. Just curious...
How much do you weigh and what is you air settings?

 

[ntm95]

I'm having issues dialing in this fork - I've tried running it with the recommended upper and lower chambers air pressure for my weight to get the 20% sag, but, i can never get small bump sensitivity no matter what I do. Anyone get this fork dialed?

Make sure you are inflating the ramp chamber first, then the main chamber. It makes a difference.
You can remove a negative chamber spacer out of the air spring to get a more "plush" initial bit of travel.
Unusual to need to do that on an e-bike, unless one is quite light, and riding quite slow.

I'm 190lbs, 137 in the main, 260 in the ramp, 7 lsc, 7 rebound, 3 out on hsc.
That's on my crafty xr at 170mm and 49 pounds.
On my acoustic bikes I've run a few rxf38's as well, and they were closer to 110-120 main, 220-240 ramp.

 

[PeeJay1]

I've been adjusting this this all over. I'm going to start from the beginning again and go back basics. Just curious...
How much do you weigh and what is you air settings?

I’m weighing in at 90kg.. and went for 80-90 kg setting… so 190-200 psi… 100-110 psi main chamber… works for me on trails , on the road with slicks and moderate downhills..

 

[ntm95]

Do you mean the spacer inside the middle blue cartridge? Looks like a pain to rip the fork down.

Couldn't be easier, foot nut, top cap, lay the fork horizontal and slide the entire airspring out.
The grey air chamber unthreads from the blue seal head, use a blast of compressed air directed down at the spacer and it'll pop up out of the cavity where you can grab it with your fingers. It has a split design, so it just unclips from the shaft.

Fair warning though, you do lose alot of what makes the fork great. It'll tend to sit deeper in the travel and have less midstroke support to maintain geo in corners and g outs. More suitable to slower riding on less steep terrain.
There's a reason they're shipped with the spacer installed.

 

[YY0210]

I have RFX38m2s on my current bike and a previous bike.
I think Ohlins has always some sort of harshness for small bumps.
For me, it starts to make sense as you go fast and chase clocks.
It's not comfortable fork for sure but it gives me confidence at higher load and speed.

Bike: SC Nomad
Rider weight: 140lb with gear
Front: 200psi in RC and 95psi in MC

Bike: Intense Tazer
225pso in RC and 115psi in MC

I took the spacers from both.

 

[Zed. (Justin is short)]

IIrc, Ohlins 'standard' tune is for riders around 80 / 85kg
I believe they have some different tunes / shimpacks to suit other weights (fitted to order?) and obviously theres custom tunes

I found that the main / ramp chambers were pressure sensative, especially the smaller ramp chamber as badly disconnecting the pump could empty it

 

[ntm95]

IIrc, Ohlins 'standard' tune is for riders around 80 / 85kg
I believe they have some different tunes / shimpacks to suit other weights (fitted to order?) and obviously theres custom tunes

I found that the main / ramp chambers were pressure sensative, especially the smaller ramp chamber as badly disconnecting the pump could empty it

It blows my mind that not all shock pumps are "lossless" chuck designs.

 

[Bontee]

I'm having issues dialing in this fork - I've tried running it with the recommended upper and lower chambers air pressure for my weight to get the 20% sag, but, i can never get small bump sensitivity no matter what I do. Anyone get this fork dialed?

Hello Billy,I have a set of these on my TK01-RR,Basically ignore the recomended settings.
I have lowered the bottom out chamber to virtually no air pressure.This releases shed loads of sensitivity.
Drop the rebound and compression settings to way below the advised settings.
Start by getting the main chamber correct for sag (for your weight ) and back off everything else to zero ,Then increase the damping a click at a time until it feels right for you.
As for the ramp up chamber I have a few mates as well as myself usung these forks and non of us are even close to yhe advised settings for our body weights.
Using the advised settings for me ,I weigh 12 stone ( sorry still imperial )the forks were rock hard ,unresposive and over damped everywhere,it is generally acknowledged that Ohlins settings are about as much use as a f@€t in a spacesuit.But when you get them set up correctly ,you won’t ride anything else ,mine are just perfect.
I’ll try to post my settings for you to have a look at
All the best

 

[Bontee]

Hi Billy,these are My settings for a 12 stone rider I think thats about 79 kgs
The Ohlins stock recomendations are way out I am running 80 psi in the main spring and 75 in the ramp up chamber , 2 clicks from open on low and high speed compression and 3 clicks from open on compression which releases a lot of sensitivity.

 

[dreys]

Hello Billy,I have a set of these on my TK01-RR,Basically ignore the recomended settings.
I have lowered the bottom out chamber to virtually no air pressure.This releases shed loads of sensitivity.
Drop the rebound and compression settings to way below the advised settings.
Start by getting the main chamber correct for sag (for your weight ) and back off everything else to zero ,Then increase the damping a click at a time until it feels right for you.
As for the ramp up chamber I have a few mates as well as myself usung these forks and non of us are even close to yhe advised settings for our body weights.
Using the advised settings for me ,I weigh 12 stone ( sorry still imperial )the forks were rock hard ,unresposive and over damped everywhere,it is generally acknowledged that Ohlins settings are about as much use as a f@€t in a spacesuit.But when you get them set up correctly ,you won’t ride anything else ,mine are just perfect.
I’ll try to post my settings for you to have a look at
All the best

This is a wrong advice.

Always start with recommended settings, and adjust as necessary. I would trust Ohlins engineers and factory riders way more than random forum advice with typos.

As for air pressure, always-always fill-up lower chamber first to recommended settings. Once that is done, add pressure to top chamber in 20 psi increments and cycle the fork up and down after each 20 psi.

 

[Bontee]

This is a wrong advice.

Always start with recommended settings, and adjust as necessary. I would trust Ohlins engineers and factory riders way more than random forum advice with typos.

As for air pressure, always-always fill-up lower chamber first to recommended settings. Once that is done, add pressure to top chamber in 20 psi increments and cycle the fork up and down after each 20 psi.

No it isn’t but you’re welcome to your opinion

 

[ntm95]

Hello Billy,I have a set of these on my TK01-RR,Basically ignore the recomended settings.
I have lowered the bottom out chamber to virtually no air pressure.This releases shed loads of sensitivity.
Drop the rebound and compression settings to way below the advised settings.
Start by getting the main chamber correct for sag (for your weight ) and back off everything else to zero ,Then increase the damping a click at a time until it feels right for you.
As for the ramp up chamber I have a few mates as well as myself usung these forks and non of us are even close to yhe advised settings for our body weights.
Using the advised settings for me ,I weigh 12 stone ( sorry still imperial )the forks were rock hard ,unresposive and over damped everywhere,it is generally acknowledged that Ohlins settings are about as much use as a f@€t in a spacesuit.But when you get them set up correctly ,you won’t ride anything else ,mine are just perfect.
I’ll try to post my settings for you to have a look at
All the best

I had tried something similar back when I was struggling to get more compliance on acoustic bikes.
It kind of has a similar affect as removing the negative spacer, though you are now running lower air pressures as opposed to higher pressures with the spacer removed. You get compliance, but at the cost of mid-stroke support.
The damper is great in these forks, the air spring less so. They are excellent candidates for coil conversion.

 

[elvendawn]

It blows my mind that not all shock pumps are "lossless" chuck designs.

Do you have a recommended pump with a "lossless" chuck you like?

 

[ntm95]

Do you have a recommended pump with a "lossless" chuck you like?

I have a topeak one.
It's not ideal, but it does have a lossless chuck.
Odd that the typical rockshox/fox digital pumps do not have decent chucks.

 

[Prmulligan]

I've found that the recommended ratio is not what works for most of the folks I know. My recommended pressures were 100/200 which felt really good hitting large obstacles at speed, but wasn't at all plush at anything other than race speed. 92/223 is like magic. It rides high, eats mid-stroke and responds quickly (best over braking bumps I've experienced) and has never bottomed. There was a lot of playing to get here, but its my favorite fork of all time.

Remember that you can't change the pressures on the fly (the floating piston moves changing air volume and pressure in both sides of the piston every time you connect a pump). This means meaningful changes must be done from zero with the ramp pressured first. It also means you cannot put a pump back on to re-check your pressures. Once I understood that and the concept I got it dialed in pretty quickly.

As I've spoken with others with the fork, anyone outside of full endurbros seems to be all over the place with the ratios and pressures.

 

[Deleted member 37410]

I have a topeak one.
It's not ideal, but it does have a lossless chuck.
Odd that the typical rockshox/fox digital pumps do not have decent chucks.

Isn't the valve system itself lossless? The pin will be released fully before the wrapping nut starts leaking air. The hiss heard is just the pressure between the valve and the pump, but the valve itself is already closed at this point. Anything else would be kind of dumb. Thats what I learned and it seems to check out in experience, but happy to learn something new

Edit: Pretty sure I have used the trick of tightening the "wrapping nut" (not sure what to call that) just enough to build pressure between the pump and the valve, but not enough to open the valve, and then building pre-pressure by pumping a bit, so as to not loose a bit of pressure once tightening fully and the valve opens. This will avoid loss and give a bit more accurate read on the current pressure. And this would not be possible if the system itself was not designed to be lossless on removal

 

[ntm95]

Isn't the valve system itself lossless? The pin will be released fully before the wrapping nut starts leaking air. The hiss heard is just the pressure between the valve and the pump, but the valve itself is already closed at this point. Anything else would be kind of dumb. Thats what I learned and it seems to check out in experience, but happy to learn something new

Edit: Pretty sure I have used the trick of tightening the "wrapping nut" (not sure what to call that) just enough to build pressure between the pump and the valve, but not enough to open the valve, and then building pre-pressure by pumping a bit, so as to not loose a bit of pressure once tightening fully and the valve opens. This will avoid loss and give a bit more accurate read on the current pressure. And this would not be possible if the system itself was not designed to be lossless on removal

Depends on the seating depth of the schrader valve within the stem.
It's not uncommon for the chuck seal to leak before the schrader valve has closed fully.
I've experienced that on a number of rockshox and ohlins products. Never on fox though.