Volume spacers for Fox float DPS rear shock

Tooks

Well-known member
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2020
427
517
Lincs UK
From what I can tell, the part number for the volume spacer kit is PN 803-01-250.

I’ve got a Fox DPS on my Jam, seems to be ok without any spacers, but interested what your experience is?
 

Benson

Well-known member
Sep 19, 2018
279
239
Hampshire UK
I have a four piece kit for sale including 0.8in3, 0.6in3, 0.4in3 and 0.2in3 spacers for the Fox DPS shock. Looking for £12 delivered ??
 

MartinW148

Member
May 30, 2018
188
94
Essex, England
From what I can tell, the part number for the volume spacer kit is PN 803-01-250.

I’ve got a Fox DPS on my Jam, seems to be ok without any spacers, but interested what your experience is?
Thanks for the help.

I have been focusing on set up over the last couple of weeks to try and improve my riding now we can get out. I noticed on the last couple of rides that the o-ring on the rear had all but come off and that was without any big hits (I'm no downhill king).

I added air to the rear shock and reset the rear sag to 30 degrees, but as I'm quite light, I think the air volume in the rear is too soft for the end of the travel, so a volume spacer is the next thing to try.

Also looking for any help on setting the front rebound. I have tried the squishing the forks method and trying to pop the tyre off the ground (then backing off one) but whether it's the plus sized tyres or not getting enough squish in the suspension, I can't get it to lift the front tyre.

Thanks
M
 

Tooks

Well-known member
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2020
427
517
Lincs UK
I’m 95kg+ with my kit on, I’m running 220psi in my DPS Factory EVOL LV, and I’m using pretty much the whole travel on my mostly trail rides with a 200m steep descent as part of it.

That’s how I want it though, I want to use all the travel, and see no point saving any!

What fork is yours again? The higher the pressure, the slower the rebound needs to be, as a rule of thumb. I had my Rockshox Gold 35 (unpopular!) setup as per the phone app recommendations, but I found it a bit firm so took 10psi out and made the rebound one notch faster and now it feels much more plush.
 

MartinW148

Member
May 30, 2018
188
94
Essex, England
It's not that I want to save travel, but I know I have not ridden the hardest terrain I usually do, so it would be bottoming out if I did, but I don't want more air pressure as I have the right sag and it feels supportive at short stroke (only 70kg when kitted out btw)

I have the Fox Rythym 34, can't remember but I think it's 65 psi to get 25% sag. Happy with the sag and if I hard compress the fork on the bike I use 80/90ish of travel, so just the rebound to deal with.

They probably need a service, but I do find the top half of the travel a little stiff, so maybe I will try dropping a little air (5psi).
 

Tooks

Well-known member
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2020
427
517
Lincs UK
It's not that I want to save travel, but I know I have not ridden the hardest terrain I usually do, so it would be bottoming out if I did, but I don't want more air pressure as I have the right sag and it feels supportive at short stroke (only 70kg when kitted out btw)

I have the Fox Rythym 34, can't remember but I think it's 65 psi to get 25% sag. Happy with the sag and if I hard compress the fork on the bike I use 80/90ish of travel, so just the rebound to deal with.

They probably need a service, but I do find the top half of the travel a little stiff, so maybe I will try dropping a little air (5psi).

I think it’s easy to get a bit obsessed with sag after using it as the start point to any suspension setup to be honest. Don’t forget to set the sag from your riding position as opposed to just sitting on the bike saddle, which is what I used to do. That used to mean my front and rear suspension was setup for my weight being further back than it was when I was riding the sort of terrain where I needed it, and my forks felt soft and the rear hard.

I just conduct a series of rides now up and down the same hill, see how it feels, and adjust as necessary.

From what you’re saying though, it could be your idea of the volume spacer could sort things out.
 

sdcoffeeroaster

Active member
Jul 22, 2018
557
206
San Diego, CA
My Focus Jam2 C came with Fox DPs shock and Rhythm 34 forks. I'm 72 kg with all my gear so pretty close to your weight. I found that my Fox DPS shock had the 0.4 cu in volume spacer in it from the factory. Since I was initially trying to firm things up I went one size up. But I finally realized that even without a volume spacer, 140 psi of air and about 30% sag, I just could not use the last 13 mm of shock travel even with big hits.

I am running around 50 psi of air on the front and generally using all of the travel so will probably go to 55 psi. Front damping is set to 3 CCW from fully closed. I started with 7 but after a couple of sessions using Shockwiz ended up at 3. Shockwiz also liked 45 psi but that just feels to soft overall. The Fork had one volume spacer from Focus and I took that out as well. I also have a 150mm air damper I'm going to try soon.

I'll probably do another round with shockwiz since I installed a DVO Topaz T3 real shock. I really like the control and plush feel of this shock but I'm having the same issue with not using all of the travel, 17 mm unused at 150 psi and 33% sag. I am going to pop it apart to see if they accidentally put any volume spacers in. It has positive and negative spacers and I plan to add negative spacers since that will make the beginning of the compression curve more progressive and should not affect the end. That means I'll be able to lower the overall pressure while running the same sag and hopefully using more of the travel. The DVO feels so much better and it does make the Fox Rhythm 34 feel very harsh now.
 

MartinW148

Member
May 30, 2018
188
94
Essex, England
My Focus Jam2 C came with Fox DPs shock and Rhythm 34 forks. I'm 72 kg with all my gear so pretty close to your weight. I found that my Fox DPS shock had the 0.4 cu in volume spacer in it from the factory. Since I was initially trying to firm things up I went one size up. But I finally realized that even without a volume spacer, 140 psi of air and about 30% sag, I just could not use the last 13 mm of shock travel even with big hits.

I am running around 50 psi of air on the front and generally using all of the travel so will probably go to 55 psi. Front damping is set to 3 CCW from fully closed. I started with 7 but after a couple of sessions using Shockwiz ended up at 3. Shockwiz also liked 45 psi but that just feels to soft overall. The Fork had one volume spacer from Focus and I took that out as well. I also have a 150mm air damper I'm going to try soon.

I'll probably do another round with shockwiz since I installed a DVO Topaz T3 real shock. I really like the control and plush feel of this shock but I'm having the same issue with not using all of the travel, 17 mm unused at 150 psi and 33% sag. I am going to pop it apart to see if they accidentally put any volume spacers in. It has positive and negative spacers and I plan to add negative spacers since that will make the beginning of the compression curve more progressive and should not affect the end. That means I'll be able to lower the overall pressure while running the same sag and hopefully using more of the travel. The DVO feels so much better and it does make the Fox Rhythm 34 feel very harsh now.
I have upped the pressure in the rear shock to 165psi, I think this has cured the travel issue on the rear, also I will give the front a go at 55 psi as I think I am more like 60psi.

I really need to see if I can get a local loan of a shockwiz to see what it recommends.


Thanks
 

sdcoffeeroaster

Active member
Jul 22, 2018
557
206
San Diego, CA
I have upped the pressure in the rear shock to 165psi, I think this has cured the travel issue on the rear, also I will give the front a go at 55 psi as I think I am more like 60psi.

I really need to see if I can get a local loan of a shockwiz to see what it recommends.


Thanks
Yes I like Shockwiz a lot but you generally have to do a lot of riding before it's confidence level is high. It can give you some good info from a 1 hr ride though but if your rides vary a lot you could be misled on the next ride if it's much rougher than your typical ride. It did lead me to only 3 clicks from closed on the compression damping for the front for instance not what I normally was running but I think the right direction. It like 45 psi but I don't think that's enough and maybe that ride didn't have enough big hits. So try to encounter everything you might want to cover on a ride with the Shockwiz to be more accurate.

I just realized that it was spot on with the DVO shock for pressure. I didn't realize that when the o-ring is 17 mm from the bottom that I was really at around 5 mm from full travel due to the DVO design (see the pic with o-ring after a hard ride). The Fox shock o-ring is at the very bottom when at full travel but I finally noticed this yesterday so I am using nearly full travel with the DVO. The only problem left to solve is that the DVO seems to be weeping a small amount of oil every ride (see pic) DVO disagrees but this last ride after a complete clean up and drying refutes that. If it doesn't stop I'll have to send it back for repair. I'm going to do 3 more rides this week to prove to DVO that I'm losing some oil every ride.

IMG_5270.JPG


IMG_5271.JPG
 

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