DVO forks, why are they rare as hens teeth?

Cool, I'll check this tool too.

Everyone at DVO is really helpful and friendly, I love that and it's one of the things that make me place them first on my buying list.  I chatted a bit with Geoff and he's been of great help. Jesse at DVO New Zealand is also super accessible and answered so many of my questions! Too bad I ordered a shirt from him and it was probably lost in transit because I never received it. 

I've been riding a Jade X shock for a year and I love it. So much that I got a "regular" Jade too as a backup and will try to compare both this summer.

With how much I am loving the RS Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil I am super curious to try the Jade coil. Looks awesome. It would be nice to have the high speed compression adjustment the Jade offers over the super deluxe

Posted by: martin

Awesome, thanks @JVP! Did you have to heat the part to soften the threadlock inside the cartridge or just cranked it up dry? Most people who have successfully done it had to heat it quite a bit from what I've seen.

It was 2-ish years ago, so fuzzy memory, but I don't think I heated it. Given how tight it was on there, heating is probably worth it to make is less likely to slip and ruin something. I pulled it apart a couple times a year to either change travel or service/clean/grease things. I always put it back together with typical blue loctite (in that new lipstick form, which is awesome). It took much more reasonable force after the first time. Someone at the Suntour/DVO factory must be ripped! (or they use high strength thread locker)

Oh I was wondering about that lipstick loctite too! For some hard to reach places or threads that must pass through greased holes/ bearings, the semi-solid must be perfect. Does it hold as well as the liquid version?

Posted by: UFO

Distribution is a big one I think. DVO don't seem to have the brand cachet that other brands big or boutique have for some reason. They perform very well by most accounts, easy to do basic lowers service at home, great aftermarket service support, and damper service can be done at home with minimal specialty tools and equipment.

The one thing against them is that the entire lowers need to be replaced when the bushings go. 

I'm really happy with the Diamond at 140 on my small bike, and the more basic 160 Beryl on the big bike.

Using a topaz and a diamond, easy to work on, reliable, the shock is very sensitive, both 4 years in use and nothing major to mention. My main grip is even basic spares availability as the distributor in my country doesn't stock much.

Are the bushing not removable like on other brand forks?

Minor dredge.

I've just fitted a used Diamond in 29" boost flavour to the front of my Moxie. I'll ride it at stock 160mm for a while, but I'm thinking of dropping it to 140 or 130 to reduce the geometry change through the travel. 

Any hints on setup or traps while changing travel appreciated. 

Bonus for the matchy matchy set - Boomslang pedals are anodised the same green as DVO dials.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Minor dredge.

I've just fitted a used Diamond in 29" boost flavour to the front of my Moxie. I'll ride it at stock 160mm for a while, but I'm thinking of dropping it to 140 or 130 to reduce the geometry change through the travel. 

Any hints on setup or traps while changing travel appreciated. 

Bonus for the matchy matchy set - Boomslang pedals are anodised the same green as DVO dials.

You need the little spacers to lower the travel - I assume they gave those to you with the fork? Also, a heat gun and some loctite. It's pretty easy, as long as  you have a heat gun. Finally, if you are lowering the travel, you may want to increase the progressiveness of the fork (but they don't have spacers). There is a hack, where you add some extra oil but I gave up on this and just ran the fork long. I suspect there are threads on adding oil.

Posted by: RAHrider

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Minor dredge.

I've just fitted a used Diamond in 29" boost flavour to the front of my Moxie. I'll ride it at stock 160mm for a while, but I'm thinking of dropping it to 140 or 130 to reduce the geometry change through the travel. 

Any hints on setup or traps while changing travel appreciated. 

Bonus for the matchy matchy set - Boomslang pedals are anodised the same green as DVO dials.

You need the little spacers to lower the travel - I assume they gave those to you with the fork? Also, a heat gun and some loctite. It's pretty easy, as long as  you have a heat gun. Finally, if you are lowering the travel, you may want to increase the progressiveness of the fork (but they don't have spacers). There is a hack, where you add some extra oil but I gave up on this and just ran the fork long. I suspect there are threads on adding oil.

Thanks. 

I didn't get any spacers - second hand fork, so I got the old crown race and brake adapter instead (why do people leave the race on the fork?) 

I'm happy to tinker with the oil level once I get the rest of the setup dialled, but the other bike has a coil, so I'm more likely to be adding air and OTT for a linear / strong mud-stroke feeling. 

Will a hair dryer get hot enough to soften the loctite? There's one of those in the workshop... Wasn't enough to get heat shrink sufficiently shrunk.

I have used a hairdryer for loctite before successfully, just not for this particular job.

Posted by: RAHrider

I have used a hairdryer for loctite before successfully, just not for this particular job.

Cheers. 

[heh, just noticed "mud stroke" above]

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Posted by: RAHrider

Posted by: velocipedestrian

Minor dredge.

I've just fitted a used Diamond in 29" boost flavour to the front of my Moxie. I'll ride it at stock 160mm for a while, but I'm thinking of dropping it to 140 or 130 to reduce the geometry change through the travel.

Any hints on setup or traps while changing travel appreciated.

Bonus for the matchy matchy set - Boomslang pedals are anodised the same green as DVO dials.

You need the little spacers to lower the travel - I assume they gave those to you with the fork? Also, a heat gun and some loctite. It's pretty easy, as long as you have a heat gun. Finally, if you are lowering the travel, you may want to increase the progressiveness of the fork (but they don't have spacers). There is a hack, where you add some extra oil but I gave up on this and just ran the fork long. I suspect there are threads on adding oil.

Thanks.

I didn't get any spacers - second hand fork, so I got the old crown race and brake adapter instead (why do people leave the race on the fork?)

I'm happy to tinker with the oil level once I get the rest of the setup dialled, but the other bike has a coil, so I'm more likely to be adding air and OTT for a linear / strong mud-stroke feeling.

Will a hair dryer get hot enough to soften the loctite? There's one of those in the workshop... Wasn't enough to get heat shrink sufficiently shrunk.

You could try SuspensionWerks for the travel spacers, they work on DVO so they likely have them.

As for the heat gun, you may not need it. My Diamond came on a 2020 Ibis Ripmo AF, and it didn't have any loctite involved in the air spring. I believe the loctite was on older models, which use slightly different parts (boost version definitely has the new parts). The pdf air spring service guide on the DVO sight shows taking apart the old assembly with heat, while this video below (also Ronnie from DVO) shows the new boost-version assembly and no heat needed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl8UoxpEzfk

As for tuning the Diamond, I found that proper balancing of the OTT and air spring pressure are key. I set the OTT high enough that the fork is JUST starting to sag under the bike's own weight, for your given air spring pressure, and that's pretty much perfect. Not enough OTT for a given pressure will give too much feedback at the hands, and too much OTT will create a bit of a wall around the location in the stroke where the OTT stops helping (feels kind of like a high-speed spike around mid travel).

I've also played a bit with air volume. During the 1 year full tear down, I added 5CC extra oil into the air spring. It seems to help, but not as quick-tuning as using tokens etc.

Hope it helps. I've been running mine for two whole seasons now, I can do full damper service and rebuild at home, and it's been working great for me.

No heat gun or loctite needed when I went from 160 to 140mm either on my boost diamond. Easy to do, probably a 30 minute job if you push. I took my time and beer breaks and it was maybe an hour

I think maybe they stopped gluing those lock rings so securely at some point. 

Both of my dvo forks were a bear the first travel change, but simple after that as I didn't re apply any locite. 

I recommend buying the pin spanner dvo specify for holding things when removing that lock ring. Just to avoid mangling stuff.

Good tips, thanks folks.

Mammal, your comment about the OTT adjustment sounds like what I experienced. 

"too much OTT will create a bit of a wall around the location in the stroke where the OTT stops helping (feels kind of like a high-speed spike around mid travel)." 

I'd thought the previous owner had dumped excess oil in the spring and made it too progressive, but after removing the valve core and pumping the fork it seems not. I'll try your OTT suggestion instead.