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2011 Lefty Lockout

1K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  MendonCycleSmith 
#1 ·
I had C'dale warranty my 2011 PBR Lefty's rebound cartridge. In the work order with the returned fork, they said they replaced the cartridge and "made sure the caps were on tight". Funny, I never mentioned that I knew of this as a common problem Lefty's were having in recent years. The fork worked fine except the lockout felt a little different. It no longer locked when I rapidly pushed down. It just felt harder to compress. Yesterday, (about 20 hours of ride time on the repaired fork), while climbing a long, smooth dirt fire-road with the lockout on, the fork compressed ALL the way until the tire was rubbing on the underside of the headtube. I jumped off, took the lockout off, checked the compression again, and the fork seemed fine and did not bottom out. About 20 minutes later, climbing on dirt road slowly, with the fork locked out, it did it again. A while later, with the fork unlocked of course, we hit some pretty rough downhill sections, and the fork did fine.
When I got home, I got to wondering that even if the lockout blew through, why was it bottoming out to the headtube? Opened the top up (like you would to reset the bearings) and noticed there were no spacers!! My question is: Is there something wrong with the lockout or is the blowoff set REALLY low? I am definitely sending it back to C'dale to have them put the spacers in. I know it is a very simple thing to do, but if it is just a low blowoff setting, I will have them set it MUCH higher (as well as put some goddamn spacers in it). I guess my real question is if that with a fork with spacers (aka "built right to begin with") has the lockout on and is set real low, that it can compress ALL the way/bottom out? I know the spacers will keep the tire from hitting the headtube, I am just talking about "full compression". It would seem that the air in the compression chamber would keep that from happening. I don't know.
 
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#2 ·
Opened the top up (like you would to reset the bearings) and noticed there were no spacers!! My question is: Is there something wrong with the lockout or is the blowoff set REALLY low? I am definitely sending it back to C'dale to have them put the spacers in. I know it is a very simple thing to do, but if it is just a low blowoff setting, I will have them set it MUCH higher (as well as put some goddamn spacers in it). I guess my real question is if that with a fork with spacers (aka "built right to begin with") has the lockout on and is set real low, that it can compress ALL the way/bottom out? I know the spacers will keep the tire from hitting the headtube, I am just talking about "full compression". It would seem that the air in the compression chamber would keep that from happening. I don't know.
I assume this is for a 29er? Otherwise, no spacers would be present.

Blow off threshold is tunable, but comes from the factory in one setting only. Sounds like you know this already, but the lockout isn't complete for that fork, it is supposed to blow through to some extent,. and it's then tunable from there.

If locked out, it will slowly creep down on a long climb, sure. Simply unlock quickly to go back top full height.

Set up properly, it will not bottom out on a 26" wheel. With no spacers, it will on a 650B or 29" wheel.
 
#4 ·
Yep, you need the spacers installed. Assuming it's the same fork, and they just put a new damper in (and apparently forgot to move the spacers over) your volume reducer is in place still, so no worries on that piece.

Sounds like your lockout is working properly to me, but your saying it's a 2011 fork, that had a different feel prior to being sent in?

The blow off would have been present before, assuming it's a 2011 fork.
 
#6 ·
Sorry, but the description isn't helping me. During lock out, it'll blow through under any sort of significant pressure.

I've never found that it "stiffened" quickly, or slowly, it either holds you up under slow and gentle pressure, or drops you if you hit it hard.

Sounds like you will want to be in touch with Cannondale, not because there's anything wrong with the lock out, but what they did with your spacers etc, something fishy is going on, and I can't help much, being in the back seat as I am.....
 
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