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Bluto Tuning Thread

187K views 699 replies 165 participants last post by  nstelemark 
#1 ·
I know this is a more limited group, but for any/ all Bluto adopters, where are you running your fork? I am having to drop my pressure way below recommended to get any good action out of the fork and get full travel. Even at 75psi, I get 15% sag and the fork feels super stiction-ey. Dropped it down to 65 to try later today. I'm 165- 170 all kitted up, so should be 100+ psi.
 
#522 ·
anyone have any leads to the Turnagain seal kit? I messaged them on Facebook and got no response.

Universal doesn't have it in stock.

Winter is almost here (Toronto) so i need to do something with my fork
 
#523 ·
anyone have any leads to the Turnagain seal kit? I messaged them on Facebook and got no response.

Universal doesn't have it in stock.

Winter is almost here (Toronto) so i need to do something with my fork
I don't think the turnagain kit is available anymore? I haven't seen any updates or ebay listing in a long time. Plus their website is non existent anymore.

I've been thinking about buying the standard full Bluto service kit and measuring all the O-rings. Then go an purchase silicone versions form a supplier for a small cost, that will fair better in the winter. I assume this is what Turnagain/Borealis did. The grease that comes withe kit though is just plain old slickoleum, your local MEC should have it in stock for $20.

I've also been thinking of switching up the oil in the fork, since the first few 0C days have already altered the way the fork functions noticeably. I've always been a service manual spec kind of guy, but looking into fork oil for winter it seams viscosity isn't as straight forward.

I'll do some more reading, but could someone recommend a good oil for winter? I think the current RS oil is just re-branded Maxima suspension oil for moto suspension. Looking into its specs it looks like it doesn't fair that well in low temp with a low pour point.
 
#524 ·
I hope some of you can help me.

I am about to buy my first FatBike, and I'm trying to decide if a Bluto Fork is a good idea or not.

I'm 300lbs+ and I'm getting into FatBiking so that I can get exercise and lose weight.

At my weight, I am not going to be a speed demon. I'm not going to be doing wild jumps. But the trails I'll be riding are desert washes and rugged trails with lots of bumps, rocks, sand, loose dirt.

My elbows/shoulders aren't what they used to be, and I'd like to ease some of that abuse.

BUT! I don't want to waste the money on a Bluto if it won't handle my weight and/or if it will be a huge pain to maintain it.

So based on all of that, do you think a Bluto is a good choice for me?

Thank you.
 
#530 ·
I believe you may be mixing up terms, adding to others confusion in helping you.

No weight on the bike, just leaning up against the wall. You pump it up and the fork is sagged to 30%?

First off, what pressure are you putting in it? There's a reference chart on the back of the fork leg to get you in the ball-park for your specific weight.

You mention not having a shock pump. Don't want to say that it's impossible with a regular pump but damn hard to do easily.
 
#531 ·
I believe you may be mixing up terms, adding to others confusion in helping you.

No weight on the bike, just leaning up against the wall. You pump it up and the fork is sagged to 30%?

First off, what pressure are you putting in it? There's a reference chart on the back of the fork leg to get you in the ball-park for your specific weight.
I may need to acquire a shock pump in order to sufficiently test/measure the appropriate pressure going into the shock.

I am only able to pump enough air into shock to acquire 30% - nothing greater - shock does not sag at this point. My initial ride (without adding any air) resulted in all air deflating.

I need to acquire 120-135psi for my weight and it looks like I cannot acquire such a psi without a shock pump.

Does that sound about right? Thank you for your advice thus far, a bit of a learning curve with air shocks!
 
#532 ·
Sounds like you definitely need a shock pump. You got to pump it up to reach the 0% mark with no weight on it.

Pumped up to the appropriate pressure, with no weight on the bike, the reading on the stanchion should be 0%. Then you push the red ring down to the 0% and then get on the bike. Your weight on the bike pushes the red ring up to the sag 25-30% amount. Adjust air pressure to get near this amount of sag. From there you go ride and see how it feels.

If you finish and the red ring is slammed to the top of the stanchion you've maxed the travel and need to sort out if you need to limit that in some way so the lower doesn't keep bottoming out on the upper. Think about the ride, was it one big atypical hit or continuously bottoming out? Options are to add more air or add a bottomless token.

If you finish and you're not coming close to the top then you're shorting yourself travel and the fork should be tuned the other direction to gain that back.
 
#534 ·
Hi everyone,

I'm super digging on all the info here on this thread. Hey, so I have a question about oil viscosity changes. Seems like some folks here are dropping down oil viscosity for winter riding which (apparently) reduces the dead, flabby feel of the fork. So, I just want to make sure I've got this right. You are leaving the 5wt oil in the compression circuit (the top right part of the fork) as the stock 5wt. But in the bottoms of each leg, you are using 5 ml of 7.5 wt oil instead of using 5 ml of 15 wt oil. Is that right? And the idea behind this is that it speeds up rebound? Do you do anything at all to manage compression? Normally, I run compression full open in the summer. Do you guys change anything for the winter? Also, has anyone tried the 0-30 wt oil that is used in Pikes? I've got some of that lying around and wonder what it might do. Thanks for any input!
 
#537 ·
Now that folks have been riding these awhile, anyone had a problem with the external cam on the Maxle Lite thru-axle wearing out? When I transport my fatty in my car, it mounts to a Kuat Dirtbag inside the car. On my wife's car, it goes on a Kuat NV with the wheel on. Usually I transport the bike in my car, so the front wheel goes on and off fairly often.

I have noticed that the external cam has been wearing out (you can see bare metal on the parts of the cam where there is friction) and it takes SIGNIFICANTLY less force to open or close it. It's not quite to the point where the lever will flop open, but I decided to order a DT RWS thru axle to replace it. I've had good results with RWS skewers in the past, so figure this will be a good option.
 
#538 ·
The cam is adjustable via a small allen in the center of the axle ( open the lever and it's a straight shot to it)
I have had to tighten mine 2 clicks in the last year of riding...and I have to take my wheel off to get it in.
All you are seeing is the anodizing wearing off and everything stretching a little
 
#554 ·
So I just did a service on my Bluto. The Bluto would stiffen up quite a bit as soon as you hit around freezing 1c ~ 0c or just bellow freezing at -1c ~ -2c, and become really hard at - 5c ~ -10c. With this in mind I decided to avoid using the oem Rockshox oil and opted for some Lucas Synthetic Moto Fork oil in the same stock weights.

I gotta say the difference is drastic at around freezing there's pretty much no noticeable reduction in performance, and the shock only starts to stiffen up just a tad at -10c. The Bluto finally feels like a proper winter fork. Another positive is that the lbs sells the Rockshox oil for $10 ~ 100ml but the Lucas oil is $8-9 for 473ml.

The Lucas oil was the most readily available at the local generic auto store, since there's no moto store near my location. I wonder if snowmobile suspension fluid would be even better?

Oh and my stock damper was about 5ml short of fluid vs service manual, and there was little grease in the fork and absolutely no grease by the wipers. The foam rings are small in the Bluto and were almost bone dry after 8 months. So I'd say do service earlier rather then later.
 
#560 ·
'-5 degrees celcius and can feel my SID rct 3 stiffening up both slow compression/ rebound. I put my money on Bluto not working when temps dip below -30 without fluid mods.'

At -30, either Celsius or Fahrenheit, unless your running the Ididarod, I don't see many of us out riding anyway.
 
#562 · (Edited)
I was tuning up my bike the other day and decided to change the cable and housing on my remote lockout lever. The housing had cracks and the cable end after the anchor point was a bit short.

With the cable detached the spool springs back into closed position (locked out). I pulled out the locking button, strung the new cable, lubed the button mechanism with some slick honey and installed new housing and ferrels. I pulled the cable taught and anchored the cable. There is no slack in the cable. When I push the lock button in (to unlock the fork) it won't stay in the locked position.

I searched the SRAM Rockshox pages for the service manual but it seems this 2015 lockout lever has been replaced by the OneLoc. So, what am I missing? The internals of the lockout button were in good shape and worked before I changed the cable.

**update - I can't find any further information on the Pushloc lever so I removed it and locked the spool into open position by dead ending a cable with the head in the housing guide ring, turned the spool to open and cinched the cable with the set screw. It works for now but I'm really interested in understanding how the lever is supposed to lock? There seems to be just two moving parts and the cable but there are no detents or mechanisms in there I can detect to hold it in the open (pushed in) position.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
 
#563 ·
How is everyone setting things up for snow riding?

Should the sag be a bit more and if so how much and why?


Rebound more or less and why?


Compression more or less and why?


Would my tire pressure be more than someone without suspension.



Sent from my XT1563 using Tapatalk
 
#564 ·
I'd say just check the air pression, which will fall because of the cold and go! We have a 100 and a 120 here and didn't touch anything than the psi and everything is very smooth. As for tire's pressure, it's the condition of the snow that is dictating it, not the Bluto.
 
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