Who's running a Totem...

[Mtn. Biker123]

Any problems any mods what do you got?

I just got new 2010 MC damper and a coil upgrade. The Solo air was hydrolocing and blowing through travel. Adding air only made it feel like doodoo. Enter the coil conversion!

So I went to disassemble everything today and noticed that the rebound circuit is actually a shaft and a piston. Now, I had a new cartridge (loaned from a friend) in when I was running the SA unit for about a week,... just never noticed the shaft when switching out the cartridges. Could I have been blowing through the travel because the old shaft is not tuned properly to the new compression damper....ie, putting more pressure on the damper which is now less restrictive? What should I expect from the coil...it feels good so far (actually really supple and I like it), but I also threw in some new seals so I'm not sure if I'm getting the right compression tune. What should I expect running the coil with the same setup?

What the verdict homies?

[alimaclikespie]

That rebound shaft/piston gave me some nightmares with my coil totem. It made the first part of the travel really notchy as the piston never lined up properly in the shaft.

Everything else was fine after I removed the floodgate and put in some heavier oil.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Hmmm...I tried the FG mod and didn't like it. You'd be better off getting a newer cartridge that is designed to move more fluid. Also, if your a heavy guy then the heavier oil probably works well on the compression side, but you are sacrificing your range in the rebound. I like to use lighter oil and control compression with the MC. I'm average weight, but I notice the heavier oil in the rebound circuit and still tend to not have enough rebound even when opened all the way. Straight 2.5 Silcolene (Race) is some slippery shite

[edispilf]

running a Solo Air Lyrik with floodgate remove. I tried using thicker oil with a 50/50 mix of 5w and 7w. Didn't like it, kinda defeat the purpose of removing the floodgate. So I went back to orig. wt. oil.

For Totem, it might act differently since you have more oil volume. Let us know if there's a big diff. between 2010 MC compare to MC w/ floodgate remove. I'm curious about their MC DH.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Oh...I've already went back to the upgraded damper w/FG. Now I may need a new rebound piston to match. Won't be able to tell until I break in the new seals.

I still have my stock damper and I'm going to attempt a shim mod on that one with and without FG. That damper has become obsolete since the latest release and the DH offerings.

Try lighter weight oil too if your looking to achieve a more active suspension.

[TIMBERRR]

Sorry to thread jack.....did SRAM improve the 2 step? Any insider news or reviews?

Be great if someone actually made a travel adjust fork that feels good and has no issues.

[Rider Mel]

I guess I've never really thought of it that way but, sure, I'll admit to enjoying my bike and the trail so much some times that I've been "running a totem".

Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Mel

[edispilf]

Oh...I've already went back to the upgraded damper w/FG. Now I may need a new rebound piston to match. Won't be able to tell until I break in the new seals.

I still have my stock damper and I'm going to attempt a shim mod on that one with and without FG. That damper has become obsolete since the latest release and the DH offerings.

Try lighter weight oil too if your looking to achieve a more active suspension.

Might be more active but you'll have to crank up the compression setting to prevent it from blowing through the travel. Kinda hard to do some testing right now. Cold temps, fork oil gets thicker, air pressure goes down and fork is not the same during summer months.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Might be more active but you'll have to crank up the compression setting to prevent it from blowing through the travel. Kinda hard to do some testing right now. Cold temps, fork oil gets thicker, air pressure goes down and fork is not the same during summer months.

Yes, but the new damper has a lot more range in those adjustments as far as I can tell

FWIW...I just ordered the new Rebound assembly too. It may be a better match to the new MiCo, but alas, it's snowing here and I can't do any testing either The combo ....old Rebound Assembly and the 2010 MiCo is a super plush setup

[Mtn. Biker123]

I guess I've never really thought of it that way but, sure, I'll admit to enjoying my bike and the trail so much some times that I've been "running a totem".

Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Mel

and if you consider that Timberr is trying to get advice on improving his "two-step" on a mtn. bike review site, well you've got a very successful hijack.

[TIMBERRR]

and if you consider that Timberr is trying to get advice on improving his "two-step" on a mtn. bike review site, well you've got a very successful hijack.

Difference is I'm asking about the new Totem 2 step and Mel is talking about his lil buddy.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Difference is I'm asking about the new Totem 2 step and Mel is talking about his lil buddy.

Yeah, I know. I'm just playin'.

Got out a bit today and I gotta say,...I am really, REALLY, diggin' the Totem.

Sram has got their shite together.

You know, at least I am confident when they put out crap, they'll hook ya up when they get their heads out of their arses

[noosa2]

Since your thread has already been jacked...Aren't you a long time clipless pedal user? How are you liking the flats?

[Mtn. Biker123]

Since your thread has already been jacked...Aren't you a long time clipless pedal user? How are you liking the flats?

I'm bipeedal

I don't have a preference one way or the other. Just depends on which shoes match my outfit

[supramk388]

Nice! I bet A-Line was tacky

[Mtn. Biker123]

It really is amazing how much better a coil tracks in that type of terrain.

[supramk388]

It really is amazing how much better a coil tracks in that type of terrain.

Never had a coil on the front I think I am to light to need one but maybe next season. I guess I should try it I love my Elka rear coil. You would hate my fork it needs to be sent in very bad. Hitting A-Line on that fork makes it eye opening for sure

Lucky for me I got awesome rear susp. to bail me out

Ride stoke, hijacked but I think you will like

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[juan_speeder]

Yeah, I know. I'm just playin'.

Got out a bit today and I gotta say,...I am really, REALLY, diggin' the Totem.

Sram has got their shite together.

You know, at least I am confident when they put out crap, they'll hook ya up when they get their heads out of their arses

Oh, you are hardcore. It's f'in cold today.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Yeah, it was chili!

I was ducking behind boulders when the wind would pick up...4* w/windchill. I had no idea it was going to be that cold. This was about as far as I got. I had a couple of emergency Jose Quervo in my pack for just such an occasion.

[Outland93]

Never really liked my Totem solo air, it has been great on drops and jumps but the small bump compliance was not very good. For 2010 Rock Shox offers 2 different mission control dampers, the standard and the DH for the Totem. The Sram tech told me the DH damper is basically the same one found in the 2010 Boxxer.

I ended up ordering the 2010 mission control DH damper for 130 bucks through my shop. The new DH damper is quite a bit different, no floodgate and where the old damper had a small hole to flow oil the new DH damper has much larger "slots" cut into the body. It took 15 minutes to install it and my 2007 Totem now works great, good big hit compliance and it now supple on the small stuff.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Never really liked my Totem solo air, it has been great on drops and jumps but the small bump compliance was not very good. For 2010 Rock Shox offers 2 different mission control dampers, the standard and the DH for the Totem. The Sram tech told me the DH damper is basically the same one found in the 2010 Boxxer.

I ended up ordering the 2010 mission control DH damper for 130 bucks through my shop. The new DH damper is quite a bit different, no floodgate and where the old damper had a small hole to flow oil the new DH damper has much larger "slots" cut into the body. It took 15 minutes to install it and my 2007 Totem now works great, good big hit compliance and it now supple on the small stuff.

You must be a light rider. Is your fork pre '09?

[Outland93]

My fork is an '07 on a '06 Highline. Heh, I wish I was a light rider, I am 6'4" 230 lbs. I had to air the fork up far too much for the big hits that it just did not work well on the smaller stuff. It works far better now with the 2010 mission control damper.

[Mtn. Biker123]

You are probably running quite a bit of air or running in the far range of the Floodgate and controls if your not blowing through the travel. Either way you are compromising what the fork could feel like (pure awesome..imo) if you had the correct parts.

The old piston/shaft assembly was designed to move less oil than the new MC damper was designed for. At least that's the way I understand it. It's smaller which displaces more oil than the current (bigger shaft and bigger piston) rebound damper. The new MC damper needs to move more oil volume for the same amount of travel. You could run heavier oil creating a little more restriction, but then I'm sure you would suffer some rebound performance.

My experience was quite a bit of dive and bottoming when running your same setup. I ordered the new 2010 rebound damper...FWIW.

[nickhart]

i love my totem coil. at 230lbs ish i'm no feather but the coil is still the standard medium and it feels plush and i haven't bottomed it too much. perhaps i'm not trying hard enough! the only mod i've done is change the little o-rings in the damper cartridge as they blew really quickly from standard. it only takes ten minutes and i've done it on my totems and a couple of friends lyrics too.
not sure if dt knew about the totem when he designed the highline but it sure feels like they were made for each other.
loving the blue highline.

[Mtn. Biker123]

not sure if dt knew about the totem when he designed the highline but it sure feels like they were made for each other.
loving the blue highline.

Like a match made in heaven. Check out the MX tune if it makes back to shelves. Darren works a lot with RS and his new damper appears to mate very well with the Totem (coil).

Edit: Not so much the air ( at the moment ), but I need to try the new rebound assembly along with a few mods and I might get it to perform within the range I'm looking for.

[Mtn. Biker123]

Well after a weekend on the Totem, I've got to give two thumbs up. I found out that you can add a little more rebound damping @ top out, and provide some really awesome small bump compliance by adding a little negative spring into the lower of the MiCo side.

All you have to do is loosen the bolt and compress the fork just a bit until you here a small hiss and then tighten. Oh..you have to remove the coil and attach the cap so you don't loose any lubricant. I suppose you could add neg spring to the coil side and get a similar affect, but I haven't tried that yet.

I'm really liking the smaller rebound (2007) and the 2010 (MiCo), but I'm looking forward to also installing the newer (2010) rebound assembly. The fork is super smooth through the first 3/4 of travel and then ramps up nicely without bottoming too harshly. I've still got some fine tuning to do as I had a little too much of a vacuum going on and wasn't getting a very active rebound.

I hope be able to experiment with the Solo air, once I get all of the parts. Right now the coil is sweet without adding a HUGE weight penalty.

[wyatt79m]

Right now the coil is sweet without adding a HUGE weight penalty.

any idea what the weight penalty is? I'm running a coil and my buddy just got his warrantied for a dh air an I was wondering
how much lighter the air is? I really love my coil tho.

[Mtn. Biker123]

any idea what the weight penalty is? I'm running a coil and my buddy just got his warrantied for a dh air an I was wondering
how much lighter the air is? I really love my coil tho.

If I were to guess, I'd say less than a lb.

[trailadvent]

Im not running one cause I run over em get a BOXXER ohh yeah

[Mtn. Biker123]

Im not running one cause I run over em get a BOXXER ohh yeah

Oh...yeah, Ricky's DH bike is down. I might be trying an older BOXXER to check out the angles. If I likey, I might have to just switch the Totem over to the RFX.

Anyone want a "one-off" 66RC3?

[supramk388]

Oh...yeah, Ricky's DH bike is down.

Only for a few more days, Jedi will be rolling by this weekend 4sure.

[Dusty Bottoms]

My Totem is Push'd which makes it more powerful than all other Totems. It has all kindsa crazy Darren mods that I won't even bother describing here because you probably won't comprehend them anyway. It's all very technical.

And no, Push'd Totems are not available to the general public so don't even bother calling them.

[Mtn. Biker123]

My Totem is Push'd which makes it more powerful than all other Totems. It has all kindsa crazy Darren mods that I won't even bother describing here because you probably won't comprehend them anyway. It's all very technical.

And no, Push'd Totems are not available to the general public so don't even bother calling them.

Let's race!

That is the only way to REALLY know who's is better, after all

I would probably not take advantage of a Push service on the Totem. There are way to many alternatives out there.

[trailadvent]

Dusty you are the BESTEST..

Though if Push do all these special mods for what seems like all the nar cool bad rad Homers, no wonder no one can get these mods in production through push, this business model seems floored, either that or Darren is developing a beer gut which is also counter productive

I just hope Darren's onto the 2010 Boxxer do it yourself kit..


ps Dusty you are also the baddest raddest whitest goldest Hommer

[nickhart]

oh dusty we bow to you and your tart's bike. but tut tut i think you're missing a trick. shown here on a skinny bike but would surely add something.........