2021 RockShox DebonAir Airspring Upgrade on Lyrik & Pike | RockShox DebonAir Installation Tutorial

#rockshoxlyrik #rockshoxpike #debonair
Seal head and Foot nut upgrade $25

Entire 2021 Debonair Air Spring upgrade $42

[Esteb]

This is why I learned to do all my own work on my bikes. You bring it to a bike shop, pay a lot of money and they don’t know what they are doing. It’s common knowledge that you don’t need that much grease on the air spring. That’s a great way to clog the equalization dimple. Glad this was recorded so others can see that just because you pay a bike shop to do the work, doesn’t mean the work will be done correctly.

[andrejoneill]

I was in the same boat - was about to give up on the air spring and go back to the old one. I'm on a 2020 Pike 140 with the C1 spring. I saw a recommendation on an MTBR thread to try cycling the fork when you inflate it from 0 every 20 PSI or so. The fork feels completely different. I had my fork running at 75 PSI and it was still feeling harsh, now I'm up at 90 PSI and it's feeling buttery smooth - like I was expecting. Might be worth giving it a shot! Good luck!

[scottingram]

Do not use this much SRAM butter! Transfer port will soon block up!

[iulikcv]

the sharp part must be oriented towards you, because the air pushes the safety outwards

[milktop]

I felt a big upgrade on my lyrik. No initial lag and could feel the fork through the entire travel

[romand]

Thanks for sharing your impressions. I’ve got a 2020 Pike Ultimate on my 140mm GT Sensor. I think this new ‘upgrade’ is just RS’s way of appeasing the masses. I have it on good authority that a lot of people were call in to ask the 2020’s we’re sitting a few mm’s into their travel under the bikes weight. Their original stance was that a properly sprung fork/shock should sit into its travel under the weight of the bike. Think of a car’s suspension...you wouldn’t like the ride if it sat at the top of it’s travel. Another way to think of it is that you gain a hell of lot more confidence when stiction is easily broken and wheel is in contact with the trail. A higher sitting fork means it’s taking more force to keep the wheel down and planted.

Long story short, the 2020 air spring is where it’s at!! Wake up sheeple!! ;)

[misteraxeman]

If you guys think that's WAAYYY too much grease... you should look at the Rockshox airspring service manual, they literally lather a PVC pipe in grease and stick it all in the tube

[_Jake.From.Statefarm_]

I just upgraded the c1 springs from the b1. I had it on my levo and man, that dead travel when riding steep stuff and trying to turn can be sketchy. Now that it sits at it's proper sag, you can definitely feel where that extra travel in the initial part of the stroke helps. It keeps the fork from diving into the middle of the travel much better.. I feel like it also tracks better too because the sag is finally at a proper 20/30... not 30/30.

[peterenwick]

The mechanic is right in saying the sharp side of the circlip grips the groove, but he’s fitting it the wrong way round. The sharp side must be facing the outside.

[PredatorDK]

The "more butter = more better" part is how you get suspension to not work as intended... Excessive grease does nothing but clogging oil ports and, when when added very liberally, act as an additional volume spacer.

[tjay_mac]

Rider: 145 lbs
Bike: 2019 Guerilla Gravity Pedalhead 27.5x2.8
Fork: 2019 Pike RC 46mm/27.5/150mm
Settings (old): No tokens/75 psi/25% sag
Settings (new): No tokens/68 psi/15% sag (on the trail - not current setup)

Trail: 23 miles/3.6k' smooth singletracks with multiple 1-2' jumps, fire road highspeed with gravel, roots and rocks on some sections.

The small bump compliance were not the same as before. It's a tad stiffer but not bad. What's bad is that the front doesn't seem to track the same and before. Before the tire felt glued to the ground on every small dips and bumps yet easy to pop whenever I want to. Now the front is still easy to pop but I don't trust leaning the bike. It's almost like the front is doing small dribbles like I need to put more rebound. Second thing I noticed was when I would land on these jumps, the frontend will dive. It's not bottoming out and I only feel this when I land from jumps which were only about 1-2' and this is on smooth transition landings. It doesn't dive on brakes or when hitting the berms.

When I got home, the first thing I did was to put tokens to resist that dive feel when I land. I then set the sag to 20% and I was able to do this with 65 psi and 2 tokens. Rebound is still the same and I plan on taking the bike out sometime this week to see if I can bring it back to where it was. If I'm not able to figure out this fork, I will put the old shaft back in but instead of 150, I'd throw in the 160 to get the 10mm height and put token/s to help with mid-travel support which is the only thing I didn't have from the old fork.

Keep us posted JC!

[markopopovic]

That final globe of grease was unnecessary.Too much grease.Thanks for the video anyways👍

[ewartbuilt]

My pike at 130 with 3 spacers rode very hard. I went to a single volume spacer and it's wonderful.

[nikoyannaros]

I have the lyrik 2019 and 2020. Idk if the 2021 air spring is different but I like the 19 model more, too. It is the moment when the wheel touches the ground. Super soft at the beginning and then nice progression. The 2020 is harsher at the beginning and then it falls 1/3 into the travel.

I bought an 2019 air shaft for my gf's 2020 fork.

[johanklopper]

To much grease on the negative air side of the piston will make it feel harsh of the top of the travel. Even just a small amount of excessive grease here will reduce negative air volume that the Rockshox Engeneers have worked so hard at to increase with each new model. It's like adding a volume spacer to the negative side.

[ShoneDaddy]

Shows how’s little some people in the comments know. People think more air pressure immediately adds up to a less supple feel. Air forks are progressive in nature, the less sag you’re running on an air spring the easier it will be to break through stiction and the more supple it’ll be off the top. If you’re running 30% sag you’re gonna be deep in the stroke and not have much of a supple feeling at all.

[sundayblack]

I have some x fusion forks had a similar problem to what you describe. Harsh off top to the point the forks are holding the bike back and no confidence in the front.
I stripped them down 5 time and changed the changed the travel from 140, 160, 120, 140 and still had the same feeling.
Last ditch effort if this don't work I'm going to scrap these forks.
Maybe due to the nature of my forks and having a coil negative spring.
I decided to build them with both air and damper shaft at fully in position then matched the lowers as if it was full bottom out.
Fitted foot nuts and pumped up the fork.
The forks feel so much better now off the top and sometimes sit in and sag with very small amount of weight on the bars.

I'm not 100% if it's the way I inflated/built them or a simple pressure build up in the lowers.
All I know is the forks feel better until I can get my hands on something better.

[TimaKuleshov]

Hello. Don't know how this stem works on a 2016 yari fork. My task is to make it soft for a rider who weighs only 40kg. Maybe you can suggest something else?

[CarkeekW]

reduced negative air chamber in the new setup which cleans out small bump sensitivity, more noticeable on short travel setups. so pleased i got the old debonair air spring before they sent the newones to market . if anything they need to go the other way to what they have for long travel and stay the same for short travel.

[trailladymtb]

This video was funny! Reminded me of The Crashing Dad! Nice tech vid. Enjoyed it! Butnafter reading all the comments and replies, I'm leavong my fork alone for sure. 😊😎