RockShox Fork Dampers

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Pedal4life
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Pedal4life
What are the differences and is there enough difference between a Charger Damper & a Charger 2.0 or the 2.1 version to justify the $250+ of changing out the OEM Damper it’s a RCT3 Damper, I’ll be staying with that platform just wanting to update to the most current damper and have too much time on my hands and questioning the worth of the 2.1 Damper.
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Jon_Angieri
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Jon_Angieri 5/17/2020 6:21pm
5/17/2020 6:21pm
I too am interested in this question. I have a 2019 RS Pike RCT3 150mm. Im happy with this fork and feel like it handles everything i throw at it quite well. Its on a YT jeffsy with coil in the rear. i consider myself an aggressive rider and like to push the limits where i can. Would swapping the stock charger 2 damper with the new 2.1 RC2 model improve the performance even more and offer better support without having to mess with tokens? i currently run 9 clicks of LSC and just recently switched from 3 tokens to 2 just to see how that felt. i was for quite some time running my LSC all the way open but have found that i like running it in the middle to add better support and still retain most of my comfort on the bars. Should i put money elsewhere or is this a worthy upgrade??
luisgutrod
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luisgutrod 5/17/2020 10:29pm
5/17/2020 10:29pm
throw an push hc97 and a coil in there instead of upgrading the RS damper....dont bother upgrading damper
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Skerby
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Skerby 5/18/2020 6:55am
5/18/2020 6:55am Edited Date/Time 5/18/2020 7:00am
^ This. Buy the cheapest charger2 RC lyrik and install HC97 comp unit, this setup is far superior to the charger 2.1

Push even recommends a rebound shim stack based on your weight and includes the shims.

It's a major departure from stock, despite using a lot of the original damper components. Stock charger 2 has a hole for lsc and then 3 big ones for hsc blow off, HC97 completely occludes the blow off holes and runs the whole comp side off of the smaller hole in the middle
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Pedal4life
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Pedal4life 5/18/2020 9:22am
5/18/2020 9:22am
I have Lyrik & am changing out the air spring to the newest C1 & decreasing travel 10mm to 170, am considering replacing current the original Charger Damper with a 2.1 and am curious as to the benefits of the newest damper.
mwolpin
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mwolpin 5/18/2020 11:16am
5/18/2020 11:16am
So I purchased the 2.1, but have yet to install it. As a result, this my reasoning for purchasing it, but I hope to get a ride in this week and can report back on performance.

Up until late last year, I've always been a Fox fan, but started to feel like the fork was sticking more and more on the initial stroke. After playing with my neighbor's bike, I started to really like the RockShox fork and how smooth it was. So when I saw a deal on a bike with RockShox, I snapped it up.

The Lyric Ultimate showed me how wrong I was about RockShox. I loved how smooth and quiet it was. However, the one thing that I hated was how it automatically sat about 10mm into its travel even after configuring the sag. From time to time, I felt like it would dive from time to time.

My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.
Pedal4life
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Pedal4life 5/18/2020 1:07pm
5/18/2020 1:07pm Edited Date/Time 5/18/2020 4:46pm
Get the RockShox TrailHead app punch in your Forks serial # this will tell you whats inside the fork you own try replacing the air spring 1st this will likely get rid of that 10mm drop you mentioned, keep me posted on how the damper install goes.
Dave_Camp
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Dave_Camp 5/18/2020 2:54pm
5/18/2020 2:54pm
mwolpin wrote:
So I purchased the 2.1, but have yet to install it. As a result, this my reasoning for purchasing it, but I hope to get a...
So I purchased the 2.1, but have yet to install it. As a result, this my reasoning for purchasing it, but I hope to get a ride in this week and can report back on performance.

Up until late last year, I've always been a Fox fan, but started to feel like the fork was sticking more and more on the initial stroke. After playing with my neighbor's bike, I started to really like the RockShox fork and how smooth it was. So when I saw a deal on a bike with RockShox, I snapped it up.

The Lyric Ultimate showed me how wrong I was about RockShox. I loved how smooth and quiet it was. However, the one thing that I hated was how it automatically sat about 10mm into its travel even after configuring the sag. From time to time, I felt like it would dive from time to time.

My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.
My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.

Get a new Debonair spring. That will cure the 10mm of soft travel at the beginning. FYI new springs are way cheaper than a new damper...
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mwolpin
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mwolpin 5/18/2020 3:10pm
5/18/2020 3:10pm
mwolpin wrote:
So I purchased the 2.1, but have yet to install it. As a result, this my reasoning for purchasing it, but I hope to get a...
So I purchased the 2.1, but have yet to install it. As a result, this my reasoning for purchasing it, but I hope to get a ride in this week and can report back on performance.

Up until late last year, I've always been a Fox fan, but started to feel like the fork was sticking more and more on the initial stroke. After playing with my neighbor's bike, I started to really like the RockShox fork and how smooth it was. So when I saw a deal on a bike with RockShox, I snapped it up.

The Lyric Ultimate showed me how wrong I was about RockShox. I loved how smooth and quiet it was. However, the one thing that I hated was how it automatically sat about 10mm into its travel even after configuring the sag. From time to time, I felt like it would dive from time to time.

My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.
Dave_Camp wrote:
[b]My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.[/b] Get a new Debonair spring. That...
My understanding is that the new damper will fix that initial 10mm of travel and provide a more predictable ride.

Get a new Debonair spring. That will cure the 10mm of soft travel at the beginning. FYI new springs are way cheaper than a new damper...
Crap. Yes, I meant the new Debonair upgrade kit they just announced. That is what I purchased.

Apologies for the confusion.
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Skerby
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Skerby 5/19/2020 7:08am
5/19/2020 7:08am
You could probably solve the sag issue from the old spring by packing grease on the negative side of the piston.
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Jon_Angieri
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Jon_Angieri 5/19/2020 7:45am
5/19/2020 7:45am
Has anyone taken the black top out bumper off of the air spring? I’ve heard that will increase the negative volume a bit. When I serviced my lowers and put the new 21 Debonair spring in I took that bottom out bumper out and Im not sure if it’s from the fresh oil and grease or from removing that bumper but my fork feels pretty amazing right now
Dave_Camp
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Dave_Camp 5/19/2020 9:06am
5/19/2020 9:06am
I'd put that top out bumper back in. It's a mechanical top out stop- I worry your fork could over-extend and pull the stanchions above the lower bushing (that would be very bad).
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Skerby
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Skerby 5/20/2020 7:19am
5/20/2020 7:19am
Older debonair spring is not bad, people used to pay Vorsprung good money to give their forks a couple mm of static sag.

Charger 2 lets these forks down more than anything, charger 2.1 is an improvement, but still needs to be oversprung to prevent dive.

Lost 10 psi when I upgraded to HC97, get more support and less dive regardless.
Jon_Angieri
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Jon_Angieri 5/20/2020 3:34pm
5/20/2020 3:34pm Edited Date/Time 5/20/2020 3:35pm
Skerby wrote:
Older debonair spring is not bad, people used to pay Vorsprung good money to give their forks a couple mm of static sag. Charger 2 lets...
Older debonair spring is not bad, people used to pay Vorsprung good money to give their forks a couple mm of static sag.

Charger 2 lets these forks down more than anything, charger 2.1 is an improvement, but still needs to be oversprung to prevent dive.

Lost 10 psi when I upgraded to HC97, get more support and less dive regardless.
Did you install the HC97 yourself? Was that the only thing you did or did you re shim as well?
Skerby
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Skerby 5/21/2020 7:34am
5/21/2020 7:34am
Jon_Angieri wrote:
Did you install the HC97 yourself? Was that the only thing you did or did you re shim as well?
Yep, took about an hour and a half and it was the first time I ever took a charger 2 apart, but I have rebuilt a few of the older charger dampers.

Good instructions, only shims you need to mess with are on the rebound piston, and there are like 4 total shims there so it's pretty hard to screw up.
Jon_Angieri
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Jon_Angieri 5/21/2020 10:47am
5/21/2020 10:47am
Jon_Angieri wrote:
Did you install the HC97 yourself? Was that the only thing you did or did you re shim as well?
Skerby wrote:
Yep, took about an hour and a half and it was the first time I ever took a charger 2 apart, but I have rebuilt a...
Yep, took about an hour and a half and it was the first time I ever took a charger 2 apart, but I have rebuilt a few of the older charger dampers.

Good instructions, only shims you need to mess with are on the rebound piston, and there are like 4 total shims there so it's pretty hard to screw up.
I just recently started doing my fork lowers 50hr service. Do you think this is something pretty straight forward that if you can do a lowers service you could do this?
Skerby
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Skerby 5/21/2020 2:23pm
5/21/2020 2:23pm
Good to have a nice inch lb torque wrench, but not necessary if you have a decent feel for what like 7 inch lbs feels like.

You can check out the install instructions on push's website, there are pictures and stuff. The hardest part was finding enough 1/4" socket extensions to reach to the end of the damper tube.

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