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Last 20 mm of my new Fox 32 Talas 29" 130mm 2013 fork is not possible to reach. It gets quickly hard before the full travel. It is ridden for 150 km so far. Tested both on trail (hitting rocks on hard descents, yet no jumps from 2m or so) and statically.

I've heard the Talas is quite a progressive trail fork but I would describe this behaviour rather as an edge than progressive.

Without an air pressure, the full travel is possible to get (with squelching sound at the end) but as the pressure goes up the raising edge is killing the end.

  • With very low pressure of 50 PSI the edge is still almost at the end
  • With pressure of 75 PSI (optimum for my 80 kg) the last 20mm is just unreachable (neither on trail nor by pressing down hard)
  • Behaviour at pressures around 65-85 is similar.

The fork is mounted on Specialized StumpJumper FSR Elite.

  1. Is it an error or a „feature“?
  2. Will it get better over time?
  3. Is it possible to set it up? E. g. by a tuning in a service centre. Or is that edge just a design not possible to tune?
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  • Out of interest, how are you measuring this? – Saxman Sep 23 '13 at 2:08
  • @Saxman: Probably with a zip tie on one of the fork legs or with the soft sag ring which comes from the factory. See google.com/… – cherouvim Sep 23 '13 at 4:53
  • I measure that by the sag ring (as cherouvim described) comparing to the top position (with pulling up to reach the top). At first I discovered that on the trail (hard descends), so I did also couple of tests while standing. – myneur Sep 23 '13 at 9:08
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My answer assumes that you've correctly set the sag of your fork. You need to have 15%, 20% or 25% of sag depending on your riding style and trail types you usually ride. If not, then go ahead and fix that first. You can also remove most of the air from the fork (just leave 5 PSI) and see if it gets full travel (by pressing down statically), just for making sure that it does work. Then reinflate to correct pressure.

the last 20mm is just unreachable (neither on trail nor by pressing down hard)

It would be very wrong to be able to reach that by pressing down hard. It would also be wrong to use that 20mm on a soft trail ride. That 20mm is there for dealing with the very rough stuff such as jumps or drops to flat, hitting rocks or roots hard etc. That 20mm may save you from falling once or twice and is also there to prevent you from damaging the forks. Note though that bottoming out the fork once per ride is not very bad and will most probably not damage the forks.

Also note that I've also used a talas 32 100/120/140 2009 for 2 years and the last 20mm of travel would only work on drops and hard hits on fast downhill runs.

Is it an error or a „feature“?

Feature. The air spring is progressive (not linear). Thin 32mm stanchions (which means less volume for the air spring mechanism) usually make this worse.

Will it get better over time?

No. And if it does then something else must be going on. E.g lost air pressure.

Is it possible to set it up?

Yes, by removing air from the fork.

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  • The sag is set correctly. I have also experimented with couple of pressures (65-85 PSI) trying to find an optimum. I describe the behavior on the hard descends, when hitting the rocks hard (yet not jumps from 2 meters or so (my StumpJumper Elite is not DH)). I understand the need for the progression but I am surprised the feel is rather there is a quite hard edge 20mm before the end after relatively soft travel till the edge. I would expect this edge near the end or more gradual. By set up I am looking for other options than pressure, including service. – myneur Sep 23 '13 at 9:28

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