I've just got myself a 2008 Claud Butler Cape Wrath and it's a nice bike... except for the front shock. It has an XCR-lo (120mm travel) and the thing feels 'wallowy' for want of a better word. It feels like the bike wants to nose-dive every time I go down a slight dip and feels 'spongy'. I have tried cranking the adjuster for max stiffness and it doesn't seem to help much.
So my questions are:
1. Does this sound right for this fork or did I get a duff one? My bro's bike has an XCR fork that looks identical bar the lockout switch I have on mine, but it seems a lot better.
2. What's a good replacement for about £100 that's good for cross country with some fairly steep downhill (not crazy downhill) on occasion?
What do you weigh? They're not a bad fork for someone of my weight - 68kg.
The symptoms you describe come form either an over-soft spring (it's coil sprung right?) or a lack of compression damping deeper into the stroke. Even quite expensive forks such as my Rockshox Revs suffer from the latter.
I weigh 90-95kg, and yeah it is coil sprung. I know it's not a mega expensive fork, but my last bike was a CB Rock with I think a cheap Rockshox Judy Fork which seemed just fine. Is a new fork the only way to remedy the prob?
